Buying Solana in South Dakota is an easy endeavor, just as with any other cryptocurrency. That’s primarily because the market is highly developed, and the state has more than a dozen registered crypto exchanges and countless crypto holders and fans.
Residents of the state can use exchanges and other methods to purchase SOL, and in this piece, we’ll explain how that works in detail. We’ll also tell you more about Solana, so you’ll have everything you need to start buying your first SOL tokens. Let’s begin.
Solana (SOL) Explained
Solana is an open-source blockchain similar to Ethereum. It supports smart contracts, decentralized applications or dApps, and non-fungible tokens or NFTs.
Solana was made by Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal in 2017. It’s currently run by the Solana Foundation, an organization based in Geneva.
This cryptocurrency is often compared to Ethereum, but it’s unique in many regards. More importantly, it’s much faster than Ethereum in terms of how many transactions per second (TPS) the network can successfully process. In theory, it can handle as many as 65,000 TPS, compared to Ethereum’s 12 to 15 TPS. On top of that, it carries much lower fees than Ethereum.
Naturally, it’s not without its flaws. Some have claimed that Solana developers have sacrificed some of its decentralization to achieve the high TPS number.
However, others claim it’s safer than Ethereum and many other cryptocurrencies as it uses a unique combination of two consensus mechanisms:
- The popular Proof-of-Stake (PoS) that validates transactions through validators.
- Solana’s own Proof-of-History (PoH), which cryptographically orders transactions and events into the ledger to ensure events are connected to the time they were approved.
The high TPS and low gas fees have led Solana to become one of the most significant blockchain projects on the planet, with a multi-billion-dollar market cap that has kept it among the top 10 or 20 cryptos on the planet for a while.
Solana Tokenomics
The native token of the Solana blockchain carries the same name but is most commonly referred to as SOL, the official abbreviation of Solana’s token. It can be used for trading and purchasing various stuff, but you can also use it for staking, like many other cryptocurrencies.
SOL tokens aren’t mined, and new ones are continuously being issued to the market. The Solana network distributes inflation-based rewards in a fixed amount, and it awards them to validators who are part of the network. As much as 95% of new tokens go to validators, while the remaining 5% are kept for operating expenses.
The blockchain launched with a roughly 8% annual inflation rate that typically declines by 15% yearly. Once it reaches 1.5%, it will stay there.
Currently, more than 346 million tokens are in circulation, while the total supply exceeds 511 million.
People can use tokens in two ways on the Solana blockchain:
- Staking — Token holders can stake their tokens and get rewards in return. This ensures the safety and decentralization of the network.
- Fees — Token holders can use SOL to pay fees for running smart contracts and performing other transactions on the Solana blockchain.
Where Can I Buy Solana in South Dakota?
Buying Solana in South Dakota is quite easy, and you have two main options:
- Buying directly from a person willing to sell it
- Buying at a crypto exchange
In the following few sections, we’ll tell you about both methods. However, before we do that, you need to understand there are two types of cryptocurrency exchange platforms:
- Centralized crypto exchanges — These are owned by specific organizations and have regulations they need to respect, but they make buying crypto incredibly simple.
- Decentralized crypto exchanges — They don’t have to follow any rules, which could be ideal for highly advanced crypto users, but not safe for beginners.
We’ll only focus on centralized exchanges as they are the only ones that let you buy Solana with fiat currency, while decentralized ones only deal with various cryptocurrencies.
Buying on a Centralized Crypto Exchange
Centralized crypto exchanges are the preferred places to buy Solana or any other cryptocurrency in the entire US. They make buying any coin or token straightforward, quick, and hassle-free.
Naturally, many registered exchanges exist in the US and South Dakota, so it’s not always easy to choose the right one for your needs. You have to check a few aspects, and to make that easier for you, we’ve listed the main ones and what you need to know to make your final pick stress-free:
- Availability — Most exchanges in the US are available across the states, but there are still rare cases where a specific exchange isn’t available in one or more states. So, make sure to check the availability before you choose.
- Supported coins and tokens — You’re there for SOL, but it’s essential that an exchange has a wide range of other cryptos. The more it has, the better, as you’ll likely need to buy some other crypto in the future.
- Liquidity — The number of transactions and trading volumes on exchanges directly influence how fast your transactions will be. It’s best to use exchanges with higher trading volumes, as this will typically mean your transactions will be quicker.
- Safety and security — All licensed exchanges use the required and latest security measures, but it’s still important to check. It’s especially good to check the exchange’s relationship with breaches and how it has handled them in the past, as they are not as rare as some might think.
- Reputation — Reputation is everything, so the better reputation an exchange has in the crypto community, the better it is for you.
- User experience — Most people want an easy time using an exchange, so it must have a modern, sleek, and user-friendly design.
- Payment methods — Centralized exchanges have a whole slew of various payment methods, including most of the popular ones. However, it’s always important to check that the list includes the ones you like to use, so that future deposits and withdrawals become easy.
- Fees and commissions — Exchanges live on fees and commissions, making it crucial to check their pricing system. The most important fees are maker and taker fees, where taker fees are the most important ones for you as you’ll be buying and selling on the exchange.
Buying Directly From a Seller
As we’ve previously stated, you can also buy Solana directly from a person if you want to avoid the hassle of exchanges, their fees, and everything else.
Buying from someone only involves making a deal and sending the money, while the seller transfers SOL tokens to your wallet. And that’s it.
However, even though it’s simple, you still have to consider if it’s worth doing, especially if you don’t know the seller. The person can always be a scammer, so it’s essential to make the trade in public or to use a good mediator. But since exchanges are effective mediators between buyers and sellers, it becomes clear that the best solution is to use an exchange.
How to Buy SOL — Step-By-Step Guide for Buying on an Exchange
So, if you want to purchase some SOL on a centralized exchange, you’ll typically have to follow the same process, regardless of the exchange in question. Naturally, minor things will be a bit different on every site, but the overall process almost always looks like this:
- Get a Solana wallet — Before you join an exchange, you need to find a good crypto wallet that will let you store Solana. You can use Phantom Wallet, Ledger Nano X, Exodus Wallet, Atomic Wallet, and many others.
- Pick an exchange — Choose one of the recommended exchanges or find one on your own based on everything you’ve learned in this piece.
- Register an account — Visit the official site of the exchange and start the registration process. You’ll have to provide various personal details to register successfully, so make sure every piece of info is correct.
- Make a deposit in fiat — Choose one of the available payment methods for making deposits and follow the instructions to deposit the necessary funds. Make sure you deposit enough money to account for the tokens’ worth and the fees.
- Buy Solana — Find the right pair, in this case, SOL/USD, and buy the desired amount. The SOL tokens should reach you reasonably quickly.
- Withdraw SOL to your wallet — If you don’t want to trade your SOL tokens, it’s best to withdraw them to your wallet for safekeeping. That way, you can also start using or staking them to take part in the governance of the Solana blockchain.
Bottom Line
As you’ve seen, buying SOL tokens in South Dakota is incredibly easy. All you need to do is pick a good exchange and a wallet, deposit some money, and buy the desired amount of SOL.
The biggest part of the process is the research into SOL itself, as well as the exchange you’ll be using. But once that part is done, you can become a proud owner of Solana in no time.
