Before we get into the post, I am not experienced in the slightest using any exchange platform, especially a Decentralized Exchange (DEX). I give 100% credit to this guide written by Yaz Sheikh. If it were not for his guide I would still be lost and confused.  So partially for your all enjoyment and partially to hopefully help someone who may have gone through some of the thoughts I did while making their first trade I decided to detail what my thoughts were as I went through it. I hope you enjoy my struggle.

What is Loopring (LRC)?

Loopring (LRC) is the latest option for tipping here on Publish0x. There's been quite a few posts that have come out on what LRC is and some of it's benefits. My personal favorites are MuyAsk's article on Top Things You Should Know About Loopring (LRC) and Cryptonator's on Loopring (LRC) All You Need To Know About The New Tipping Option On Publish0x.

If you don't have the time to read those, in a nutshell LRC is an ERC-20 token (more on ERC-20 here) that was designed to allow people to create Decentralized Exchanges. It's got some very nifty features but I don't want to go too far down that rabbit trail when there's already several good articles out there on what LRC is and the role it can seemingly carve out. In my opinion it seems to be a very undervalued token and I'm sure just by HODLing the tips we make here we will make a pretty decent profit.

What is Loopring.IO and Why write this?

Loopring.IO is the first DEX built on Loopring. It is not pretty (except night mode, you give me the option for night mode I will take it in a heartbeat). Because it is not a centralized exchange there is no KYC (Know Your Customer) required and there is no handing over of your tokens at any time during trades. You keep access to your private keys and coins throughout the process.

I wrote this because I have never used an exchange and thought this perspective may help the average person out there. There's also a contest going on for posts on people's first trade on Loopring.io - $300 in Prizes: My First Trade on Loopring.io DEX Exchange. I think there's still time to enter, $5 is earned just for making a trade then there's an additional $100 in prizes for articles written about your first trade. Which is why I decided to write this, I like money. Not sure if this was the type of article they're looking for but this is the only type of article I can write.

First Impressions

If you're a newbie to exchanges like I am, opening up Loopring.io to the below screen is freaking terrifying. I don't know what any of those boxes or numbers mean, I don't know what an order is and I ESPECIALLY don't know what that chart is. So needless to say this whole thing to me was already daunting but my love of money will not let me quit. I want that $5. 

Signing Up At Loopring.IO & Transferring Funds

Signing up is pretty straight forward, I forgot to grab a screenshot of that beautiful Night Mode Signup screen so apologies on that. I already had a MetaMask wallet with no money in it so I did not have to create an additional wallet for this. I just had to transfer over funds from one of my primary wallets to MetaMask. I'm not rich like Mr. Sheikh so I transfer over about $5 worth of ETH (0.03 ETH), I figure enough to make a small trade.

This is where I hop on the struggle bus. I forgot gas fees exist, I forgot transfer fees are a thing and I had no idea there would be a minimum trade amount. This whole thing took me an extra 30-40 mins of waiting around because my dumb butt forgot.

The process to register my account and transfer over funds took about 12 mins to confirm. Once my account is confirmed and I've got my staggering $5 in ETH on my account I go to make my first buy order and it says the minimum trade amount has to be for 0.05 ETH. Okay well I'll just transfer over more ETH. I transfer over an additional 0.05 ETH because I'm not being stopped by anything now and proceed to place my order as detailed in the guide. 

The Trade

This part was also pretty simple once I understood that the screen next to the Buy area was the prices currently being paid for the type of trade I wanted to do. I chose a slightly above market price buy order amount because I wanted to finish this ASAP since I spent an extra 20-30 minutes waiting around due to a lack of knowledge. The green amounts are below market price and the red are above.

Once you place your order you'll see it appear in the "Open Orders" area below the graph of wonder detailed in the image below. 

Mine filled extremely quickly, probably because I made a poor decision and purchased above market value. You should now see your order appear in the Order History pane next to Your Orders in the screenshot above. But that's it, first trade completed on Loopring.IO. I personally made this way harder than I should have. I transferred my funds back to MetaMask and will likely try staking if I feel up to it. I feel like after conquering this I can maybe manage staking but who knows I may also send all my LRC to a random ETH address and lose it all too.

Three Tips

I wanted to include these somewhere for anyone looking to complete a trade, three things I had to learn while doing the trade itself.

• Transfer over more than the minimum trade amount (0.05 ETH), I transferred about 0.08 ETH because I wanted to make sure I wouldn't get reamed by gas and transfer fees once I remembered they were a thing
• Follow the guide, it is an absolute lifesaver - I can't say that enough. For me as a newbie when it comes to exchanges I don't think I would have ever finished my trade if not for it. I probably would have just left my funds on Loopring.io if I ever got that far.
• Give it a shot! If you've never traded on an exchange or DEX it's worth checking out. It is a steep learning curve but understanding another aspect of Crypto is fun and worthwhile

Final Thoughts

I'm not sure how this stacks up to typical exchanges in terms of ease of use. The last time I tried to make a trade on an exchange I just kept playing with the graph then spent about an hour trying to find a help section on the site before giving up. I'm pretty lazy when it comes to exchanging one currency to another (most of the time I just transfer my funds to Coinbase and let them transfer my funds for me).

The toughest thing here was getting over all the things going on on the screen. I'm still not sure what that graph is and I don't know what the majority of the words and numbers mean but I was able to navigate my first trade in a relatively short period of time (30-40 mins). 

Obviously due to LRC still being in a semi-infancy stage their products are still being upgraded in terms of accessibility and ease of use. This is by no means a finished product. Their CEO has even been recorded saying that they focused more on upgrading the coin before they've done anything to cater to the majority of people out there. So I will not say this was the easiest thing I've ever done. I'd say it was actually quite difficult but as I've said multiple times above, I like money and am willing to try something new. I'm sure as Loopring continues to improve, the user interface on their exchange sites will only improve.

Thanks for reading, following and tipping. I hope you enjoyed :)

If you liked this post you may like my previous one on The Evolution of a Publish0x User.