IDEX Review | Decentralized ETH Asset Exchange
IDEX is a cryptocurrency exchange that is built around mainly for people looking to "staying clear of anything that has to do with bitcoin like its a plague". The creation of IDEX exchange by the AURORA team must have probably gone like this.
Alex Wearn (CEO): Hey guys, what can we do to make the bitcoin community jealous!
Raymond Pulver (CTO): why don't we create a decentralized exchange focused on Ethereum and ERC20 tokens.
Forrest Whaling (Marketing): oh my... I can sell this to a caveman... Let do this!
Then a unanimous agreement was reached. Thus the development of the IDEX exchange commenced and was officially launched in 2017. Anyways, this is all just rumour, so don't quote me, instead donate, and "MAYBE" I will fly over to the Aurora DAO headquarters in Panama to get exclusives.
AuroraDAO: The Parent of IDEX Crypto Exchange and Other ETH Projects
AuroraDAO is an Ethereum based application that serves as a parent to several Ethereum based projects. They are also responsible for the development of IDEX exchange.
Apart from being a primary Ethereum evangelist AuroraDAO, it aims to be the number one banking solution provided globally, making use of the Ethereum platform. The Launch of IDEX exchange following their ICO in 2017 indicates that this Ethereum "enforcers" means business.
The Aurora teams are spearheaded by Alex Wearn (CEO). With two Master's degrees, one in Finance and operations, the other in MS in Design and Innovation, both from the prestigious Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, he surely fits the description of someone worthy of leading a team like Aurora. The Executive Team comprises about five others.
The Aurora team pulled a primary ICO on January 11, 2018, which brought them a fortune of about 5411.38 ETH. For a company recently launched, this is a significant feat. As of now, over $13 million crypto token is being exchanged on the IDEX daily.
Let's get one thing clear, IDEX is not one of a kind, so the question remains, what could be the reason behind its sudden gain of attraction and why are cryptocurrency enthusiasts talking about it! The answer to this question can be traced to the features found in the exchange. IDEx has some features which make it a bit uniques in its way.
IDEX Features: Main Points You Need to Know + IDEX Fees to Be Aware of
Functionality
Their interface is one thing you have to credit the IDEX platform for. The platform is designed to integrate certain valuable features such as; Encrypted wallets, and TradingView chats. The provision of an off-chain trading engine that allows for an amicable trading experience makes IDEX online platform a gold mine for an ERC20 token trader. The structure of the off-chain helps traders manage their experience. A smart contract handles the control of funds, final settlements, and trade authorization. The off-chain structure makes it easy to trade consistently and without having to pause while a transaction is mining.
Security
The IDEX platform exemplifies security. The integration of a smart contract, a sophisticated trading engine, and a transaction processing arbiter system makes it possible for funds on the exchange to be stored just like a decentralized system was intended "trustlessly"!
Before an executed trade settlement can be authorized on the IDEX platform, a full private key encryption is required. The IDEX platform also allows its user to make trades using their Ledger and MetaWallets wallets.
Apart from probably swallowing your Hardware wallets and not using the restroom ever again, trading on the IDEX platform is one of the safest means of keeping your token from harm's way.
Trading Options
IDEX crypto provides a good range of trading options, and users have access to make limit and market orders, gas-free cancels, and the ability to fill many trades at once.
Technology
A decentralized system is meant to operate in a trustless state. Merely saying, everything is transparent, and no one has the upper hand. IDEX provides its traders with all the features necessary for operating in a trustless and secure system. Since IDEX is a decentralized system, the order books and updates of account balances from a transaction are sent directly to the Ethereum blockchain in real-time.
As a result, we can say IDEX is the offspring of a marriage between a centralized platform's speed and the security of a decentralized system.
How to Trade on IDEX: Basics for Both Beginners and Professionals
Using IDEX requires you to first create an account with them. Account creation on the platform might take up to 30minutes as it requires some unique individual steps to follow.
Below you will find that we have broken down the various steps you are to take before you can start making those trades you have planned out.
Step 1: Setting Up Your Wallet
To start making trades on IDEX crypto exchange, you need to own either a MetaMask wallet or a Ledger Nano S wallet. For users who do not have any of these two, you are also not left out. IDEX has a unique online wallet which you can access on their exchange website. The MetaMask wallet is the most recommended choice since it is easier to access and has more public support. It's like the cool kids in school who know Math!
MetaMask works just like a chrome extension or Firefox plugin. This means you can access your wallet as long as your browser is on. Copying your MetaMask wallets private keys for pasting into the provide unlock wallet section on the IDEX page with opening the wallet. You can use your waller's screen keystrokes to input the private key (most recommended) for those who are very security conscious.
How To Connect Your MetaMask wallet to IDEX
You are to follow these steps to connect your MetaMask wallet to the IDEX platform:
Step A: You need to Install the MetaMask plugin or Extension and set it up on your browser.
Step B: You need to unlock the wallet by selecting the "Unlock Wallet" tab. This tab is located at the top right corner of your IDEX dashboard.
Step C: To continue, make sure your MetaMask wallet is logged into and well connected. Then click on the "MetaMask" option in your IDEX dashboard. This tab can be located in the "Access your Wallet" tab section. Once you see the possibility of wallets to select from, you then need to select "MetaMask."
Step D: After selecting the MetaMask option, the next step is to click on the "Unlock MetaMask" button on the left side.
Doing this will unlock your MetaMask wallet and connect it to IDEX. After which you can then proceed to make a deposit.
Step 2: Deposit Fund
Upon integrating your wallet on the platform, you must make a deposit directly into IDEX smart contract before you can continue trading. The purpose of this is to keep your fund secure since your trades will be broadcasted directly to the Ethereum network by IDEX.
