Building a social media platform isn’t easy. The hardest aspect is acquiring new users. And then the next challenge is keeping them. Engagement is everything.

Facebook’s key moment was when Mark Zuckerberg decided to open the platform to app developers. That created a whole new ecosystem that thrived on its own. Facebook had won the social networking game simply by allowing every developer on the planet access to his billions of users.

Tons of Facebook apps were created, anywhere from silly viral games to marketing tools for businesses. Developers across the world started raking in millions of dollars in just months. In the past, this was impossible to achieve without overblown marketing budgets.

Instead of trying to do everything by himself, Zuckerberg’s plan allowed himself to focus on the core user experience while third-party developers did all the heavy lifting for him by creating games and apps that boost user engagement.

Now, what if Zuckerberg didn’t just allowed access, but decided to incentivize developers simply by offering an extra $1 billion fund? That would drive every developer from the four corners of the world to give up their jobs and come work for him.

That’s what makes EOS a real contender.

Why is EOS Special?

EOS is a $6 billion company and the 10th largest cryptocurrency in the world. It was the largest and the longest running ICO in the world.

Dan Larimer, who announced the EOS project in New York last year is one of the world’s most sought after Crypto entrepreneur. He’s founded billion dollar projects like Steemit and Bitshares and now he has turned his attention to EOS.

The aim for EOS is to build a blockchain that is fast, free and easy to scale.

Looking at the current market, cryptocurrencies are facing an insurmountable challenge to take on more users. And most people don’t really care what crytocurrencies are, they just want to get the job done.

So what Dan Larimer is proposing with EOS sounds cool right? So does every other cryptocurrency on the block. Each with their own marketing ploy and world changing solutions.

Then you might ask what makes EOS so special compared to the rest? Well, they have a dream team of experienced blockchain experts behind a company called Block.one.

1. Dan Larimer who founded Steem and Bitshares
2. Brendan Blumer who has been programming since the age of 15
3. Brock Pierce one of the original Bitcoin innovators and the founder of Bitcoin Foundation.

…that have all come together to create what I believe will be the world’s most widely used decentralized application on the blockchain. A platform where thousands of developers can build and launch their own apps, bringing in more customers that millions of users can interact and engage with.

This would make the underlying platform even more valuable. Just like how Facebook became the world’s most valuable social networking platform.

What makes it even more compelling and unique compared to Ethereum is the fact that developers can use C++, a common programming language where programs can run on top of the EOS operating system without needing to start building from the bottom up.

D’Aria of Bitpro acknowledged that full decentralization is not necessarily paramount to the project’s success at this point:

In D’Aria’s view, EOS has a high chance of effectively competing with Ethereum as the main platform for DApps, which seems to be the current primary aim.

Not only that;

• It is designed to be feeless
• It can be fixed without needing to fork, where a chain can be frozen until the dispute is resolved.
• It aims to handle over millions of transactions per second.
• Did I mention it has a $1 billion change to fund budding developers?

How to Buy EOS Fast!

Step 1: Go to Changelly

• Select your currency USD, EUR or GBP.
• Enter the amount you’d like to buy.
• Click on Exchange now > Examine the details > Next Step

If you have an EOS account, enter your account name, if you don’t click on “Create Account”

Step 2: Create A New EOS Account & Wallet

EOS requires new users to register an account in order to interact with their blockchain. As such, before buying any EOS, you would need to get an account with Changelly directly (Guide here) and/or with one of these wallets;

• Atomic Wallet
• Exodus Wallet – Guide
• Eos Voter – Easy to Unstake and Transfer Out All your EOS
• Infinito Wallet –  Google Play and Apple’s App Store

*You will still need one of the above wallets despite creating the account on Changelly directly.

You can easily store EOS on a wallet called the Exodus which I use. Unless you want to export your private keys to a Ledger Nano S for offline, hardware wallet protection.

Step 3: Import Private Keys on Your Wallet

IMPORTANT: This next part requires exporting your private key. Please proceed with caution, anyone who can intercept this private key can steal ALL your funds from your wallet. 

If you lose your private keys, you lose all your EOS!

Click “Next Step” on Changelly > Check details

Step 4: Pay with your Card

Step 5: Enter details and Wait for Transfer

You will be directed to the payment processor Indacoin.com to continue.

Enter your mobile phone number which is tied to your credit or debit card or else it wouldn’t work.

Type in your card details and date of birth > Wait for the one-time password on your phone.

Once the payment goes through, you will be redirected back to Changelly to wait for the transfer of your EOS coins.

Exchanging Altcoins for EOS

In this example, I own some Bitcoin Gold.

So I went ahead with using my Bitcoin Gold (BTG) to exchange for some EOS.

I sent my BTG to Binance > Exchanged it for Bitcoin > Before I could exchange it for some EOS.

Each exchange for a different crypto incurred a small fee. First by changing to bitcoin, then from bitcoin to EOS.

