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Terra is a decentralized payment system on the blockchain. Its goal is to facilitate global payments in a secure and less volatile way than traditional cryptocurrencies.
Terra is part of the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry, which seeks to replace traditional financial services with a decentralized alternative on the blockchain. DeFi has attracted crypto investors as a more efficient and less expensive option to send money globally.
Ready to be part of the DeFi industry? Learn how you can buy Terra (LUNA) today.
What is Terra?
Terra is a decentralized global payment system made specifically for transferring stablecoins. Stablecoins are pegged to other currencies like USD, so payments on Terra don’t fluctuate with the cryptocurrency markets. This limits the risk of buying volatile cryptocurrency while still providing all the benefits of a decentralized payment system.
Unlike most DeFi protocols that operate on Ethereum’s network, Terra operates on the Cosmos blockchain. Cosmos has many operational benefits over Ethereum’s network, such as quicker transactions and less expensive transaction fees.
However, there are downsides to Terra on the Cosmos network. Ethereum has the most applications built on its platform, and only other applications built on Ethereum can directly interact with these programs. Because Terra isn’t built on Ethereum, the platform has less liquidity and a smaller user base than many of its competitors.
Terra has recently developed its own stablecoin, Terra USD (UST) that can be used on more than one blockchain platform. This is a valuable upgrade to Terra’s platform because it allows users to send stablecoins to Ethereum and Solana’s blockchains.
Brief History of Terra
Terra was made with a focus on price stability and user experience. Daniel Shin and Do Kwon founded Terra in January 2018 when the cryptocurrency market bubble popped. The cryptocurrency has grown significantly since its inception, appreciating over 1,000% this year.
Institutional investors that purchased LUNA during its initial coin offering include Binance, OKEx and Huobi. Terra raised $32 million from its ICO in 2018, minting 385,245,974 LUNA, and the total market has grown to over $2.8 billion at the time of writing.
Luna: Terra’s Native Cryptocurrency
Luna is the native cryptocurrency to Terra’s platform. Luna is used to provide liquidity to the platform, as decentralized finance programs need its users to provide liquidity in its smart contracts. Smart contracts are code on the blockchain that is capable of performing financial functions with cryptocurrencies.
Terra offers rewards to incentivize users to stake Luna on its platform. Users can earn interest from transaction fees and arbitrage on Terra’s platform. Staking is necessary not only for liquidity, but to adjust the prices of stablecoins through the smart contract’s rebalancing algorithms.
Luna has a maximum supply of 1 billion tokens, but technically more than 1 billion tokens can be minted. If more than 1 billion tokens are available in the ecosystem, the program will burn extra supply in its treasury. At the time of writing, Luna is $6.33 per coin.
Step 1: Open an Online Account
To get started investing you need to open an account with a crypto brokerage that supports Luna. Luna isn’t supported by major crypto exchanges like Coinbase and Gemini, so you’ll need to make an account with a lesser-known brokerage. The largest exchange that supports Luna is Binance, but you can also make an account with Bittrex, Huobi or Kucoin exchange.
Like an account with a stock brokerage, you’ll have to provide personal identification information for tax purposes. To make an account with these exchanges, you’ll need to provide your name, Social Security number, address, email and birthdate.
Step 2: Buy a Wallet
In order to hold your cryptocurrency securely you need to store your assets on a cryptocurrency wallet. Storing your cryptocurrencies on exchanges makes your crypto at risk of being hacked –– many exchanges that claim to be secure have been breached in the past.
Cryptocurrency wallets can be software wallets or hardware wallets. Software wallets are mobile apps or computer programs that store cryptocurrencies, and hardware wallets are physical devices that store your cryptocurrency offline. Hardware wallets are the most secure way to store your crypto, as it’s impossible to access your funds without the physical device.
If you plan on trading your crypto regularly, you’ll need to keep your funds on the exchange to do so. Binance is the most secure exchange to use for trading because it has a reserve account to insure your assets against security breaches.
Best Hardware Wallet: Ledger Nano S
There aren’t many choices when it comes to hardware wallets that support Luna. Most multi-coin wallets support major cryptos like Ethereum and Bitcoin, but few support smaller cryptocurrencies like Luna.
The Ledger Nano S is your best bet for storing your Luna in a hardware wallet. Out of the package, the Ledger Nano S doesn’t support Luna. You need to use the Ledger Live application to download Terra Station on your hardware wallet. Once the program is installed, you can send Luna to your Ledger wallet.
The Ledger Nano S comes in at an affordable $51 on Amazon. Ledger also offers a premium version called the Ledger Nano X for just over $100, but it’s currently out of stock on Amazon. No matter what Ledger wallet you choose, they all offer great security features to keep your crypto safe.
Best Software Wallet: Terra Station
Terra Station is by far the best software wallet to store your Luna. Terra Station was made by Terra for its users, and it has many unique features. The wallet displays information like market supply, current market price and current interest rates.
You can use Terra Station to stake your Luna to earn interest directly from your wallet. The current interest rate for staking Luna on Terra’s platform is 5.4%. This is a great incentive to stake your Luna, but keep in mind that a 5.4% return is not guaranteed.
Not only does the interest rate fluctuate, but Luna’s price is highly volatile, so most of the risk associated with staking Luna comes with the price movements of the coin.
Step 3: Make Your Purchase
Once you’ve chosen a crypto wallet to store your funds on, you’re ready to make your purchase. You can place your buy order for Luna as either a limit or market order.
Market orders will purchase Luna at the current market price, while Limit orders will execute at a specified price you set. If the market price of Luna never reaches the price specified in your limit order, it won’t be filled.
Trade or Sell Your Cryptocurrency
Soon after your buy order for Luna is fulfilled, you should see your Luna coins credited on your brokerage account. It’s not recommended you keep your Luna, or any other crypto, on an exchange unless you are actively trading.
You can’t trade crypto you store on your wallet. In order to sell your Luna you’ll need to transfer it back to a supported crypto exchange.
Account Minimum
$10.00 USD
Current Crypto Prices
It’s a good idea to watch the cryptocurrency markets to get an idea of how the prices are moving. Cryptocurrencies are very volatile assets and can move up or down 10% in a single day.
With Bitcoin in a bull market, many altcoins are moving up fast. But if you keep a close eye on the market, you could get Luna at a discount during a market pullback.
Is Terra a Good Investment?
Terra offers a unique approach to decentralized payment solutions. There’s a clear benefit for users to be able to transact stablecoins globally in a quick and secure way, and Terra has many competitors with more daily users on their platforms.
Terra may be a good investment for you if you believe that the Cosmos blockchain is a better platform for DeFi than Ethereum. Cosmos has more efficient transactions and is far more scalable than Ethereum, but the platform suffers from a small user base.
Terra is working hard to integrate their tokens on the Ethereum network, which may expand the user base of the platform significantly.
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