How to own Skycoin, the cryptocurrency of the century
By: Marco Casino
Tags: Wallet, Bitcoin, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Skycoin

(This is a French to English translation of Blévenec’s original article)

In my last article I discussed the Skycoin cryptocurrency. This attracted the interest of many people who kept asking me how to obtain this amazing coin.

As a digital currency, the first step is to create a wallet in which to store and transact with Skycoin.

So I will show you how to create a Skycoin portfolio, before presenting the means by which you can buy and sell.

As with any decentralized cryptocurrency, you are only in control of the Skycoins in your wallet.

Step 1: Create a Skycoin Portfolio

You can choose between a mobile or desktop wallet. Depending on your device or operating system, download your Skycoin wallet by clicking on the link below and then “download”.

https://www.skycoin.net/downloads/

After installing the application, open it and you will see this screen:

Accept and continue. On the next page, choose a four-digit passcode that you will use to unlock the application each time.

Then you will be redirected to a new screen. This step concerns security measures, and it’s the most important part of the process, because if you are negligent at this stage it could cost you a lot of money.

You will see three boxes. In the first, just enter any word to name the new wallet.

In the second box, you will see your SEED. This is a secret phrase that you should never reveal to anyone, otherwise they will have access to your coins.

You must keep this phrase safe because it will allow you to recover your Skycoin wallet if lose your device.

So take the time to write down this sentence on a piece of paper that you will store in a safe place. After writing down the sentence, copy it into the last box and click on the CREATE button to create your wallet.

You might be curious about what will happen if you click on the LOAD button. The LOAD section allows you to recover a wallet using the secret phrase you wrote down on paper.

Note that even the creators of Skycoin cannot help you recover your wallet if you lose your secret phrase.

Now that you’ve created your portfolio, it’s important to understand the other features of the wallet.

If you forgot to write down the secret phrase, you can click on the name of the wallet, and then click on the eye to display your phrase again (you will be asked for your four-digit passcode).

Note that the four-digit passcode will not help you restore your wallet on another device if you lose your secret phrase.

If you forget your passcode but still know your secret phrase, just delete the wallet and recover it using the secret phrase.

Now that you have your wallet, you’ll need to operate it.

Step 2: Making Skycoin Transactions

Here we will discover how to send and receive Skycoin, and the sites where you can buy Skycoin.

If you’re accustomed to trading in Bitcoin, you’ll be very surprised by the speed of Skycoin transactions.

First I’ll explain the information shown in the wallet.

The arrow circled in red opens the page that will allow you to send Skycoin to another address.

163 is the number of Skycoin in this wallet.

$1.1 is the value per Skycoin in US dollars I have at the time of writing.

$180 is the value of all my Skycoin in this wallet.

38K SKY Hours is the number of Coins Hours I have at the time of writing.

(One Skycoin generates one Coin Hour per hour)

Let’s click on the portfolio called “Main wallet” to see what will appear.

You will see a page not too different from the first, because you only have one wallet. But you can create multiple Skycoin wallets by clicking on “New wallet”.

You will also see a small QR code. Click on it and you will see a page like this.

Here you will see your Skycoin address and the full-size QR Code. To receive Skycoin or transfer Skycoin to your wallet, just click on the icon at the bottom right to copy your address to the paste buffer.

(You don’t need to copy it by hand)

The QR code can also be scanned, to give other people your address quickly.

Step 3: Buying Skycoin

Now I will buy some Skycoin from a trading site and transfer them to the wallet.

As you can see, my balance has changed. I used the address I copied to transfer Skycoin from a trading site to my wallet.

Now let’s go back to the main page and click on the down arrow.

As I said earlier, this option will allow you to send Skycoin to other people or addresses.

In the “Send to” box, you paste the address of the wallet to which you would like to send the coins. Then enter the number of Skycoin to send in the “Amount” section. The “Notes” box is optional.

If you fill everything in correctly, the “SEND” button will turn blue and you can click on it to complete the transaction.

Warning: Do not send Skycoin to an address that is not a Skycoin address.

Now that you know how to make transfers in Skycoin, I will show you some sites where you can buy Skycoin, either using a credit card or by converting other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum into Skycoin.

https://binance.com

https://skycoin.net/buy

https://lbank.info

After purchasing your Skycoin, remember to transfer them to an official Skycoin wallet to start generating Hour Coins.

See you soon!