Solana is a popular cryptocurrency available for buying and selling in the US, including Mississippi. Cryptocurrencies still do not fall under the state’s Money Transmitter laws, nor are they regulated in any way. Meanwhile, the residents and visitors of Mississippi are free to trade cryptos, including Solana.
If you’re looking to buy Solana in Mississippi, you’ve landed on the right page. This guide will cover what Solana is and how it’s different from other cryptocurrencies. Moreover, we’ll discuss the possible ways to buy it in MS. Read on!
What Is Solana (SOL)?
Solana is a new open-source platform based on decentralized ledger technologies whose primary goal is to help the blockchain with its scalability issues. In addition, the platform can run decentralized apps and host various DeFi solutions.
What makes Solana stand out from the pack is the unique consensus mechanism that relies heavily on the proof-of-stake and uses the proof-of-history. We won’t go into specifics about how these work and how they are combined.
You need to know that the consensus model on Solana enables fast transactions (up to 50,000 of them per second), better security, scalability, and more. More importantly, high transaction throughput allows for lower fees when compared to other crypto transactions.
Solana Token
Solana has an ecosystem of its own, powered by its native cryptocurrency, also called Solana or just SOL. In other words, SOL is for Solana what ETH (Ether) is for Ethereum. Therefore, apart from buying and selling SOL as part of your trading strategy, you can also use it for various services, like gas fees.
Another important use of SOL is staking. Solana’s hybrid consensus mechanism still needs validators — individuals or groups of people who stake the most money, just like in other proof-of-stake networks. Those who stake their funds in Solana will have a chance to collect yield. Moreover, they are eligible to take part in voting polls and decide on the future of the platform. In this way, Solana is truly transparent and decentralized.
It’s important to mention that Solana is an inflationary cryptocurrency, which means there is no max cap on how many SOL can be mined, unlike Bitcoin, for example. Simply put, the number of SOL that can be produced is infinite, and the annual inflation rate is 8%. The good news is that it’s just the current rate and that it’s intended to decrease every year. Once it reaches 1.5%, it will stay that way.
Solana Founders
Anatoly Yakovenko released a whitepaper for the Solana project in 2017. Yakovenko had plenty of experience working with popular companies, including Dropbox, and he had come up with an idea to introduce proof-of-history as a unique consensus mechanism within the crypto sphere.
Two of his colleagues from Qualcomm joined him in his quest to create Solana — Greg Fitzgerald and Stephen Akridge. They established Solana Labs in 2020, marking the beginning of their journey.
Where Can I Buy Solana in Mississippi?
Similar to most other states in America, there aren’t any specific regulations regarding cryptocurrency trading. Therefore, it’s safe to say that there are no obstacles to trading crypto in MS.
There are two major options to acquire SOL in MS.
- Cryptocurrency exchange
- Direct purchase
Centralized Cryptocurrency Exchanges — Choosing the Best One for Mississippi Residents
There are two main types of crypto exchanges — centralized and decentralized. In this guide, we’ll focus only on centralized platforms, mainly because their decentralized counterparts don’t accept fiat payments, they lack official regulation and often don’t even feature SOL for trading.
Therefore, we’ll stick to centralized exchanges as a more secure option, especially for novice traders.
There are a couple of great platforms operating in the US that are available to residents of MS right now. However, you still want to pick the best one for you, so we’ve created a simple guide to help you decide.
- Licensing — Check whether the platform is licensed by an official regulator. This is a good sign that the exchange is safe, secure, and trustworthy.
- Reputation — It’s always a good idea to see what others say about the exchange you’re analyzing. There are tons of user-written and professional reviews available online.
- SOL availability — Check whether you can buy Solana on the platform of your choice. Also, it’s a good idea to see what other cryptocurrencies are available and if they can be exchanged for Solana. This is extremely important if you want to become an active trader.
- Security — See if the exchange has all the security protocols in place. Check its history to see whether any significant security breaches took place.
- Payment options — If you don’t have crypto, you’ll have to use your fiat payment methods to deposit your funds and buy SOL. Check which methods you can use for deposits.
- Fees — Like it or not, every exchange charges fees, but it’s up to you to find the best price/quality ratio.
- Liquidity — Liquidity determines how fast you can sell an asset. If an exchange is popular and has many active traders willing to buy and sell SOL, then its liquidity is good.
- User experience — Check whether it’s easy to get around the exchange in question. Is it aimed at beginners or advanced traders? Does it have a mobile app? Then, select one that fits your needs.
- Customer service — How likely is it to get quick help from customer support? How fast and concise are their answers to their questions? Having a good customer service team is sometimes the key element to trading successfully.
Buying Directly From a Seller
If you don’t like the idea of joining a crypto exchange and buying/selling SOL that way, you can always get in touch with a seller directly and pay them to have SOL transferred from their wallet to yours. Please remember that you have to trust the other person 100% for this type of transaction to work. We don’t recommend direct buying/selling, as there’s plenty of room for scams.
How to Buy SOL — Step-By-Step Guide for Any Crypto Exchange
Most centralized crypto exchanges follow a similar process for buying cryptocurrencies. Therefore, here’s a quick overview of how to buy SOL:
- Obtain a crypto wallet — This is a piece of software or hardware where you can store your SOL (and other cryptocurrencies). Each wallet has a public and a private key. The former is like your email address, as it’s used to send and receive crypto, while the latter is your password for accessing the wallet.
- Select a centralized cryptocurrency exchange and open an account — You’ll have to provide information such as your username, email, password, phone number, and more. Some exchanges might require you to go through additional KYC/AML procedures.
- Purchase SOL — Use one of the available deposit methods to transfer your fiat funds to your account. Then, find an option to buy SOL and enter the amount you’d like to purchase. If the liquidity is good, you should be able to obtain SOL right away.
- Withdraw SOL to your wallet — Once you obtain SOL, it will be stored in your crypto exchange account. However, it’s always a good idea to further protect your money and secure it by transferring it to a cryptocurrency wallet.
Final Thoughts
To sum up, SOL quickly started turning investors’ heads after it appeared in the market, mainly thanks to the unique underlying technology and consensus mechanism behind it. As a result, this crypto rose to fame in a short period and is still a very popular trading option. Of course, it’s nowhere near as popular as Bitcoin or Ethereum, but it has been in the top ten list of most popular cryptos for quite some time now.
