How to buy BEAM (BEAM) in Australia

BEAM is a highly volatile asset capable of major price swings in a single day. Today BEAM is trading for $0.03143797 USD, which is higher than yesterday's trading price of $0.031155687 USD.

Before you buy BEAM, make sure you understand these unique risks as well as its legal and tax status here in Australia.

If you're ready to get started, read on for step-by-step instructions on how you can use to buy BEAM.

Where to buy BEAM in Australia

Find an exchange to buy, sell and trade BEAM by comparing deposit methods, supported fiat currencies and fees. Select Go to site to sign up directly with the exchange.

What is BEAM?

Beam is an anonymous privacy-oriented cryptocurrency based on the Mimblewimble protocol. Its transactions are private and anonymous by default.

Mimblewimble is a framework people can use to build privacy cryptocurrencies. It consists of several key elements, each of which grants a certain type of privacy. For example, one element hides transaction amounts and coin histories while another conceals wallet addresses. These individual elements were separately designed for Bitcoin originally, but Mimblewimble was the first to put them all together in a way that they could work together. The result wasn't compatible with Bitcoin though, which is why Beam was created from scratch.

Privacy is a highly desirable feature for digital currency in a quickly changing world. At the same time, a completely anonymous digital currency is unlikely to receive a warm welcome from regulators. Beam, with its opt-in disclosure modes, is an effort to solve this.

BEAM is the privacy coin native to the Beam protocol

How do I find the best places to buy BEAM?

Cryptocurrency exchanges offer similar services, but differ in a few key ways – mainly fees, the range of cryptos available and payment methods. You can use our table to compare the features of popular cryptocurrency exchanges available in Australia to help you choose the one that's right for you.

Some other factors you may want to consider are customer support, user reviews, ease of use and whether or not the exchange is registered with a local regulator. This information can be found by clicking on the exchange name in the table which will take you to its review page.

What will I need to buy BEAM?

To create an account on any cryptocurrency exchange you will need an email address. Some exchanges may also ask for a phone number and photo ID, so it's a good idea to have those ready.

An increasing number of cryptocurrency exchanges will ask to verify your identity before you can deposit funds and start trading BEAM.

• This process is known as Know Your Customer (KYC) and usually requires photo ID and a webcam or smartphone. You may also need to prove your address by uploading a copy of a recent bank statement or utility bill.
• Some exchanges allow you to deposit and trade cryptocurrencies without passing KYC, but they will not allow you to transfer local currency from your bank account. So if you are planning on purchasing BEAM with your local currency then you will need to pass KYC.
• Once you have verified your identity, it is a good idea to enable 2-factor authentication (2FA) before depositing any funds. This will increase the security of your account and help keep your funds safe.

What are the best ways to buy BEAM?

Once you've created an account, you will need to deposit funds to buy BEAM with. You can either deposit local currency from a bank account or credit card, or transfer cryptocurrency from another exchange or wallet. Here are some popular ways to buy BEAM:

• Bank account: Transfers from local bank accounts are usually free, but you will need to double-check this with the exchange you choose – this information can be found in our table by clicking on 'view details'.
• Credit or debit card: Linking a card to your account is another convenient way to top up your account, but be aware that it usually attracts an additional fee. An advantage, though, is that you can use a card to make instant purchases or set up a recurring purchase.
• Cryptocurrency: You can usually purchase BEAM by trading it for another cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or a stablecoin. This varies between exchanges though, so you will need to search for BEAM on the spot market to see what cryptocurrencies it can be traded for.

What is the easiest way to buy BEAM?

The easiest way to buy BEAM is by placing an 'instant buy' order to purchase it for a fixed price but not all crypto exchanges offer this feature.

Alternatively, you can open a trade on the spot market which allows you to set your own price – this is the most common way to purchase cryptocurrency. Using the instant buy feature is straightforward but typically more expensive than using the spot market.

Before buying BEAM, you may want to check the market conditions. To help you decide if now is the right time to buy, you can take a look at our all-time high tool to get an idea of how the price of BEAM has been performing recently.

Best BEAM wallets to store your BEAM

You can keep your BEAM on the exchange you purchased it on, or move it to a personal wallet:

• Some people like to use their own wallets to guarantee total ownership over their assets, or to use them with other applications like DeFi services.
• Hardware wallets are typically considered to be the safest type of cryptocurrency wallet, as they use a physical device to enhance security in a number of ways. You can take a look at some of our top hardware wallet picks for self-custody of your BEAM below.

Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement of cryptocurrency or any specific provider, service or offering. It is not a recommendation to trade.

Is BEAM a good investment?

As with any investment, it is vital you understand the risks and potential upside of the asset before making any financial decision. With regards to BEAM, here are a few things you should consider:

• ASIC centralisation: Bitcoin, and some other proof-of-work protocols, suffer from centralisation issues due to heavy-duty computer farms comprising the majority of miners. Beam cannot be realistically mined with GPUs, so ASIC miners dominate its Equihash algorithm. This leads to a smaller proportion of miners controlling the network.
• Equihash vulnerabilities: Beam currently has a hashrate of about 5.1MH/s. Because of this, it is currently highly vulnerable to a 51% attack. If it ever achieves sufficient liquidity without a commensurate increase in hashrate, it may become profitable enough for someone to attack it.
• Dandelion ++: BEAM has integrated a lightweight privacy layer Dandelion ++ to its network. The previous version, Dandelion, had a vulnerability where IP addresses could be compromised by nodes that recorded transactions. This would lead to public transactions on the blockchain, completely eroding the privacy Beam is trying to achieve.
• Competition: Beam is just one of many privacy coins available on the market. Monero, Verge and Dash are all examples of networks competing for a share of the market space.

Today's BEAM price versus ATH

Compare today's price of BEAM ($0.03143797 USD) against its all-time-high price of $4.28 USD on 05 January 2019. The closer the bar is to 100%, the closer BEAM is to reaching its ATH again.