Everything you need to know to buy, sell and trade Power Ledger in the UK.
If you want to buy POWR tokens, the native cryptocurrency of the Power Ledger energy trading platform, this guide is designed with you in mind.
Keep reading for step-by-step instructions on how to buy POWR with fiat or cryptocurrency, as well as details of the best POWR wallets and what you should consider before buying any tokens.
Where to buy POWR in the UK
A step-by-step guide to buying Power Ledger
There are two ways to buy POWR tokens:
- Buy POWR with fiat currency
- Buy POWR with another cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin
There are currently no exchanges that list GBP and POWR, however you could purchase it through an exchange that accepts USD or another fiat currency. Keep in mind you’ll face an exchange rate when converting to and from GBP. We’ve also included step-by-step instructions on how to trade another cryptocurrency for POWR below.
How to buy POWR with fiat currency
Although you can’t currently buy POWR with GBP, here’s an example of how to purchase it using USD.
How to buy POWR with cryptocurrency
If you want to exchange another cryptocurrency for POWR, here’s an example of how you can do it:
How to sell POWR
If you want to sell any POWR tokens, the process is fairly similar to that described in step 4 above. However, you’ll need to enter your transaction details in the “Sell” tab rather than the “Buy” field.
It’s also important to point out that POWR can’t be exchanged for every possible crypto or fiat currency, so you may not be able to directly trade your Power Ledger tokens to the currency you want.
Which wallets can I use to hold POWR?
POWR tokens are ERC20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, which means there are plenty of options available when choosing a wallet.
The list of ERC20-compliant wallets is too long to include here, but some of the options you might like to consider for storing Power Ledger tokens include:
- MyEtherWallet (web wallet)
- Ethereum Wallet (desktop wallet)
- MetaMask (Chrome and Firefox browser extension)
- TREZOR (hardware wallet)
- Coinomi (mobile wallet)
Find out more about storing your tokens and coins in our guide to cryptocurrency wallets.
How Power Ledger works
Power Ledger is an Australian blockchain platform that aims to revolutionize the energy industry worldwide. It offers a peer-to-peer energy trading platform designed to do two things:
- Allow homeowners to trade the excess power produced by their home energy systems, such as solar panels.
- Provide a more affordable way for people to access energy, allowing them to buy surplus energy off other homeowners rather than buying from a utility company.
This means neighbours can trade renewable energy with one another, allowing them to make an income from the excess power they generate. Customers also have increased control over the price they sell their excess solar energy for and can receive instant billing settlement.
There are two separate tokens associated with the Power Ledger platform:
- POWR is the utility token that application hosts must escrow in order to use the platform.
- Sparkz are the electricity credits that consumers will interact with and they can be purchased and redeemed using fiat currency.
You can find a more detailed explanation of exactly how the platform works in our Power Ledger guide.
Power Ledger’s ICO was completed in October 2017, making it one of the first ICOs held in Australia, and raised $34 million. The company also offers a range of other products in varying stages of development, including electric vehicle metering and settlement and carbon credits trading.
What to consider if buying POWR
Cryptocurrencies are complicated and highly volatile assets and there are many competing factors that can have an impact on their price. It’s vital that you thoroughly research any crypto project and fully understand all the risks involved before purchasing any digital coins or tokens.
If you’re thinking of buying POWR tokens, take the following factors into account:
- Supply. According to CoinMarketCap, at time of writing (August 2018) the circulating supply of POWR tokens was 375,151,708 POWR, out of a total supply of 1 billion.
- Distribution. Those 1 billion POWR tokens are distributed as follows:
- 600 million to develop the Power Ledger ecosystem. This includes 350 million to the POWR token sale; 248.5 million to the Power Ledger Growth Pool, which gifts tokens to early application hosts (such as utility companies) and 1.5 million towards a bounty campaign).
- 250 million tokens reserved for future use if needed (Power Ledger Escrow).
- 150 million tokens allocated under escrow to developers and founders.
- Extreme Tech Challenge. Power Ledger was the winner of the 2018 Extreme Tech Challenge, a global competition for tech startups.
- White paper. If you want more details about the technology behind Power Ledger and the goals the team hopes to achieve, check out the project’s white paper.
- Partnerships. In April 2018, Power Ledger announced that it had signed a deal with Japan’s Kansai Electric Power Co (KEPCO) to trial distributed energy systems. It has also unveiled commercial deployments of its energy trading platform in locations ranging from Melbourne to Chicago. However, while Power Ledger’s technology is being trialed in several countries around the world, whether or not it can achieve widespread adoption remains to be seen.
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Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author holds ADA, ICX, IOTA and XLM.