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The Tezos blockchain and its native XTZ token have seen increased attention lately due to a recent announcement by gaming powerhouse Ubisoft. In a landmark move, Ubisoft will become the first major games company to offer players in-game NFTs through its Quartz NFT marketplace running on Tezos.
- Get a Tezos wallet
- Get XTZ tokens
- Discover NFT Marketplaces on Tezos
- Swap tokens on Tezos
- How to use QuipuSwap
The token price of XTZ surged over 37% upon the announcement as interested investors identified another potential blockchain gaming unicorn in the making. Tezos can output around 200 transactions per second, while Ethereum supports 15 transactions per second, and Bitcoin only 4,6. Tezos’ Proof-of-Stake mechanism also requires significantly less energy and cost to operate, making it an ideal alternative platform for building eco-friendly blockchain applications.
To interact with a blockchain, everybody needs a wallet. A wallet serves as an online identity and lets users sign and confirm transactions. However, It’s important to know that Metamask, the wallet that supports the majority of blockchains, doesn’t work with the Tezos blockchain. Therefore you will need to install a separate wallet.
Additionally, if you already have an account with an exchange such as Binance, Bitfinex, Crypto.com, or COINBASE you can purchase XTZ directly there. To send that XTZ from the exchange to your newly created wallet the process will involve a fee and the wallet addresses of both your exchange account and blockchain wallet. Vitally, you need the XTZ in a blockchain wallet, and not on the exchange to interact with dapps, make NFT purchases, and more.
We have selected two wallet options
- Temple Wallet
- Kukai Wallet
Temple Wallet
The Temple wallet was previously known as Thanos. This is a browser plugin that supports multiple accounts and has easy options to import or export existing wallets. Temple also serves as a cryptocurrency wallet, storing NFTs and crypto tokens on the Tezos blockchain.
- Go to the official website
- Click install now, and select your browser
- You’re directed to the browser plugin store
- Click ‘install’ or ‘add to browser’
- Approve the browser plugin installation
- After installing, add a wallet to Temple
- Import an existing wallet, which is only possible if you have the seed phrase
- Create a new wallet (this is what we will do)
- Click ‘Create a new wallet’
- Pick a secure password to protect your wallet. Make sure you use a unique password.
- Accept Terms, and click ‘create’
- You now have a wallet on the Tezos blockchain! Also make sure you top it up with some XTZ tokens, which you can buy on a centralized exchange like Binance, Bitfinex, and HitBTC.
Kukai Wallet
For Tezos users who prefer a web wallet, Kukai is the best option. It supports Beacon, and can therefore easily connect with dapps. You can import wallets from hardware wallets, or import seed phrases from your browser extensions. However, when it comes to ease of access, Kukai’s support for DirectAuth stands out. So that’s where we will focus on here.
- Go to the official website
- Click ‘DirectAuth’ on the right-hand side of your screen
- Sign up for a wallet using your Google, Github, Twitter, or Facebook accounts.
- Click your account of choice, and then authorize the application
- Kukai will load, and also create a wallet
- Keep in mind, Kukai does not give you a private seed phrase. The only protection here is your social media login.
Get XTZ
With a wallet on your device, it’s time to add some XTZ tokens to it. As mentioned, you can do this by first purchasing them through a centralized exchange, like for example Binance, Coinbase, or Crypto.com. If you don’t have an account with one of these already you need to make one. There will be a Know Your Customer, or KYC process to go through, and you must provide your legal name, address, email, phone number, photo ID, and other requested documents in order to make an account.
Once you have an account and have purchased some XTZ you need to send it from the exchange to your newly created wallet to interact with dapps, make NFT purchases, and more.
- Copy your Kukai or Temple wallet address (it should be a string of characters right below your account name, like tz).
- Return to the centralized exchange homepage you chose or use. Find and click ‘Send / Receive. Here you enter the amount you want to send and paste the Kukai or Temple address we just copied into the ‘To’ recipient box. For the ‘Pay with’ field, you enter the amount of ‘Tezos’ (XTZ) you wish to transfer.
- Wait a few minutes and the XTZ will appear in your blockchain wallet. Now you’re ready to start interacting with dapps.
NFT Marketplaces
The leading NFT marketplace on Tezos is called Hic et Nunc. Meaning “here and now” the platform has quickly emerged as the leading crypto-art marketplace for experimental creators around the world. It has no invite system and no gatekeepers, only a constant flow of images, interactive objects, audio experiments, and other media.
Step 1: Now that you have added your Tezos to your crypto wallet. Head to https://www.hicetnunc.xyz and click Sync in the corner and your wallet will sync automatically with the platform. You are now officially ready to purchase an NFT.
Step 2: You can view the available NFTs on Hic et Nunc.
Step 3: Click ‘collect for X tez’, to approve the transaction from your wallet, and you’ve done it.
Congratulations on your very first purchase of an NFT on the Tezos blockchain.
Token Swaps
There are other tokens on the Tezos blockchain such as QUIPU. The native token of decentralized exchange platform QuipuSwap. Similar to the Ethereum platform UniSwap, which you may have interacted with, QuipuSwap facilitates the swapping of one Tezos based token to another. The platform also hosts many wrapped coins, which are other blockchain tokens, such as ETH, wrapped, so they can be used on Tezos.
If you already have Ethereum based ERC-20 or 721 tokens in METAMASK for example you can wrap and send them to your Tezos wallet using Wrap. A Tezos dapp, designed specifically for that task.
Swapping tokens and adding liquidity on QuipuSwap
Step 1: Head to https://quipuswap.com/swap
Step 2: Connect your wallet using the tab in the top right corner. You’re now ready to swap XTZ to another token and add liquidity.
Step 3. Visit the “Invest Tab”
Step 4. Click the “Add Liquidity” tab
Step 5. Select Tokens that you want to add to QuipuSwap in pair with XTZ. If you don’t have tokens, you may have to buy them.
Step 6. Choose the number of tokens that you want to invest in and click Add Liquidity.
Step 7. In case you don’t see your token in the dropdown list you may add the token contract address to the search field and find this token.
Step 8. Confirm this operation in your wallet and wait. Usually, you need to wait around one minute to get a confirmation.
You will see the Success status on the button.
Scratching the surface
Tezos is quickly becoming a preferred choice for dapp developers and seeing rapid growth in the network activity and token price, especially fueled by the surge in interest due to the recent NFT wave. Delivering on the idea of a completely independent blockchain that can develop and adapt on its own, Tezos is revolutionizing the way a blockchain can upgrade, evolve in a secure, autonomous, and decentralized way.
DappRadar currently tracks 46 individual dapps ranging through DeFi, NFTs, Games, and more on the Tezos blockchain. Once you have a Tezos compatible wallet you can really dive into the ecosystem and start exploring what’s on offer.
The above does not constitute investment advice. The information given here is purely for informational purposes only. Please exercise due diligence and do your research. The writer holds positions in ETH, BTC, ENS, FTM, IMX, FLOW, GRT, OMI, GALA, and CDC.
