How and Where to Buy Elastos (ELA) – Detailed Guide

What is ELA?

What Is Elastos (ELA)?

Elastos aims to be a blockchain-powered version of the internet. The project originates all the way back to the year 2000; however, the current version that is based on blockchain technology and has been in active development by Elastos was founded in June of 2017.

The team behind the project genuinely believe that Ethereum, as well as DApp platforms, face limitations in scaling. While they are great for smart contracts, they are slow, not flexible at all, and inconvenient for full applications, according to Elastos. Elastos is a platform for decentralized apps, or DApps for short, that claims to solve many of these limitations.

With Elastos, aside from the fact that you gain full ownership over your digital assets, you do not have to access the internet in order to run DApps. All DApps will run on the Smart Web. The idea behind this Smart Web is to protect you from malware and other digital attacks that expose you to data theft. The platform is extremely optimized for mobile and you can run network DApps on every operating system out there.

Who Are the Founders of Elastos?

When it comes to the founders of Elastos, the project originated in the year 2000 when founder Rong Chen worked on operating systems at Microsoft Research. He returned to China to develop his own vision, an operating system designed for the entire web.

Rong Chen was a senior software engineer at Microsoft from 1992 to 2000, after which he founded and was the CTO of Kortide (Beijing), and became the chairman and CEO at Kortide in 2003. In 2017, he became the chairman of the Elastos Foundation.

Later on, when blockchain emerged as a revolutionary technology in 2017, Rong coordinated with Elastos co-founder Feng Han to incorporate blockchain and complete his vision.

Feng Han started out as a mentor at the Tsinghua University, after which he was the principal at the Yuncol School. In 2017 he became the co-founder of Elastos and is currently the founder of MIT IDE Blockchain Pillar and Foundation.

What Makes Elastos Unique?

Elastos has four pillars that enable network separation as well as platform flexibility. These are blockchain, runtime, carrier and software development kit or SDK.

The blockchain separates app functionality between the main chain and side chains for each individual application.

The runtime gives you the flexibility to run DApps outside of the Elastos operating system all-together.

The carrier is a peer-to-peer decentralized internet service where you are able to rent out your computational power and storage to other users.

The software development kit connects applications to the Smart Web that is beneficial to non-Elastos applications.

The elastOS application brings the entire decentralized ecosystem into an App.

This flagship product of the Elastos Smartweb has the entire decentralized ecosystem into a single application.

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Keep up with the latest cryptocurrency news on the CoinMarketCap blog.

How Many Elastos (ELA) Coins Are There in Circulation?

Elastos has a maximum supply of 28,220,000 ELA coins.

Keep in mind that Elastos is actively searching for both new and existing DApp projects throughout its Cyber Republic initiative.

How Is the Elastos Network Secured?

When it comes to the security on the Elastos network, all of the communication on the network is encrypted and authorized by blockchain IDs. These IDs in turn determine how the data is processed and who has access to it. Through this system, only the users can choose if they want to sell their data or preserve their privacy. Through a combination of the Elastos Runtime, DApps are provided with trusted network communication.

This means that Elastos is a decentralized internet and DApp platform that gives you, the user, complete control over your digital assets. It's intended to improve the scalability and flexibility issues of other networks as-well, while it is explicitly built for DApp performance.

Where Can You Buy Elastos (ELA)?

Currently, you are able to purchase ELA at the following exchanges:

Bittrex

Huobi Global

KuCoin

If this is your first time purchasing a cryptocurrency of any kind, you can start by learning more about buying Btcoin here.

ELA was first tradable on 31st Jan, 2018. It has a total supply of 25,490,800. As of right now ELA has a market capitalization of USD $144,883,663.69. The current price of ELA is $5.13 and is ranked 450 on Coinmarketcap and has recently surged 21.83 percent at the time of writing.

ELA has been listed on a number of crypto exchanges, unlike other main cryptocurrencies, it cannot be directly purchased with fiats money. However, You can still easily buy this coin by first buying Bitcoin from any fiat-to-crypto exchanges and then transfer to the exchange that offers to trade this coin, in this guide article we will walk you through in detail the steps to buy ELA.

