A beginner’s guide to buying and selling Nano (formerly RaiBlocks) in the US.
Nano (XRB) is a digital currency designed to offer instant transactions, have zero fees and be infinitely scalable. Formerly known as RaiBlocks, Nano uses a hybrid of blockchain and directed acyclic graph (DAG) technology and aims to offer an efficient and viable alternative to fiat currency.
This guide takes a look at how Nano works, the factors that affect its price and how you can buy XRB in the US.
Where to buy, sell and trade Nano (XRB) in the US
How to buy Nano in the US
If you want to buy XRB in the US, here’s an example of how to do it:
Step 1. Create an account at either BitGrail or Mercatox
There are several exchanges where you can currently buy Nano, so you’ll need to choose one of them to purchase your XRB. Don’t forget to add two-factor security to your account to make sure your coins are protected.
Step 2. Deposit funds into your account
Neither BitGrail nor Mercatox support direct deposit of fiat currency – your US dollars – so you’ll need to make your deposit in bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH). If you currently don’t have any BTC or ETH, you can follow our guide here on how to purchase. The deposit can be easily made by going into your wallet tab in BitGrail or Mercatox in the top tabs. After that, find the ETH or BTC wallet, depending on which you’re sending.
In BitGrail, click “Get wallet address” to generate your address. The address will look like a long string of numbers and letters, about 15 digits long. Once you have your wallet address, copy and paste that into the exchange or wallet you’re transferring from and send your BTC or ETH to it.
Step 3. Buy XRB
Unlike BTC and ETH, there are no easy brokers to use, so the only way you can buy XRB is by trading on BitGrail or Mercatox. Jump into the markets section of either of these, taking the usual precautions. Bitgrail is the largest, so you’re more likely to get a better deal buying there.
On the left-hand side, pick which currency you’re going to be selling for XRB. In the boxes where you fill in how much you want to trade, BitGrail will give you a price it recommends to sell for. However, if you look at the most recent transactions, below that you’ll see the prices in real time of what’s been selling, so feel free to change your price based on what you see if you’re after the best-value sale. XRB is fairly liquid at the time of writing in January 2018, so unless you’re really trying to low-ball in the exchange, your trade should be fairly instant.
Step 4. Set up an XRB wallet (optional)
If you don’t want to store your XRB on the exchange, you’ll need to get yourself a separate wallet. There aren’t as many options to choose from at this stage as BTC or ETH, with most investors storing XRB in RaiWallet. First, you’ll need to create a RaiWallet account. Make sure you store the seed somewhere safe on your computer or phone, as you’ll need it if you forget your password.
Step 5. Send XRB to your XRB wallet (optional)
Once you’ve set up your RaiWallet, press the “receive” button to receive XRB. Type in the exact amount of XRB you’ll be sending from BitGrail or Mercatox. You’ll see your wallet address in there, which will look similar to the one you used when sending your BTC or ETH earlier. Copy this address. Head back to BitGrail or Mercatox and go to the wallet. Once in the wallet, hit withdraw, paste your RaiWallet address in there and send. The process is much quicker than bitcoin but can still take up to 15 minutes in some circumstances.
How to sell Nano
If you’d like to sell your XRB holdings, the process for doing so is essentially the same as that outlined above, with the obvious difference that you’ll need to look for the “Sell XRB” link. It’s also important to remember that crypto exchanges don’t offer every available currency pairing, so it may not be possible to directly exchange XRB for the currency you want.
1. Move your XRB back to BitGrail
If you moved your XRB to RaiWallet, you’ll need to send it back to BitGrail first. You’ll do this the same way you first sent ETH or BTC to BitGrail, though this time it will be sent to your BitGrail XRB wallet.
2. Exchange your XRB for BTC (or ETH)
Through the same process you first traded BTC or ETH for XRB, you’ll be selling your XRB for that currency. If you want to keep the BTC or ETH instead, you can either keep it in the BitGrail wallet or send it to your bitcoin or Ethereum wallet. If you’re looking to move XRB to cash, it’s recommended at this stage to turn it into BTC to make it easier to find an exchange that will buy it for USD.
