How to Buy Steem (STEEM) in 3 Simple Steps

5 Things to Consider if you Want to Buy Steem

Before you start looking for the right place to purchase Steem, you must pay attention to some important factors that can eventually impact your buying decision. Below we have discussed each one of these points to keep you well informed before risking any funds.

1. Carefully choose your preferred secure payment method

Your choice of payment method for purchasing Steem will need to align with your priorities in relation to the cost, convenience and speed. It’s also important to note that different countries and platforms may have different payment options available. Some of the commonly used methods to purchase cryptocurrencies globally include credit/debit cards, PayPal and bank transfer.

2. Will you need to set up your own wallet?

If you’re investing in Steem with a long-term perspective, you’ll need a secure wallet to store your STEEM coins. Ideally, you must never leave your coins in a wallet provided by an exchange, as it can be a little risky to do so. Exchanges have a history of going bankrupt, getting hacked and in some cases even getting exit-scammed by the owners. The safer option would be to go with a mobile wallet, desktop wallet, or the most secure among all, a hardware wallet. We’ll discuss all of them soon in this article.

Please note, there will be no wallet set-up needed if you choose to invest in STEEM through a broker using a Contract for Differences (CFDs), as no STEEM exchange will occur in this case.

3. Comparing costs

You should also factor in the costs associated with STEEM transactions before making its purchase. It’s important to note that no blockchain processing fee is charged for transferring STEEM coins within the Steem network. Nevertheless, if you buy or sell STEEM on an exchange or broker website, there might be a small fee levied on the transaction. This will be apart from their deposit and withdrawal fees. The payment method used to buy STEEM will have some transaction fee attached to it too.

4. Safety and security

Please bear in mind that Steem no longer uses the Proof of Work mechanism to secure its network and validate new transactions. After the company was taken over by Tron platform’s founder, Justin Sun, Steem has switched to Delegated Proof of Stake (dPoS) consensus mechanism to secure its blockchain and create new blocks. As per this new system, the Steem protocol schedules witnesses for the creation of new blocks every 3 seconds. This has significantly increased the transaction speeds and made the platform more scalable.

Apart from the inherent security features of Steem blockchain, the platform you use for buying STEEM, whether an exchange or broker, will also have its own security measures in place, including 2-Factor Authentication (2FA).

5. Can you understand and navigate the platform?

A very critical aspect that is often neglected by people new to cryptocurrency trading, is their comfort level while navigating or using a cryptocurrency exchange or broker website. Failing to gain a good understanding of the platform’s workings, especially how to set up ‘Sell’ and ‘Buy’ orders, can potentially lead to expensive mistakes later. Broker websites are generally easier to use and transact on, compared to exchanges.

What is the Best Payment Method for Buying Steem?

The constantly increasing popularity of Steem has made it possible for more and more brokers and exchanges to list STEEM as a tradable asset. Today, you can buy this cryptocurrency through multiple payment methods, based on your country/state of residence, and the platform you’re transacting on. Let’s discuss some of the commonly-used payment modes to buy STEEM.

Buying STEEM with credit/debit cards: Credit and debit cards are accepted all over the world and offer a great deal of convenience compared to other payment options. This mode of payment can help you make a near-instant purchase of STEEM. But please remember, the fee involved is the highest among all the payment methods. Brokers, however, are more willing to accept them as a valid means of payment.

Buying STEEM with bank transfer: Purchasing STEEM with a bank transfer continues to be the most popular way to buy this cryptocurrency. It’s more affordable and also convenient considering how easily you can move funds between your exchange/broker account and bank account. Bank transfers take a lot of processing time, much more than other payment options.

Buying STEEM with PayPal: PayPal is widely trusted as a reliable payment provider in many parts of the world. It offers great convenience and involves a transaction fee. As with credit/debit cards, you have a better chance of finding PayPal as an acceptable payment mode at a regulated broker than on a crypto exchange.

Buying STEEM with cryptocurrency: Using a cryptocurrency to buy STEEM is amongst the fastest ways of acquiring the coin. All you need to do is find a platform that pairs STEEM with a cryptocurrency of your choice. Thereafter, you’ll simply have to create an account with that platform, deposit your coins to it, and place a ‘Buy’ order to execute the trade.

What Fees are Involved in Buying Steem Tokens?

Whenever you set out to buy any cryptocurrency, you will have to factor in some fees, to be able to correctly gauge your net profit from the activity. Let’s look at some of the common fees in this regard.

Transaction fees: Fortunately, there is no blockchain transaction fee charged for the transfer of STEEM coins. However, there will be some transaction fees charged by the payment facilitator and the broker/exchange website you use to make the STEEM purchase.

Deposit fees: It’s imperative for brokers and exchange platforms to charge a nominal fee for deposits made into their accounts. It’s one of the ways they make money to deliver a safe trading environment for people. While crypto exchanges almost always impose this fee, brokers may waive it from time to time, to encourage more people to join them.

Withdrawal fees: A crypto broker or exchange will normally levy a variable or fixed charge for any withdrawals made from their platform. Such fee is charged regardless of whether the withdrawal is in the form of a cryptocurrency or fiat currency. The payment method you withdraw funds to will also determine its exact percentage/value.