Step 1: Register on Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange

You will have to first buy one of the major cryptocurrencies, in this case, Bitcoin (BTC). In this article we will walk you through in details two of the most commonly-used fiat-to-crypto exchanges, Uphold.com and Coinbase. Both exchanges have their own fee policies and other features that we will go through in detail. It is recommended that you try both of them and figure out the one that suits you best.

uphold

Suitable for US traders

Select Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange for details:

ELA

Being one of the most popular and convenient fiat-to-crypto exchanges, UpHold has the following advantages:

  • Easy to buy and trade among multiple assets, more than 50 and still adding
  • Currently more than 7M users worldwide
  • You can apply for UpHold Debit card where you can spend the crypto assets on your account like a normal debit card! (US only but will be in the UK later)
  • Easy to use mobile app where you can withdraw fund to a bank or any other altcoin exchanges easily
  • No hidden fees and any other account fees
  • There are limited buy/sell orders for more advanced users
  • You can easily set up recurring deposits for Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) if you intend to hold cryptos long term
  • USDT, which is one of the most popular USD-backed stablecoins (basically a crypto that is backed by real fiat money so they are less volatile and can be treated almost as the fiat money it's pegged with) is available, this is more convenient if the altcoin you intend to buy has only USDT trading pairs on the altcoin exchange so you don't have to go through another currency conversion while you buy the altcoin.
Show Details Steps ▾
ELA

Type your email and click 'Next'. Make sure you provide your real name as UpHold will need it for account and identity verification. Choose a strong password so that your account isn't vulnerable to hackers.

ELA

You will receive a confirmation email. Open it and click on the link within. You will then be required to provide a valid mobile number to set up two-factor authentication (2FA), it is an extra layer to the security of your account and it is highly recommended that you keep this feature turned on.

ELA

Follow the next step to finish your identity verification. These steps are a bit daunting especially when you are waiting to buy an asset but just like any other financial institutions, UpHold is regulated in most countries such as the US, the UK and the EU. You can take this as a trade-off to using a trusted platform to make your first crypto purchase. Good news is that the whole so-called Know-Your-Customers (KYC) process is now fully automated and it shouldn't take more than 15 minutes to finish.

Step 2: Buy BTC with fiat money

ELA

Once you finished the KYC process. You will be asked to add a payment method. Here you can either choose to provide a credit/debit card or use a bank transfer. You may be charged higher fees depending on your credit card company and the volatile prices when using cards but you will also make an instant purchase. While a bank transfer will be cheaper but slower, depending on the country of your residence, some countries will offer instant cash deposit with low fees.

ELA

Now you are all set, on the 'Transact' screen under the 'From' field, select your fiat currency, and then on the 'To' field choose Bitcoin, click preview to review your transaction and the click confirm if everything looks good... and congrats! You've just made your first crypto purchase.

Step 3: Transfer BTC to an Altcoin Exchange

ELA

But we are not done yet, since ELA is an altcoin we need to transfer our BTC to an exchange that ELA can be traded, here we will use Gate.io as our exchange. Gate.io is a popular exchange to trade altcoins and it has a large number of tradable altcoins pairs. Use the link below to register your new account.

Gate.io is an American cryptocurrency exchange that launched 2017. As the exchange is American, US-investors can of course trade here and we recommend US traders to sign up on this exchange. The exchange is available both in English and Chinese (the latter being very helpful for Chinese investors). Gate.io’s main selling factor is their wide selection of trading pairs. You can find most of the new altcoins here. Gate.io also demonstrates an impressive trading volume. It is almost every day one of the top 20 exchanges with the highest trading volume. The trading volume amounts to approx. USD 100 million on a daily basis. The top 10 trading pairs on Gate.io in terms of trading volume usually have USDT (Tether) as one part of the pair. So, to summarize the foregoing, Gate.io’s vast number of trading pairs and its extraordinary liquidity are both very impressive aspects of this exchange.

ELA

After going through a similar process as we've done before with UpHold, you will be advised to set up 2FA authentication as well, finish it as it adds extra security to your account.

Step 4: Deposit BTC to exchange

ELA

Depends on the policies of the exchange you might be required to go through another KYC process, this should usually take you from 30 minutes to possibly a few days maximum. Though the process should be straight-forward and easy to follow. Once you're done with it you should have full access to your exchange wallet.

ELA

If this is your first time making a crypto deposit, the screen here may look a bit scary. But don't worry, it's basically simpler than making a bank transfer. At the box on the right, you will see a string of random numbers saying 'BTC address', this is a unique public address of your BTC wallet at Gate.io and you can receive BTC by giving this address to the person to send you the funds. Since we are now transferring our previously bought BTC on UpHold to this wallet, click on 'Copy Address' or right-click on the full address and click copy to grab this address to your clipboard.

Now head back to UpHold, go to the Transact screen and click on BTC on the "From" field, choose the amount you wan to send and on the "To" field choose BTC under "Crypto Network", then click "Preview withdraw".

On the next screen, paste the wallet address from your clipboard, for security consideration you should always check if both addresses are matching. It is known that there are certain computer malware that would alter the content in your clipboard into another wallet address and you will be essentially sending funds to another person.