3. Sell your BTC for USD
After you have your BTC, send it to an exchange where you can straight up sell BTC for a fiat currency. Once there, trade your BTC in the normal way. You can also read our full guide here on all your options for turning BTC into cash.
Which wallets can I use to hold XRB?
Storing coins and tokens on a crypto exchange for any length of time is not recommended. To provide a higher level of security for your funds, it’s best to store them in a secure wallet. At the time of writing, there are three wallet options available for XRB holders:
- Web wallet. NanoWallet.io can be accessed through the Nano Wallet website.
- Desktop wallet. The beta version of the desktop wallet for Windows, Mac and Linux is available here.
- App. You can also sign up for the iOS Wallet beta through the Nano website.
What is Nano and how does it work?
Built with the aim of addressing a number of bitcoin’s shortcomings, Nano is designed to provide a viable alternative to traditional fiat currencies. In the Nano white paper, the developers address three main issues that affect bitcoin’s practicality:
- High transaction fees due to scalability issues
- An average transaction time of 164 minutes
- The power inefficiency of the bitcoin network
Nano aims to overcome these three obstacles. Built using a directed acyclic graph algorithm, Nano also employs a unique block-lattice structure. Each Nano account (wallet) has its own blockchain known as an account-chain, which is equivalent to that account’s transaction/balance history. Each account-chain can only be updated by the account owner, which means it can be updated asynchronously of the rest of the network.
Each transaction sent through the network is its own block. When you send XRB, two transactions are required – a send transaction that deducts the balance from the sender and a receive confirmation by the recipient. Think of it like the two ticks you see when you send a WhatsApp message – one tick when you have sent a message and a second tick when your recipient confirms it has been received. The result of this structure is near-instant transactions and zero fees.
Originally known as RaiBlocks, the currency was rebranded to Nano in January 2018.
What to consider before buying XRB
Cryptocurrencies are complicated and speculative, and buying any crypto coin or token comes with a high level of risk attached. It’s essential that you’re fully aware of all the risks involved before you decide to buy. If you’re thinking of purchasing XRB, make sure you consider the following factors first:
- Supply. According to CoinMarketCap at the time of writing (2/12/18), the circulating supply of Nano was 133,248,289 XRB out of a maximum supply of 133,248,290 XRB.
- No mining. Nano is not mined and was initially distributed via a captcha-based faucet distribution system that ended in October 2017. If a website claims to mine Nano, it actually mines another cryptocurrency and then trades them to Nano on an exchange before paying Nano to miners.
- Adoption. The value of XRB will depend largely on whether or not it can achieve widespread adoption. While it certainly offers plenty of advantages compared to some other cryptocurrencies, whether or not it breaks into the mainstream as a viable alternative to fiat currency remains to be seen.
- Exchanges. One of the key factors affecting the adoption of Nano will be its listing on a variety of popular exchanges. While it is only listed on a handful of exchanges, that list has grown recently with the listing of XRB on major exchange platform Binance in February 2018. The development team is also working to get Nano added to more exchanges.
- Nano and BitGrail. On February 10, 2018, the announcement that 10% of the total XRB supply at the time, worth $170 million, had gone missing from cryptocurrency exchange BitGrail sent shockwaves through the crypto community. There was some speculation that an inherent vulnerability in Nano had resulted in the theft, although at the time of writing it appeared that fault for the problem lay with crypto exchange BitGrail. The news saw the price of XRB drop from $11.83 to $10 in the space of a couple of hours, and at the time of writing its value had dropped below $9.
- Rebranding. On January 31, 2018, RaiBlocks was rebranded to Nano. In a Medium blog post, the Nano team explained that the old and hard-to-pronounce name was scrapped in favor of the new moniker, which is designed to reflect the fast and fee-free transactions the currency is designed to provide. Following the announcement, the price of XRB rose 41% in 24 hours.
By taking all of the above factors into account and doing your due diligence on Nano, you’ll be able to decide whether or not you should buy XRB.