Let's get the boring stuff out of the way first.
Publish0x has a writing contest for SwapSpace. Basically write down your experience with it and they will pick the best articles to win a prize. Simple enough so let's get into it!
Swap Exchanges come in handy a lot. I have used Uniswap in the past and it has worked out well for me. You remember that whole Ampleforth/FORTH airdrop? Yep I used Uniswap to quickly convert that FORTH to Ethereum.
So you can say I like and appreciate Crypto Exchanges. They serve a great purpose. For a long time I wanted to exchange some of my crypto for Theta and haven't been able to do it. I jumped on SwapSpace and would you look at what I found!
SwapSpace let's me exchange my crypto for Theta and TFUEL. GAME CHANGER people!
First let me get into was a Swap Exchange is. I am assuming you understand that an exchange let's you exchange your crypto for another crypto. It is just like the "Currency Exchange" in the physical world. You are going on vacation to Mexico and are going to need Peso's. Well then go to a Currency Exchange and give them your USD and they will trade you value for value for Peso's. Easy Peasy.
An Exchange is similar. What I like to call a "Swap Exchange Aggregate" is better than an exchange. They are the middle man to all the exchanges. Normally you would be at the mercy of what 1 exchange offers. Do they allow you to exchange your Bitcoin for Ethereum? Probably. But not everyone is going to let you exchange your Bitcoin for Ethereum Classic. Or in my case, I wanted to exchange my Crypto for Theta. Uniswap doesn't allow that because they don't have any exchanges that will provide that swap.
Then Swap Space went and...
SwapSpace has my back!
You don't need to sign in and create a account with SwapSpace. You just need to tell them what you want to exchange for and what you want to pay with and they will find you an exchange that offers that and then show you the options you can pick from. When you use a service like this though you need to understand "Floating Rate".
A Floating Rate is a rate that can and will probably change from your start time. When I first initiated my Nano to THETA exchange the rate was 1 NANO = 0.85615834 THETA. By the time my exchange went through the actual exchange rate was 1 Nano = 0.8547252 Theta. This is normal and nothing to worry about. Crypto is volatile and because of that the rates will change.
(I tried swapping ETC to THETA on SwapSpace, SimpleSwap and StealthEX. It didn't work on any of them. I believe it was due to ETC and not the exchanges.)
Let's move on to how to actually swap Crypto's on SwapSpace.
Step 1: go to https://swapspace.co/
Step 2: Find the currency that you want to receive and the currency you want to pay with. For me I wanted to receive THETA and pay with NANO.
Step 3: Click on View Offers and it will show you your options
Step 4: Input your receive address where you want your crypto to go. For me it was my Theta Address. And also input the address where you are sending your payment crypto from. So for me it was my NANO address. This ensures that if the payment gets stuck and doesn't go through in the 24 hour period it will be returned to you.
Step 5: Next you will need to send your payment crypto to the address provided. If you are like me and used Trust Wallet. You can click the little 4 square icon next to the address and get the QR code that you can scan with the wallet to make it easier.
Step 6: Now you wait for the crypto to send and for you to get your payment of you new Crypto! If you are using a exchange pair (like BTC to ETH) this process should go fairly quickly. If you are using a little odd of a pair (like ETC to THETA) this is going to take a while. In theory though with Nano it should happen quickly and it does. The transaction sent within 2 minutes and then it moved to waiting for the exchange to proceed.
Step 7: Then after a few more minutes it should complete. You will see the transaction hash at the bottom.
You can see I received the exact amount in my Theta Wallet.
And that it is ladies and gentlemen. That is how you exchange your crypto for another crypto with SwapSpace. The End!
Now we come to that awkward part of the article where I give my personal experience with it. This is a contest put on by Publish0x and SwapSpace where the top winning article has a chance to be put on SwapSpace's website and blasted to the interwebs as a pro SwapSpace article. Any sane person knowing that would also know they are not going to award a cynical article the top prize. But the top prize has the biggest winning pot. So what is an author to do? If I was full force team SwapSpace then it wouldn't be an issue. BUT since I have my reservations do I turn coat and lie in my article so I have a chance of winning the top prize? Or does TPL write an honest article to help out the fellow Crypto noobs like myself? Come on guys, is it even a question?!?!?
Look I 'like' SwapSpace. Because of SwapSpace I found a place where to exchange my crypto for Theta like I have wanted to for a while. But going back to my analogy of physical currency exchanges from the beginning. If I wanted those Mexican Peso's for my vacation. Why would I go through a exchange aggregate like SwapSpace instead of just going to Company #4 to exchange my fiat/crypto?
The way I see it (especially with crypto) the less people that have my information the better. So if I find an exchange that can handle my needs and do it effectively then why go through a 3rd party to get to that exchange? Does SwapSpace work as advertised? Yes it definitely does. I was able to use them to trade my Nano for Theta. But that doesn't mean I should keep using them though.
Here are just a few other Exchanges:
I think SwapSpace it a great place to start if you don't know where to trade/exchange your cyrpto. It will pull together all the exchanges and tell you the exchange rate and minimum amount you need to exchange for each place. Which is super handy and helpful. They also have ratings for the exchanges which can be nice if you are new to this area of the crypto space.
BUT I can't honestly say I see a long term use for them for anyone who is at all comfortable with crypto. I asked on the Theta Reddit what exchanges people use to get Theta and ChangeAngel was the #1 response. They also told me that exchanging LTC for THETA had the best exchange rates. So honestly if I needed to exchange a specific crypto for something else I think I would head to their subreddit and ask there where people exchange for it. Not that you can trust the internet completely but when you get a lot of comments like this...
It's hard to say it's not trustful. Again everything is "with a grain of salt" but the more you know the better you are prepared. With all that being said I think SwapSpace is great for what it does for beginners but not for anyone else really.