After reviewing, click 'Confirm' to proceed, you should receive a confirmation email instantly, click on the confirmation link in the email and your coins are on the way to Gate.io!

ELA

Now go back to Gate.io and head to your exchange wallets, don't worry if you haven't seen your deposit here. It is probably still being verified in the blockchain network and it should take a few minutes for your coins to arrive. Depending on the network traffic condition of the Bitcoin network, during busy times it may take even longer.

You should receive a confirmation notification from Gate.io once your BTC has arrived. And you are now finally ready to purchase ELA!

Step 5: Trade ELA

ELA

Go back to Gate.io, then go to 'Exchange'. Boom! What a view! The constantly flicking figures might be a bit scary, but relax, let's get our heads around this.

ELA

In the right column there is a search bar, now make sure "BTC" is selected as we are trading BTC to altcoin pair. Click on it and type in "ELA", you should see ELA/BTC, select that pair and you should see a price chart of ELA/BTC in the middle of the page.

Below there is a box with a green button that says "Buy ELA", inside of the box, choose the "Market" tab here as that is the most straight-forward type of buying orders. You can either type in your amount or choose what portion of your BTC deposit you would like to spend on buying, by clicking on the percentage buttons. When you have confirmed everything, click "Buy ELA". Voila! You have finally bought ELA!

Last Step: Store ELA securely in hardware wallets

Ledger Nano S

Ledger Nano S

  • Easy to set up and friendly interface
  • Can be used on desktops and laptops
  • Lightweight and Portable
  • Support most blockchains and wide range of (ERC-20/BEP-20) tokens
  • Multiple languages available
  • Built by a well-established company found in 2014 with great chip security
  • Affordable price
Ledger Nano X

Ledger Nano X

  • More powerful secure element chip (ST33) than Ledger Nano S
  • Can be used on desktop or laptop, or even smartphone and tablet through Bluetooth integration
  • Lightweight and Portable with built-in rechargeable battery
  • Larger screen
  • More storage space than Ledger Nano S
  • Support most blockchains and wide range of (ERC-20/BEP-20) tokens
  • Multiple languages available
  • Built by a well-established company found in 2014 with great chip security
  • Affordable price

If you are planning to keep("hodl" as some may say, basically misspelt "hold" which get popularised over time) your ELA for a considerable long time, you may want to explore ways of keeping it safe, although Binance is one of the safest cryptocurrency exchange there had been hacking incidents and funds were lost. Because of the very nature of the wallets in exchanges, they will be always online("Hot Wallets" as we call them), therefore exposing certain aspects of vulnerabilities. The safest way of storing your coins to date is always putting them into a type of "Cold Wallets", where the wallet will only have access to the blockchain(or simply "go online") when you send out funds, reducing the chances of hacking incidents. A paper wallet is a type of free cold wallet, it's basically an offline-generated pair of public and private address and you will have it written somewhere, and keep it safe. However, it is not durable and is susceptible to various hazards.

Hardware wallet here is definitely a better option of cold wallets. They are usually USB-enabled devices that store the key information of your wallet in a more durable way. They are built with military-level security and their firmware are constantly maintained by their manufacturers and thus extremely safe. Ledger Nano S and Ledger Nano X and are the most popular options in this category, these wallets cost around $50 to $100 depending on the features they are offering. If you are holding your assets these wallets are a good investment in our opinion.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I buy ELA with cash?

There is no direct way to buy ELA with cash. However, you can use marketplaces such as LocalBitcoins to first purchase BTC, and finish the rest of the steps by transferring your BTC to respective AltCoin exchanges.

LocalBitcoins is a peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange. It is a marketplace where users can buy and sell Bitcoins to and from each other. Users, called traders, create advertisements with the price and the payment method they want to offer. You can choose to buy from sellers from a certain nearby region on the platform. is after all a good place to go to buy Bitcoins when you can't find your desired payment methods anywhere else. But prices are usually higher on this platform and you have to do your due diligence to avoid getting scammed.

Are there any quick ways to buy ELA in Europe?

Yes, in fact, Europe is one of the easiest places to buy cryptos in general. There are even online banks which you can simply open an account and transfer money to exchanges such as Coinbase and Uphold.

Are there any alternative platforms to buy ELA or Bitcoin with credit cards?

Yes. is also a very easy to use platform for buying Bitcoin with credit cards. It is an instant cryptocurrency exchange that allows you to exchange crypto fast and buy it with a bank card. Its user interface is very easy to use and the buying steps are pretty self-explanatory.

Read more on Elastos's fundamentals and current price here.

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