Deposits can be made on the dashboard by locating the "Balance Tab" at the top right corner of the panel and clicking on it (If you intend to adjust the gas price for your transactions, this is where you get it done too).
Once you are in the balance section, the next thing is to input the amount of ETH or DAI you plan on transferring. Upon crediting your account and finding the funds in there, you can quickly start to make your trades on the platform.
Step 3: Start Trading
Coins listed on the IDEX are generally always paired with ETH or DAI. So depending on which one you made your deposit with. You will be able to trade currency pairs paid with it.
You will find a list of these currency pairs when you click on the "EXCHANGE" tab. There you will be able to select the coin you want to trade.
Once you find the coin of your choice, you can proceed to click on it. Clicking on this coin should lead to another tab showing the charts and figures of this coin's overall performance for a selected period.
Underneath this chat, you will find the Sell and Buy boxes. Upon seeing it, you then input the total amount and price you want to trade. To further guide you on the current price and real-time price changes of the token and ask, the bid tab is placed below the Buy and Sell boxes.
Step 4: Withdraw Funds
Making a profit is probably why anyone will want to trade on the IDEX platform in the first instance. So it is quite essential to know what their withdrawal protocol is all about.
To make withdrawals on the IDEX platform, you need to locate the ''Full Balances'' menu. Upon finding it, your next step is to click on the tokens you plan on withdrawing. You then insert the amount of coin to be removed and then confirm the withdrawal. After a few minutes, the funds should appear in your wallet.
Supported Currencies
It's no news that IDEX is the Ethereum base. What this means is that the exchange only lists ERC20 and Ethereum based tokens. So you won't find any Bitcoin-based token hanging around their "block", (Trespassers beware)!
IDEX is well known for listing popular coins with large hard caps as well as new coins. As of now, a total of at least 140 tokens are listed on the platform.
Example of tokens included on the platform consists of;
HAV, CPC, BAT, ICX, TOMO, MKR, and REP
Since IDEX is quite the welcoming type, as the Ethereum blockchain continues to grow and develop, more coins are expected to be created and listed on the platform. The AOA tokens were also launched on the platform. (Where else will it start?).
The idea behind the coin launch is to invite everyone to take part in and profit from the ever-expanding AOA business. Each owner of the AOA coins gets to share from IDEX fees and those from other participants of the AOA platform. For IDEX trader, this can be likened to eating your cake and still have it. To make owning the coin even sweeter deals, the higher your stakes, the more your fees.
Customer Care and Community Support
One thing you can never overlook when selecting your broker is their customer care and community supports. IDEX no longer offers a live chat option, and you are only left with the email option and support tickets. For a progressive exchange like IDEX, this is a significant drawback. However, they have increased their social media platforms like; Telegram, Twitter, and Reddit. They also make sure to reply to public forum comments. However, none of these alternatives can match what a live chat offer. They have been effective nevertheless.
IDEX Fees
Just like with any financial trading platform, whether centralized or decentralized, you still have to pay a fee. It is not negotiable. Any platform of such nature claiming otherwise is probably taking it off you one way or the other. With IDEX, you get charged a maker or taker fee on the platform.
Maker fees get charged when you make a trade order. Market makers are responsible for making liquidity on the exchange.
The maker fee charged by IDEX is 0.1% of the total trade amounts. So if you are making a trade worth about $100, you get charged 10 cents($0.10), very cheap right?
Taker fees are also being charged for transactions. Market Takers is a name given to traders who fill trader already made on the order books. The Taker's fee is 0.2% of the total trade worth. The prices to be deducted are usually done by making use of ETH. So the value of the token in ETH is inferred as the fee. The higher Taker fee is because these takers are responsible for paying the gas fee associated with each transaction on the order book.
IDEX has a minimum order for market Makers and Takers. For Makers, the minimum trade value of 0.15ETH is allowed, while for Market Takers, the number is 0.05ETH. This is to help ensure a proper transactions fees rate simply because the taker fee might even go above the set 0.2%, all thanks to an unstable network's traffic. Although IDEX does not institute any form of withdrawal or trading limits, the minimum amount withdrawable on the platform is 0.04 ETH.
Another very unique strength of IDEX is the ability to cancel orders without having to pay for GAS. The reason for this is simply because IDEX executes all trades themselves, and since the smart contract is charged with broadcasting transactions to the blockchain, trade transactions can be cancelled right before it gets mined.
Is IDEX Safe?
In this IDEX exchange review, we need to talk about the many factors put in place by IDEX to ensure maximum security. From making sure that private keys are encrypted and stored using the browser memory, the private keys can't be accessed without launching the IDEX app.
All private keys on IDEX can only be accessed locally, mainly for the signing of transactions. So when a trader signs out of the platform, the private keys used by them get automatically destroyed and cleared from the browser's memory.
On the IDEX platform, users' funds are kept under locks until private keys are used to sign a transfer transaction. No Visa(Private Keys), not Travel (Transfer)!
With this much security, IDEX users enjoy the benefits of keeping their funds on the exchange for as long as they want, with rest and peace of mind, knowing fully well that their funds are being held on the Ethereum blockchain by the smart contract.
This means they are under the owner's control, and IDEX cannot access the funds without their permission. The inclusion of the unique "escape hatch" adds another layer of protection since the platform users can now withdraw their funds from the smart contract if the platform becomes inactive for some time. So if IDEX servers were hacked or destroyed by any means and become inactive for a specific period, users could still access their funds.
The integration of a well-tested wallet service like; Metamask and the Ledger Nano hardware wallet also adds another extra layer of security. The two wallets make it possible to also make a trade on the IDEX platform without manually having to type in Private keys or reveal them for every trade transaction.
Therefore even if IDEX gets compromised, users are still protected from having their private keys stolen. And this safety description concludes the IDEX Crypto Exchange Review.
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