Steemit Crypto Academy Contest / S1W2 – Reviewing Centralized Exchanges by @Cherry-bliss

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Hello, steemians welcome to post today. In response to the ongoing steemit engagement challenge week 2, I will be reviewing a centralized exchange, but first, I will like to thank the steemit team for always bringing up ideas that keep sustaining its users.

There are so many centralized exchanges. Statistics from coinMarketcap have it that about 515 centralized exchanges are valid in the crypto space, and of course, this is a part of the list of decentralized exchanges. This is to tell you how mighty the crypto world is becoming, however, this post is emphasizing a review of a particular exchange called Huobi Pro, Let's take its review below.

Discuss briefly Centralized Exchanges and their Benefits to Crypto Users

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Crypto exchanges are very important factors in the crypto space, it is something that cryptocurrencies can not do without. Come to think of it, a factor that cryptocurrencies cannot do without, then it must be a very important factor in this space. And there are two different exchanges in this space, they are CEX and DEX. CEx is an acronym for centralized exchange while DEX is for decentralized exchange.

Centralized exchanges - this is essentially a marketplace for cryptocurrencies, a place where different transactions are been carried out, these transactions range from trading on a large scale, lending and borrowing of crypto assets, liquidity farming, staking, and other related transactions.

They have a mechanism of clearing trades in the markets by keeping digital order books which can be seen as a list of open buy and sell orders consisting of volumes of prices in the market. These are done in a format of matching up buyers and sellers and announcing the actual price based on the last price that an asset was sold for. In normal terms, CEX offers supplementary services like crypto-assets custody.

The centralized exchange also acts as an intermediary, a link between trusted buyers and sellers in order to reach an agreement of trade. Traders trust their funds to them(CEX) and funds are kept in a secured manner.

Benefits Of Centralised Exchanges To Crypto Users

As we have briefly discussed Centralized exchange, let us now talk about their benefits to the crypto world. These centralized exchanges are Binance - the largest crypto market in the space followed by Huobi Pro, Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, KuCoin, Probit, Hotbit, etc. Let's see what the aforementioned CEX has to offer this cryptocurrency world.

  • Ease Of Use - Centralized exchanges are always great because of their ease to use of the system, their platform is always user-friendly in such a way that any user including newbies can easily navigate to their different wallets.

  • Fiat Enabled Feature - This is another benefit of a centralized exchange. Users find it easy to exchange with fiat currency. In terms of funding accounts, fiat is very easy because the centralized exchange has a way of connecting you to your bank via your local debits and credit cards.

  • Crypto Licenced - This is the fear of many traders, a crypto legalized company is always the best, and centralized exchanges fit in because they fight to legalize their crypto company in that given country where they have their offices so as to maintain traders who are positive about the stability and reliability of the platform and also to avoid banning from country regulators.

  • Top Nutch Tools For Investing(a) - One can be wondering, what tools are best for them? Centralized exchange provides tools that help investors to make decisions, such tools are analytical tools and the most centralized crypto platform with the fundamental tools.

  • Top Nutch Tools For Investing(b) - Exchanges like Huobi pro provide news within the space and this can help users in terms of fundamental analysis. other tools are crypto chart tools that help in tracking the price of assets over time. With this users can make technical analysis and decides when to trade in the market.

  • Provision of Liquidity - Another benefit of a centralized exchange. A large number of funds are been located to CEX which is why most transactions are very fast and swift and make for the deposit and withdrawal feature to be easy. In short, liquidity in centralized exchange is synonymous with high-speed transactions.

What do You Look Out for When Choosing an Exchange to Trade Your Crypto Asset?

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When considering a centralized market place there are too many numbers of qualities I'd look for before venturing into any of them. I will explain them accordingly below.

  • Security - Security is my priority when it comes to qualities to check out while looking out for a centralized exchange. It is one shortcoming of many CEX, yes! The news carried it recently that hotbit suffered a serious cyber attack, and "A number of basic services are paralyzed and the attacker tried to access the exchange’s wallets. Consequently, the platform has shut down, stating that it needs to perform a “comprehensive inspection” which is expected to last one to two weeks"citation needed so with this regard, I always check out for exchanges that have strong insurance policy.

  • Ease Of Use - This is another quality I do check out when venturing into the centralized exchange. Ease of use has been an issue with so many users around the world, and as a result, has led to low usage of some CEX platforms. An example is poloniex, lol, yes poloniex is an exchange that I could not access, even though I was less knowledgeable about cryptocurrencies. The trading charts and other tools are not that friendly for most new users. So accessibility is very important when thinking of centralized exchange.

