How to Buy NEM (XEM) – A Beginner’s Guide

By: Ofir Beigel | Last updated: 4/24/20

NEM is a blockchain protocol developed in Singapore back in 2015, that aims to be a fast and robust payment system. In this post, I’ll explain what NEM is, review its differences from other cryptocurrencies and also explain how you can buy its currency, XEM, online.

How to Buy NEM Summary

NEM uses XEM tokens as its peer to peer currency. In order to buy NEM tokens you’ll need to do the following:

Get a NEM wallet (e.g. Coinomi, Exodus) Locate your NEM address Find a XEM exchange (Binance, Bittrex) Deposit BTC to the exchange and trade it for XEM Withdraw the XEM coins to your wallet

That’s how to buy NEM in a nutshell. If you want a more detailed explanation about NEM and how to buy it keep on reading, here’s what I’ll cover:

1. What Is NEM in a Nutshell?

NEM, which stands for New Economic Movement, is a decentralized, peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and blockchain platform that launched in March 2015 in Singapore.

There are 9 billion XEM coins in circulation, all of which were created and distributed to 1,500 individuals before the launch.

NEM is written in Java, and it was built from the ground up, in order to address issues that are faced by many cryptocurrencies today (such as ease of use, speed, and scalability).

NEM can process 3000 transactions per second. Since all XEM coins have already been distributed, there’s no way to earn new XEM aside from buying it or earning it by becoming a harvester or supernode (explained below).

Proof of Importance

NEM introduced a new consensus algorithm called Proof of Importance (POI). It is somewhat similar to Proof of Stake, but it includes more variables.

With NEM’s POI, the more coins a user has and the more transactions they make, the more importance they’re given. This impact encourages actively using XEM coins, rather than simply holding them.

Harvesting

Instead of mining, NEM has a feature called harvesting. It doesn’t require any special hardware, but you do need to have at least 10,000 vested XEM coins to start harvesting.

The advantage of harvesting is that it uses a lot less electricity than the Bitcoin mining algorithm (aka proof of work). As such, NEM is a much more energy-efficient cryptocurrency than Bitcoin (BTC).

Supernode Program

The Supernode program rewards people who are running active nodes. High-performance nodes help secure the network. Those meeting high-performance node requirements i.e. sufficient bandwidth, chain height, ping, and responsiveness, are randomly given awards.

However, in order to participate in the Supernode program, you must have at least 3 million XEM.

2. How to Buy NEX is 3 Steps

Step 1 – Get a NEM wallet

If you’ve decided that NEM is the right investment for you, you’ll almost certainly want a NEM wallet to keep your XEM coins safe. The alternative is keeping your coins on exchanges. Unless you’re planning on day-trading, I strongly advise against storing your coins on exchanges for security reasons.

Unfortunately, when it comes to NEM wallets, you don’t have a great deal of options. The only official option is the NEM official wallet, a desktop wallet that’s compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux.

However, if you’re not looking to take advantage of the complete NEM blockchain and are only looking to store XEM tokens you still have 2 more user friendly options.

Exodus – A great desktop wallet for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Exodus is super simple to use and also allows you to store other types of cryptocurrencies aside from XEM. You can read my complete Exodus review here.

Coinomi – A popular mobile wallet for Android and iOS that can hold over 1500 different crypto assets. Coinomi has also launched a desktop version of its wallet, making it available for Windows, Mac, and Linux as well. You can read my complete Coinomi review here.

Locating your NEM address

XEM addresses are very long strings of letters and numbers starting with an “N”. Here’s an example:

NAMOAV-HFVPJ6-FP32YP-2GCM64-WSRMKX-A5KKYW-WHPY

Step 2 – Find a XEM Exchange

Now that your NEM Wallet is all set up, it’s time to purchase your XEM coins. There’s no way to purchase NEM directly with fiat currencies (i.e. Dollars, Euros etc.). However, there are still a few options available for buying NEM:

Purchase BTC and exchange it for XEM on the same platform.

You can purchase on exchanges such as Binance, Bittrex, or HitBTC. Afterward you can exchange that BTC for XEM on the same exchange. In the case of Bittrex, you can also exchange Ethereum (ETH) for XEM. It’s probably the best option available at the moment.

Purchase BTC, then exchange it for XEM via your wallet or Changelly.

One of the more creative options is buying BTC on an exchange that does not have XEM (such as Coinbase, CEX.io, or Coinmama). Then transfer the BTC to your Exodus wallet and change it to XEM via the built in exchange.

Finally, you have the option to purchase BTC at an exchange of your choice, then swap it for XEM on an exchange called Changelly. This exchange is unique, in the sense that almost no verification is required.

Just sign up with your email, and you can swap Bitcoin or any other crypto for NEM within 30 minutes. Be sure to check out my Changelly review, and directly compare the rates you get on Changelly with other cryptocurrency exchanges.

Step 3 – Withdraw your XEM

Once you’ve bought your XEM, don’t forget to withdraw them from the exchange into your wallet. This is important so that you have full control over your coins.

While this is a very simple step, many people tend to forget about it. The time it takes to receive a confirmation on NEM is pretty short – around one minute. So the whole process of moving the coins off the exchange shouldn’t take that long.

After the XEM coins show up on your wallet you’ve successfully completed the process of buying XEM.

3. Conclusion – Is NEM a Good Investment?

While not revolutionary, NEM seems to be a very functional coin. However, like many other projects, I have yet to see a real life use case for it that achieved widespread adoption. At the moment this currency still seems to be a solution looking for a problem.

Have you had an experience with NEM? I would love to hear about it, so just leave a comment below.