How and Where to Buy Decentralized Social (DESO) – Detailed Guide
- What is DESO?
- Step 1: Register on Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange
- Step 2: Buy BTC with fiat money
- Step 3: Transfer BTC to an Altcoin Exchange
- Step 4: Deposit BTC to exchange
- Step 5: Trade DESO
- Last Step: Store DESO securely in hardware wallets
- Other useful tools for trading DESO
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Latest News for DESO
- DESO Price Prediction and Price Movement
What is DESO?
What is DeSo?
DeSo is a new type of blockchain designed to power Web 3.0 decentralized social networks. Since its inception in 2019, DeSo aims to solve the problems created by present social media centralization.
Today, a handful of private companies effectively control public discourse, earning monopoly profits; meanwhile, the creators who actually produce the content are often underpaid and under-engaged. In contrast, DeSo’s social blockchain treats social media content as a public utility, making it permissionless and available to anyone. DeSo combines the paradigm of open P2P financial system offered by cryptocurrencies with an efficient and scalable database infrastructure, tailored to bring about the next-generation of Web 3.0 social networks.
Today, there are over a hundred apps built on the DeSo blockchain, including Diamond, Polygram, Cloutfeed, Pulse, Supernovas.
To learn more, make sure to check out the vision behind DeSo.
Who Are the Founders of DeSo?
DeSo was founded by Nader Al-Naji in January 2019. After graduating Princeton University, Al-Naji worked as a software engineer at the D. E. Shaw Group and later at Google on the Google Search and Google Ads teams. Before DeSo, he raised over $133M to start an algorithmic stablecoin Basis in 2017.
The DeSo blockchain is supported by the non-profit DeSo Foundation, whose broad mission is to support the decentralization of social media. Al-Naji is currently the chairman of the board of the DeSo Foundation, with a $200 million treasury behind it to support its mission.
In October 2021, the DeSo Foundation announced a $50 million developer fund, known as the Octane Fund.
What Makes DeSo Unique?
The DeSo blockchain supports not only traditional social features like creating profiles and posts, but also novel blockchain-native features like social tokens (creator coins), tipping, and NFTs. These features unlock vast new categories of money-enabled products, from social NFT experiences to influencer stock markets. These features enable creators to more effectively monetize their content and connect with their followers on DeSo-powered apps.
Because DeSo treats social data as a public utility, creators aren't locked-in to a handful of centralized apps. All content on DeSo is stored on a decentralized ledger and is immediately available to a large and growing network of independent third-party apps, akin to DeFi applications on the Ethereum blockchain.
DeSo's biggest advantage lies in the fact that it is not a general-purpose blockchain. Instead, it supports a narrow set of social-oriented features that it implements on bare metal, using custom indexes that every node builds during consensus when it syncs from its peers. This allows the DeSo blockchain to reach highly-scalable storage capabilities that are unparalleled by any general-purpose blockchain. For instance, the cost of 1 GB of on-chain storage on DeSo is as low as 1 DeSo, whereas even the best existing smart contract infrastructures require millions ($1,000,000+) of dollars to achieve the same. DeSo has also announced switching to a Proof of Stake consensus by the end of year 2021, which is expected to reach a throughput of hundreds of thousands transactions per second, owing to the strictly defined transaction schema.
DESO was first tradable on 15th Jun, 2021. It has a total supply of 10,808,492. As of right now DESO has a market capitalization of USD $1,432,219,241.46. The current price of DESO is $132.51 and is ranked 2947 on Coinmarketcap and has recently surged 39.94 percent at the time of writing.
DESO 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 DESO.
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.
Select Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange for details:
- UpHold
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
But we are not done yet, since DESO is an altcoin we need to transfer our BTC to an exchange that DESO can be traded. Below is a list of exchanges that offers to trade DESO in various market pairs, head to their websites and register for an account.
Once finished you will then need to deposit BTC to the exchange from UpHold. After the deposit is confirmed you may then purchase DESO from the exchange view.
Last Step: Store DESO securely in hardware wallets
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
- 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 DESO 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 DESO with cash?
There is no direct way to buy DESO 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 DESO 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 DESO 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 Decentralized Social's fundamentals and current price here.
Latest News for DESO
