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The top 21 questions debunked – What is Polkadot coin & what does Polkadot crypto do?

Have you seen Coinmarketcap, spotted DOT and asked yourself what is Polkadot coin?

Secondly, the sobering question of what does Polkadot crypto do?

With so many coins on the market, I will extrapolate information on how Polkadot introduces an architecture delegating a heterogeneous multi-chain blockchain.

This article should answer your questions and give a succinct answer on “What does Polkadot do”.

Where can I buy Polkadot coin?

You can buy Polkadot from the following exchanges.

If you want to know how to buy Polkadot coin on these websites there are a few options.

On Coinswitch, Kraken, Changelly and Binance you can use a credit card to buy Polkadot.

If you already have crypto and would like to exchange it for DOT, you will not need to verify your identification on Binance and CEX.

You can deposit crypto then exchange it for DOT, then withdraw it to your wallet.

There are many website telling you where to buy Polkadot cryptocurrency, though we prefer to give you a few options to choose from.

As a current DOT hodler, our guides should be sufficient on how to buy Polkadot coin in US.

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Address: 15qiJGjQuYHQK5DxBoENhq8DxEirAjbzFgSdbnF7SXoBMph

As an ambassador for Polkadot, I will be continuously working on promoting my knowledge to the community.

Any donations would be greatly appreciated and will go towards funding for local community events.

What is the Polka dot market cap?

As of April the 23rd, 2021 the Polka dot marketcap is $33,171,022,218. This is constantly changing so the widget below will reflect the current Polka dot market cap.



How many Polkadot coins are there?

As of April 2021, there is a circulating supply or 931,823,823 DOT.

The total supply of Polkadot is 1,067,347,937 coins.



What exchange is Polkadot on?

Polkadot is listed on over 50 international cryptocurrency exchanges.

SEOBetter has found the following exchanges are the most popular for buying and selling Polkadot.

Binance, Coinswitch, Kraken, Changelly and CEX.io



How to buy Polkadot coin on Binance?

If you want to learn how to buy Polkadot on Binance it is fairly easy.

Firstly, you need to sign up for an account on Binance.

From here you have two options to decide on the funds you will use to purchase Polkadot on Binance.

Polkadot on binance logo

Can you buy polkadot on Binance?

Well yes you can, though you need a source of funds first.

Here are the options on how to buy Polkadot coin on binance.

Option 1 (fastest) send any of the supported cryptocurrencies to your Binance wallet address.

Option 2 (slow) apply for KYC and prove your identity then submit funds from your bank account or credit card.

Once you have cryptocurrency or funds in your Binance account, you need to search for DOT.

There will be a few options and you need to choose the correct one.

Find a pair to buy DOT with on Binance

There will be options such as DOT|BTC or DOT|USDT

This means that you can purchase and sell Polkadot for the paired cryptocurrency.

You need to find a pair for the cryptocurrency you have in your wallet.

If you are unable to find a DOT paid for the cryptocurrency you hold, you will need to swap it, then find a pair where you can buy Polkadot on Binance.

Due to volatility of many cryptocurrencies, the best pair to purchase with is any USD cryptocurrency such as USDT, TUSD, BUSD or USDC.

Reason being is these coins will always have the same value paired to the USD.



How to buy Polkadot Kraken?

If you trying to figure out how to buy Polkadot on Kraken then we have the answer.

You first need to sign up and verify your account on Kraken.

From here you need to sign in and prove your identity.

Once this has been completed, navigate to the Kraken cryptocurrency trading section.

Search for “DOT” and click enter.

From here you can select how much DOT you would like to buy on Kraken.



How to buy Polkadot in Canada?

You can buy Polkadot in Canada on the following exchanges:

Each of these exchanges support Polkadot purchases in Canada.



Where to buy Polkadot coin UK?

The most popular websites were you can buy Polkadot UK are Binance, Coinswitch, Kraken, Changelly and CEX.io



Where to sell Polkadot?

If you have a bag of Polkadot and wish to sell some for profit, you can do so at the following websites.



What does Polkadot crypto do?

In comparison to other blockchain coins, Polkadot differs in several ways.

Polkadot is built to be a largely future-proof harness able to assimilate new blockchain technology as it becomes available without over-complicated decentralized hard forks like you have seen on coins such as Bitcoin or Ethereum.

What does Polkadot crypto do?


Really though, what does Polkadot crypto do?

Well, think about it this way.

Say you have been using your favourite invoicing program such as Freshbooks.

You run a business and you want Freshbooks talk to Xero, and you would like Xero to talk to your eCommerce website.

On top of this you have 3 other programs you use which you would also like to be able to connect with each other.

Now switch over your thinking to Cryptocurrencies.

You would want your Ethereum smart contracts to be able to talk to Litecoin transactions, where transactions can interact with each other.

So this may help you answer that question on What is Polkadot coin.

According to the team, in their present work they aim to address two issues; scalability and isolatability.

The Polkadot framework can provide meaningful improvements in each of these classes of problems.



What does Polkadot crypto do and how does it improve the current ecosystem?

Polkadot improves scalability globally on processing, bandwidth and storage.

Working to develop the most efficient process for a single transaction, while optimizing how many transactions can be reasonably processed concurrently.

Polkadot works to solve the question about the divergent needs of multiple parties and applications talking together on a near-optimal degree under the same framework.

When the Polkadot blockchain is near completion it will allow for a reduced development risk, enabling the requisite blockchain software plugins to be developed within a short time span.

This will give developers a high level of confidence on Polkadot’s security and robustness.



