Burst — Part 5: How to Buy Burst?

Let’s pretend you wanted to buy some Burst…

Note: I am not a professional investor, the following should not be construed as investment advice or an endorsement of services.

Until recently I’ve had friends and relatives who have never used cryptocurrencies ask me how they can invest in Burst. I’ve been prone to turn them away with reasons such as it being prohibitively complicated for non-technical folks, or instead pushing for them to get some understanding of digital currencies in general before jumping into a relatively obscure coin like Burst.

I believe I made the wrong call. I see that the technical barriers are constantly being lowered and think now is an ideal time to enter the market.

One challenge for less popular altcoins is finding where you can buy or trade for them in an environment that isn’t overly complicated or sketchy. In this post I will give a walkthrough of the method I use to buy Burst. By no means is it the only way to but Burst and I urge anyone interested in buying to first do their own due diligence.

Overview

For this post, I’ll be writing from the perspective of an American (which I am). Folks living outside the US may need to use different exchanges, but the general steps will likely be very similar. In this walkthrough I’ll be using coinbase and GDAX for exchanging US Dollars (USD) for bitcoin (BTC) via a credit card, then I’ll be sending that BTC to another exchange, Poloniex, where I can exchange BTC for Burst (BURST). Finally I’ll send the BURST from my exchange wallet to a more secure local wallet.

… Profit?

Part 1 — Buying Bitcoin

The first step for a new time buyer will be to set up a new account with coinbase. You can use this referral code to get an extra $10 worth of bitcoin back if you buy $100 worth (notice: I’ll get $10 too if you spend $100).

coinbase dashboard

During this account setup process you may be asked to verify your identity using a drivers license or other identification. Due to US “Know Your Customer” laws, coinbase is required to operate similar to how a bank would when accepting new customers. Therefore they need to verify that you are who you say you are.

Once your account is verified, you’ll be given the option to purchase any of coinbase’s listed cryptocurrencies (BTC, LTC, ETH, BCH) using a credit card or wire transfer from a linked bank account. While transferring from a bank account allows you to send more money and incurs lower fees, it also takes much longer than a credit card purchase (usually instant) and takes longer to set up initially. To avoid additional unnecessary intermediate trades I suggest buying BTC as that is what you will use later to buy BURST.

Buying BTC

Part 2 — Avoid fees, use GDAX

Because bitcoin transaction fees have become quite high in recent months, and because coinbase levies addition fees for transfers outside of their network, I recommend using coinbase’s own exchange GDAX, which will cover the fees for you.

GDAX BTC/USD

To do this you’ll need to create an additional account at gdax.com. The requirements here are much the same as coinbase, you’ll need to verify your identity. This only took me 10 minutes or so when I did it.

Once your GDAX account is set up, you’ll be able to add funds via your linked coinbase account. This is just a simple, free transfer that will move the BTC you just bought to your GDAX account and out of your coinbase account.

To transfer your balance, click on the Deposit button on the left side of the screen. A new modal window will appear and you can select to deposit funds from your linked coinbase account. Enter the amount you wish to deposit and click the button below to deposit the funds. The deposit should occur immediately.

Deposit BTC from coinbase to GDAX

Once you see the funds available in GDAX you’ll be ready to move on to step 3, setting up a Poloniex account.

Step 3 — Poloniex, Your Altcoin Gateway

There are several exchanges that can be used to trade for Burst. I choose to go with Poloniex. They don’t have the volume of some of the other major US exchanges for BTC/BURST, but they offer a nice mix of additional altcoin and I’ve never had any issues with them.

The first thing you’ll need to do here is set up yet another account. I recall Poloniex being pretty quick and painless to get started with. You can sign up here.

Once you have an exchange account set up. You’ll want to go to the tab at the top labeled BALANCES, and click on the menu option for DEPOSITS & WITHDRAWALS.

You’ll be taken to your balances page where you can track all of your funds that are currently stored on the exchange. Use the search box to find bitcoin (BTC). Click on the “deposit” link in the bitcoin row of the table. A long set of numbers and letter will be displayed. This is your bitcoin address for your Poloniex account. Take note of this address.

Poloniex BTC deposit

Step 4 — Transfer to Poloniex

Now that you have a Poloniex account set up and wallet to receive bitcoin, it’s time to go back to GDAX and send your bitcoin.

GDAX withdrawal

GDAX withdrawal

From the GDAX BTC/USD page, click the button on the left for WITHDRAW. In the modal window that opens up, select the BTC Address option and paste the bitcoin address you got from Poloniex into the DESTINATION box and choose how much bitcoin you would like to send. If you have two-factor authentication set up you’ll also need to enter your code before clicking Withdraw Funds.

The actual withdraw can take some time; your BTC transaction needs to be confirmed and several blocks need to elapse before your funds are made available in Poloniex.

Step 5 — Buying Burst

At this point you should be able to go back to the BALANCES page in Poloniex and once the transaction has cleared, you should now have BTC available to trade in Poloniex.

BTC Balance in Poloniex

Next you can click on the EXCHANGE tab at the top of the page. Once on the exchange page you’ll need to find the BTC/BURST trading pair on the right side of the page. About midway down the page, on the left side, there should be a box that gives you the option to BUY BURST.

Poloniex BTC -> BURST

This box will display how much BTC you currently have, and the standing lowest ask for BURST (the exchange rate). Enter the amount of BURST you want to buy, or the total BTC you’d like to spend, and it should calculate the remaining amounts for you. In my example I attempted to trade all of my BTC for BURST.

When you click the Buy button, a Buy order will be places for the total number BURST you’d like to buy at the price set in the order. Be aware that depending on trade volume and how quickly the market is moving, your order may not be executed immediately. You can check on the status of your order by clicking on the ORDERS tab at the top of the page.

An open order to buy BURST

Assuming the the price isn’t skyrocketing, your order should be filled shortly and the Order page will not list any more open orders.

Order Fulfilled!

Now you can go back to the Balances page and search for Burst. You should see that your balance now matches the amount you just bought.

You have Burst!

OPTIONAL Step 6 — Transfer your Burst to your own wallet

This final step is optional, though if you plan on storing any decent amount of Burst, I would recommend it. This will require that you have already set up a wallet on your own computer. For Mac users, I wrote this tutorial to help, Windows and Linux users can eat instructions here and here.

On the Poloniex BALANCES page, find BURST. On the far right side of the BURST row there are links to Deposit and Withdraw. Click the Withdraw link.

In the dialog that opens, in the top row you should enter your Burst Wallet Address. In the line below enter the total amount of Burst you would like to withdraw. Then press Withdraw.

Withdraw from Poloniex

You may get an email from Poloniex to confirm you you did indeed wish to make this withdrawal. Follow the link in the email to confirm.

It may take 10–30 minutes for your new balance to appear in your local wallet depending on Poloniex.