  • Liquidity & Transaction Fees - The third thing to check when considering or choosing a centralized exchange. I don't fail to check liquidity and transaction on any exchange. In the aspect of liquidity, It is very important because the higher the volume of trade, the higher the mind of holdings with them, lol. This means, that if there is high liquidity in a given market, I can decide to sell my holdings at any time. Talking about fees, I decided to settle for the Binance exchange because of its mechanism of holding their native coin(BNB) which will attract lesser transaction fees.

Review your Favorite centralized Exchange and Explain its Unique Features

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Let's now talk about my favorite exchange. If you have been reading this post from the beginning, you will notice where I made mentioned Binance as my top exchange. Here is why I have selected this top centralized exchange.

  • Binance Giftcard

Binance Giftcard is one amazing feature that was added recently. In this section users of the platform can just create gifts to send to their friends and families. It has popular unique giftcards like happy mothers day, cryptos NFTs, El-Mubarak, and hot cross-cross bosses.

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Screenshot from Binance Giftcard Section

Like I said earlier, you can send crypto via binance gift card, and the recipients will get it via a code that is attached to it by the sender, once the receiver redeems the card via the code, the crypto will be credited to the user's account. It is one of the fast ways of way receiving crypto from friends too.

  • Learn & Earn

Another amazing feature in this wonderful CEX. Do you know you can earn while learning? Amazing, right? Yes. Binance learn and earn feature allows you to earn while learning about cryptos.

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Screenshot from Binance Learn & Earn Section

There are too many lectures to take on this section, and as you are learning you are also given the chance to earn cryptos which is a very lucrative feature in the binance platform. You make binance your favorite you learn courses like welcome to crypto, beginners guide to binance trading, what is tezoz, and so on... In every course you learn, you will reward with a crypto asset. You can also learn about NFTs in this section.

Buy Crypto Feature


This is another feature that is great in my favorite exchange, although you can find this feature in almost all the centralized exchanges. With this feature, you can buy crypto directly with your:

  • Bank Deposit - Buying crypto directly from your bank with the use of a bank transfer, and is very swift and convenient for everyone (Newbie & Experienced Trader) International users can also withdraw and deposit using this feature with zero fees on every transaction.

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Screenshot from Binance Buy crypto Section

  • P2P Trading - Another lucrative place in the binance buy section is the p2p marketplace. This is just like our local marketplace where goods are been exchanged but here it is with the help of an intermediary which is Binance. You trade your top cryptos here with zero fees and are very convenient to use and access.

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Screenshot from Binance Buy crypto Section

As you can see from the screenshot, buyers and sellers are always ready to trade your assets with you locally and on your own terms in virtually any country. Other features in this section are buying crypto with your cards, and third-party payments like Paxos, Simplex, and Banxa.

Binance Finance


Binance finance is also another section of the platform. It has 3 sub-heading which I will explain below.

  • Binance Visa Card - This is a debit visa card rendered to users for easy spending of funds. Like it enables a user to convert the real-time cryptocurrency. Currently, users can spend cryptos like BUSD, USDT, BTC, LAZIO, PORTO, SANTOS, and BNB with their binance visa card.

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Screenshot from Binance Finance Section

  • Crypto Loans - As our local banks have provided a loans section, so has Binance prepared crypto loans for its users. With crypto loans on binance, you can borrow for spot, margin, and future trading or even to stake and earn high APY. Repayment is at any time, no transaction fee and interests are been calculate hourly.

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Screenshot from Binance Finance Section

Trade


The trade section is another feature that has lots of sub-features. It has options for various actions like spot trading an asset at the desired price, trading margins, leverage, and other features like holding fan tokens, and swap farming.

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Screenshot from Binance Trade Section

Is There Anything About Your Favorite Exchange You Will Like to be Changed? Discuss

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Um, actually I have got nothing to worry about in my favorite exchange, however, I still love to disclose some enhancement features that other users may like. Binance currently does not accept users from the United States. I have actually made brief research on the main reason they can't access it.

I'd love binance to add these states to balance its users all around the world. Apart from this which is not a problem for me, I will also love binance to enhance the verification section of its platform. I am a verified user already but I feel for users who are always complaining of difficulties in completing their verification.

Thes next is adding some crypto assets to their exchange platform, lol, this might not be an issue to some traders, but to me, it is an issue I really want them to list tokens like FegToken, and Rise token, I think this will skyrocket more to venture into their platform. Apart from these aforementioned issues, I think binance is a wonderful crypto trading exchange.