Time needed: 20 minutes

How to add Polkadot to Metamask

  1. Install the Binance smart chain on Metamask


    Click on the Metamask icon in your browser, then click on your profile avatar, then click on settings.

    Metamask settings


  2. Click on Networks


    Then click on add network to add Binance smart chain to Metamask.

    add custom network to Metamask

  3. Enter in the following information for Binance smart chain (BSC)


    Network Name: Smart Chain
    New RPC URL: https://bsc-dataseed.binance.org/
    ChainID: 56
    Symbol: BNB
    Block Explorer URL: https://bscscan.com

    bsc smart network in metamask settings

  4. Add DOT on the Binance smart chain network


    Open a new tab on your browser and open the following URL; Coinmarketcap https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/polkadot-new/ and click on the Binance smart chain contract address then copy the address.

    Polkadot binance smart chain address

  5. Navigate to the Binance smart chain network on Metamask and click on add new token


    Click on add custom token, paste the “Token Contract Address” from Coinmarketcap for DOT, then click next.

    Add custom token metamask - DOT

  6. You will now be able to send and receive DOT on Metamask.


    To send and receive DOT, use your Binance Smart Contract address on Metamask.

    Polkadot on metamask wallet



Who supports Polkadot?

Polkadot is supported by the Web3 Foundation, a Swiss Foundation founded to facilitate a fully functional and user-friendly decentralized web.

It is also supported by Parity Technologies and the three founders; Robert Habermeier, Dr. Gavin Wood and Peter Czaban.

The polkadot community has over 150,000 supporting users with developers, ambassadors and community moderators.

You can view all of the Polkadot social media channels below:



The Polkadot teams social media pages and communication channels



How to mine Polkadot Coin?

Polkadot can not be mined it is a PoS coin.

You can buy Polkadot on exchanges such as Binance or Cex (Add more links here) exchanges.



Can you stake Polkadot?

You can stake Polkadot if you have 220 DOT (as of April 25th 2021).

if you find the article at a future date. This is the minimum required amount needed to stake Polkadot.



What is Polkadot staking?

Staking Polkadot means putting your coins into a locked contract to earn rewards in DOT. There are two types of staking avenues you can venture into.

Based on the amount of DOT you hold you can either be a nominator or a validator.

If you would like to become a nominator on the Polkadot network you can follow this guide. https://wiki.polkadot.network/docs/en/maintain-guides-how-to-nominate-polkadot

If you would like to become a validator on the Polkadot network you can follow this guide.

https://wiki.polkadot.network/docs/en/maintain-guides-how-to-validate-polkadot



The pro’s and con’s of staking Polkadot?

Why should I stake Polkadot?

  • 10% inflation/year when the network launches
  • 50% targeted active staking
  • 20% annual return

Why shouldn’t I stake Polkadot?

  • Tokens will be locked for about 28 days on Polkadot after unbonding, seven days on Kusama.
  • Punishment in case of validator found to be misbehaving (see #slashing).


How to become a Polkadot validator?

If you want to become a Polkadot validator there is no application to fill out.

In order to become a validator for DOT you need to setup a node to instigate your intention to validate on the chain.

There are detailed on the Polkadot validator guide. https://wiki.polkadot.network/docs/en/maintain-guides-how-to-validate-polkadot



How much Polkadot do I need to be a Validator?

You can check the current amount needed to stake DOT

https://ipfs.io/ipns/polkadot.dotapps.io/#/staking/targets

The value at the top of the screen showing the Lowest” is the least staked validator.

You need at least this much + 1. You need this much to become a validator.



How to choose Polkadot validators?

  1. Navigate to the Polkadot-JS UI then click on the “Staking” tab.
  2. Pick “Account actions”, then click the “+ Nominator” button.
  3. Choose a “value bonded” that is less then the amount of DOT you have in your wallet. (You will need a few extra DOT for transaction fees).
  4. Once your bonded your tokens are locked, you need to choose a validator. Click on “Nominate” and select one ore more of the 16 validators.
  5. Once your validator are set, you will start to get rewards allocated to you. To claim your DOT staking rewards, you must manually claim them on the Polkadot-JS UI staking centre.

With staking DOT and being bonded, it means your tokens are locked. NOTE: take caution about the validators you choose since you will be slashed if your validator commits an offence.



How to run a Polkadot node?

When you are building products and dapp’s on a Substrate-based chain like Polkadot, Kusama or a custom Substrate, you will want to run your own node.

There are 3 types of nodes you can run.

An archive node keeps all the past blocks. An archive node makes it convenient to query the past state of the chain at any point in time.

A full node is pruned, meaning it discards all information older than 256 blocks, but keeps the extrinsics for all past blocks, and the genesis block. A node that is pruned this way requires much less space than an archive node.

Another type of node is a light node.

A light node has only the runtime and the current state, but does not store past extrinsics and so cannot restore the full chain from genesis.

Light nodes are useful for resource restricted devices.

You can find the instructions on how to setup a Polkadot node on the Polkadot Wiki node setup page. (https://wiki.polkadot.network/docs/en/maintain-sync)



Is polkadot a good Investment?

Polkadot is a solid investment as of April 2021.

The Polkadot network was launched on May 26, 2020.

Polkadot is one of the few cryptocurrencies built to secure unique blockchains, whether they be public, permission-less networks, private consortium chains, or oracles and other Web3 technologies.

If you missed out on Bitcoin and Ethereum when it was at a low marketcap, then Polkadot is the next best choice for big gains over the next 5 years.

If you enjoyed this article take a look at out definitive guide on how to buy Bitcoin online. We list the best providers with reviews.

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