Safely Storing Your Steem Tokens

When you buy the ownership of a cryptocurrency, you’ll need to look for a way to store your coins somewhere safe. This is where cryptocurrency wallets come into the picture. They offer different levels of convenience and security based on users’ needs. Below are a few well-known wallet types that you should be aware of.

Web Wallet: Web wallets are cryptocurrency wallets provided by exchange platforms. The primary advantage of using such wallets is their easy accessibility. However, as most of these exchange wallets are custodial in nature, you can never trust them with the safety of your coins. Exchanges have gone bankrupt, exit scammed, and been hacked into in the past.

Mobile Wallet: Mobile wallets offer a far better option to store crypto coins than the kinds provided by exchanges. The biggest benefit of this wallet type is that you get a nice mix of convenience and security. However, their frequent connectivity to the Internet, which also gets them categorised as a ‘hot wallet’, makes them vulnerable to hacks. If you choose a mobile wallet to store your STEEM coins, ensure that you secure your wallet as well as the mobile device with security enhancements like unlock code, fingerprint identification, face identification, etc. Esteem is the most commonly-known mobile wallet for STEEM token storage.

Desktop Wallet: Another variant of a ‘hot wallet’, desktop wallets are software applications run on desktop/laptop computers. They offer more security than mobile and web wallets but their usage in a desktop environment takes away a lot from the convenience aspect. Among desktop wallets, the Vessel wallet is the best one for storing STEEM.

Hardware Wallet: By far the most secure way of storing any cryptocurrency, hardware wallets’ constant disconnectedness from the Internet also gets them labeled as a type of ‘cold wallet’. They are nearly impossible to hack but aren’t as easily accessible as mobile, desktop and web wallets. Most hardware wallets come as tiny hardware devices which must be plugged into a USB port, to access and transfer your crypto funds. STEEM isn’t supported by most of the popular hardware wallets currently. 

Wallet Combinations: Often the best crypto storage approach is to spread your coins over multiple wallets, to prevent any chances of a single point of failure. Some of the wallet types discussed above can be effectively connected to each other, to achieve this type of functionality. A use case example would include that of those who want to trade Steam often. It would be best to have a web wallet so that they can make the necessary trades as quickly as needed. At the same time, they can hold a bulk amount in a secure wallet that is separate if anything were to happen to the platform the web wallet is on.

What Other Coins Can I Trade or Use to Buy Steem?

If you’d like to buy Steem with Ethereum, Bitcoin, Ripple, Tether or any other cryptocurrency, you will have to use a cryptocurrency exchange that offers it as a pair with all those cryptocurrencies. The number of such trading pairs offered by exchanges is constantly increasing, as the crypto market continues to mature with each passing year. While there is a more likelihood of finding a STEEM trading pair with Bitcoin or Ethereum, you can shop around if you’d like to exchange some other crypto for STEEM.

What’s the Smallest and Largest Amount of Steem I Can Buy?

Whether you’ll be allowed to buy small amounts of STEEM, or will be able to buy STEEM without any limit or not, will depend upon multiple factors that must be taken into consideration prior to purchasing the coin. 

The lower limit is usually decided by how economical the coin turns out to be after factoring in the trading fees. Please keep in mind, it may not be practical to buy small quantities of STEEM, considering its under-a-dollar price at the time of writing. With regard to how much STEEM can you buy, it will depend mostly on the platform under consideration and the prevailing regulatory restrictions in your region.

Can I Buy Steem Anonymously with no ID? Is it Safe and Legal to Buy Steem?

Owing to the constantly growing popularity of cryptocurrencies, they are accepted in many jurisdictions today. Nowadays, you can buy STEEM safely in several countries around the world.

If you would like to buy STEEM anonymously or buy STEEM with no verification, then you will have to use an anonymous crypto platform for this purpose. However, it’s not recommended to use such portals, owing to the potential risks involved. To make a secure STEEM purchase, it will be best that you use a regulated broker or exchange website instead.

Will Buying Steem Make Me Money?

In order to invest in this cryptocurrency, you’ll need to pay heed to multiple metrics including the overall coin supply, recent developments and its price history. Then you’ll need to ponder what investment/trading strategy you’re most comfortable with too, based on your skills and experience. At the time of writing, the 7-day high and low of STEEM was $1.03 and $0.40 respectively. So you can very well imagine the kind of scope that exists for short-term investors/traders. Long-term Steem investments can be good too, looking at its solid fundamentals. If you’re keen on learning the best price to buy STEEM, or wish to find out how much does it cost to buy STEEM at this moment, you should refer to our STEEM Price Page.

How to Spend your Steem

The primary purpose of STEEM coins is to serve as a reward mechanism for social media users and content creators. Though you may not be able to directly use your STEEM coins for making online and offline purchases, like other popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Litecoin, you can easily convert them into a fiat currency at any of the well-known brokers or exchanges. Besides, STEEM is easily transferable between users and involves no blockchain processing fee at all.

How to Sell Steem

Normally, regulated cryptocurrency brokers and exchanges are the best places to sell any cryptocurrency, including for those who want to sell Steem. If you’re a regular crypto trader, you should use the same portal that you originally bought the coins on. Regardless, the process will involve depositing your STEEM coins into a brokerage/exchange account, followed by exchanging the coins with a fiat currency or some other cryptocurrency.

Steem investments through a CFD are rather easy to sell, as they require nothing more than the closure of the corresponding CFD trades, on the concerned broker platform.