Shortcomings of Centralized Exchanges and How User's Funds Can be Protected Since They Don't Have Access to Their Wallets Privates Keys.

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Irrespective of the advantage of centralized exchange there are also some flaws that CEX are facing, I will be highlighting some of them below.

  • Higher Risk Of Hacking - As I have explained earlier in this post, some centralized exchanges do suffer some cyber-attacks and as a result may result in the loss of users' funds. I have the case of Hotbit here, it has suffered from cyber attackers. This is because of the way centralized exchange operates. They operate in a way that every participant's funds are locked up in their online vault which is what draws the attention of cyber fraudsters.

  • Can Be Strict When It Comes to Regulations - Regulatutions though is an important term when it comes to a centralized exchange. This is because they tend to work with the country's governing rules and regulations and as a result, they developed a system called KYC which is an abbreviation for know your customer. If you have been following this post you would notice where I said verification is what hinders most users from associating with them (CEXs)

  • Fewer Options Of Crypto Assets - Many centralized exchanges have fewer crypto assets and some investors end up trading with them for safety. Yes, they have just a small fraction of the total number of crypto assets in the cryptocurrency space, and this is a result of their reputation. The most exchange-like binance do go for some coin with so many zeroes, though this might not be a major fact, maybe because they don't want to get into some scam coins out there.

This has actually reduced the number of traders in their trading exchanges. And has made some traders alternate them for decentralized exchanges. Now, as a trader that has seen the shortcomings of a centralized exchange, you would want to take measures to secure your funds yourself especially when there is no active key.

Exchanges do give passwords to access your account's balance and make use of it, but you are not actually in control of your assets, what it means is that, if the exchange's company should experience any hack, your asset would definitely be compromised. In the case of a decentralized exchange, your wallet's key can be used to access your account even with another company's wallet.

This is my point - since centralized exchanges do not give us full access to our funds, with the password given to us, we can also enhance our registered accounts with the 2Fa Authentication code from google. An instance is a binance exchange, it allows you to add 3 layers of security to your account which is best to protect your account.

Conclusion

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In conclusion, I so much appreciate the lecture and indeed I really went deep again on this research. Note that binance as my favorite exchange has more quality than I have expatiated here in this post. In all, we have also understood that they(CEXs) act as a middleman that tends to secure the funds of their users in their custody.

The truth is that CEXs provide legitimacy to cryptocurrency trading, if there are no Centralized exchanges, I think it would be of risk to enter the crypto market. Summarization is that centralized exchanges despite the leakage in security still do their best to secure users' funds. This draws a conclusion to my article on this topic. Thanks for reading through to the end.

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Nice review my friend. Binance is indeed one of the best Centralized exchange. Yeah, I tried the learn and earn features, but guess what, I did not earn. Initially, it was showing a $0.5 tag but unfortunately after learning they retagged it reward already redeem.

Maybe I didn't take that very course on time. But that's the by the way. You have a very nice format of writing, keep it up my friend.

Hello @bright-obias, thank you for coming around, it is a pleasure, I think it is because you didn't take the course on time, you know there are lots of people waiting largely to learn earn, haha. sorry about that my friend, maybe you try again some other time. Thank you for stopping by...

Oh! Really? Let me check some other time. Thanks for the response.

Nice write-up. Binance is truly the best crypto exchange in the whole world, I can attest to that as a user of the platform. What I enjoy most is the simplicity of its platform. You gave a wonderful review my friend. Thanks for taking part in the contest.

Yes @negro-bby. Binance truly deserves the best. Thanks for stopping by.

That is a wonderful review from you! In norms CEX don't usually list crypto assets that cannot bring traders to their platform, I guess they do check the total circulating supply before they can accept to list an asset. Thanks for your review, you did well.

Do you think it is good for them not to list crypto assets like that? Well, I think they are trying to protect themselves from scam assets.. Thank you so much for stopping by.

 2 years ago 

Cuando binance saco en el 2020 su red bsc explotó el éxito aún más para binance y con el método p2p fue todo un éxito. Saludos buen post

Muchas gracias amigo por pasarte por aquí...

 2 years ago 

;)

Seriously? You mean one can collect loan from Binance? I didn't know this before now. I would like to connect with you so you can put me through with how to go about it. You have really given a great review of the binance platform. I hope you contact me with this +2348132576234. Please, I'm new in this crypto things, thank you and have a nice day.

Nice presentation @cherry-bliss. You have really ellaborated Centralized exchange and talking about binance it just the best of its kind. Thanks so much for your time in this. Such a nice presentation you made...

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