After that upon withdrawing my EOS, there was another 0.7-0.8 EOS withdrawal transaction fee on Binance.

By the time I got it into my EOS Exodus wallet, I was left with only a couple of EOS.

I lost about $6 from all the transactions i did on Binance. So it’s best to just use Changely to exchange your Altcoin directly with EOS.

You can Get more EOS by Exchanging Directly on Changelly

Remember to send a small test transaction first. (Remember to always do this step with any crypto transaction.)

Under the Send to tab, paste your EOS Account name.

After confirming all the details are in order, follow the sending instructions.

Send your coins to the address shown under the “Sending” tab. And wait until the transaction completes before your close the page.

In my situation, It took me about 10 – 15 minutes sending BTG from my Ledger nano S using “standard” which cost about 7-15 cents to get confirmation on the page.

Major key, don’t fall for any phishing traps that look pretty much like (binance.com) with the exception of 2 dots at the bottom of two characters, stay focused. These predators are just waiting for your lapse of concentration.

Check your Unstake Transaction on the Blockchain:

*EOS Flare: http://eosflare.io/ : used to search your EOS account and confirm transactions

Enter your EOS account name and Go.

Update (*You can no longer Register your EOS Tokens for EOS Mainnet)

You can Register Safely from Within your Exodus Software Wallet without using MEW.

Even if you have registered using MEW previously, your EOS wallet on Exodus will still display “Address Not Registered“. Exodus have no way of knowing whether you registered your EOS ERC-20 tokens or not if you didn’t do it with them.

You are still eligible to get your EOS coins from your placeholder tokens even if you choose not to register again.

Why Am I Re-registering my EOS tokens again with Exodus?

A new registration will override your old EOS registered private key generation that you have gotten from https://nadejde.github.io/eos-token-sale. If you lost your old ones, this is your way of getting a new EOS public and the private key safely stored within Exodus itself.

So when the Real EOS Coins are launched and Exodus has introduced support for this, you can easily enable them from within your Exodus software.

Your 12-word seed phrase which you setup when you first installed Exodus will be associated with the keys to your EOS coins.

Please note that I was charged about 0.000136674 Ether ($0.09-0.11) miner fee for re-registering again.

Open your Exodus Menu

You will notice upon using Windows that your Exodus wallet doesn’t display the Developer menu. (Credit: Exodus support images)

1. Press and hold these three buttons simultaneously (Control + Shift + D) for the Exodus menu to appear.

Then access Developer > Assets > Ethereum > Export Private Keys. Copy your key from within the Excel sheet.

2. Go to MyEtherWallet > Send Ether & Tokens > then select Private Key. Paste the key into the box and click Unlock.

3.  After unlocking you can search for your EOS tokens in the long list on the right hand sidebar. Click on EOS to reveal how many tokens you have (It will be the same with what you have in your Exodus wallet).

Note: you will be able to see the Ether you bought on Changelly on the side bar too. You need a minimum of 0.01 Eth to initiate this process.

4. Now go to https://nadejde.github.io/eos-token-sale/ to create your EOS Public and Private Key. This is not to be mistaken with the private key for your Ethereum Exodus wallet. You will need to store this for future use as well.

• If you bought a huge amount of EOS token and cannot afford any losses. ~ It is recommended that you disconnect your computer from the Internet before you click on Generate EOS key in order to avoid being intercepted if your computer has been compromised.
• You can reconnect after you have stored them safely offline and upon closing the page.

5. Return to MyEtherWallet > select Contracts from the menu then click on Select a contract.
Choose EOS – Contribution > Click  “Access” this will prefill the EOS contract address.

6. Scroll down the page and click  “Select a Function” then choose  “Register” from the menu.

7. Paste in your EOS Public key in the field “key string”, then in the next field “How would you like to access your wallet?” choose “Private Key” and paste in your Exodus Ethereum Private key, click unlock and then select “Write.”

8. In the pop-up window “Amount to Send” should be 0 and “Gas Limit” should auto-populate. Then click “Generate Transaction” and select “Yes, I’m sure.”

Voila! Your EOS ERC-20 Tokens are now registered and your EOS public key is linked to your Exodus wallet’s ETH keys. (Your registration would fail if you do not have sufficient ether in the wallet)

To verify the tokens have been registered:

1. Select “Contracts” from the menu then click on “Select contract” and choose “EOS – Contribution” then scroll down the page and click “Select a Function” then choose “Keys” from the menu.

2. Find your Exodus ETH public key ( Exodus ETH Receive Address). You can find this by going into the Excel sheet and copying the “Address” or you can go to your Exodus app > Ethereum > Click on Receive to display this.

Paste under Address & Click  “Read.” You will then see your EOS public key (the github site you use to generate this key) in the -string- attached to your ETH public key.

Please wait a few minutes and try again if they do not appear, it may be due to network congestion.