Read our beginner’s guide to Centrality, CENNZ tokens and how to buy and store CENNZ.
A blockchain venture studio based in Auckland, New Zealand, Centrality is a blockchain ecosystem designed to support startups at each stage of their life cycle using dapps (decentralised applications).
CENNZ is Centrality’s native utility token and is used to connect Centrality marketplace applications and perform a wide range of other tasks. Following a hugely successful ICO in early 2018 that raised US$260 million, the project has attracted plenty of interest from New Zealand, Australia and further afield.
So if you’re thinking of buying any CENNZ tokens, read on to find out how.
Where to buy CENNZ in Australia
CENNZ tokens are currently only available from the Cryptopia digital currency exchange.
A step-by-step guide to buying CENNZ
If you want to buy CENNZ tokens, you can do so in three simple steps:
Step 1. Register with an exchange that lists CENNZ
At the time of writing (May 2018), New Zealand-based exchange, Cryptopia, is the only exchange where you can buy CENNZ. To sign up for an account, you’ll need to provide your email address and create a username and password. Make sure you also enable two-factor authentication on your account to provide increased security for your coins and tokens.
Step 2. Deposit funds into your account
If you have a New Zealand bank account, Cryptopia supports deposits in New Zealand dollars (NZD); however, this feature was temporarily suspended at the time of writing. Cryptopia also accepts cryptocurrency deposits, so you’ll need to transfer bitcoin (BTC) into your account (or purchase BTC through the Cryptopia platform) before you can buy any CENNZ.
If you’re keen to learn how to buy bitcoin in Australia, check out our comprehensive guide. You can also check out our guide on which cryptocurrency exchanges support payments in AUD.
Step 3. Buy CENNZ
Once your deposit has cleared, click the “Exchange” button at the top left of the menu bar. If you want to instantly buy CENNZ at the current market price, search for the CENNZ/BTC currency pair on the left side of the page and click on an existing order you wish to buy from the current list of sell orders.
If you want to place a limit order, after you’ve searched for the CENNZ/BTC currency pair, look for the “Buy CENNZ” box and enter the amount of tokens you want to buy and the price you want to pay per token.
Make sure you review the full details of your transaction before clicking on “Buy CENNZ” and finalising your purchase.
How to sell CENNZ
If you’re selling your CENNZ tokens, the process is essentially the same as that outlined in step 3 above. Just make sure to look for the “Sell CENNZ” link and review all the details of your transaction. Also, remember that you may not be able to directly exchange CENNZ tokens for the currency you want.
Which wallets can I use to hold CENNZ?
If you’re looking for a long-term storage solution, keeping your tokens in an exchange wallet exposes you to a number of security risks and is generally not recommended. Instead, you can provide greater security for your funds (and peace of mind for yourself) by moving your tokens into a secure wallet that lets you control your private keys.
As CENNZ is an ERC20 token on the Ethereum network, you’ll need to store your CENNZ in a wallet that supports these types of tokens. For example, you could opt for an online interface like MyEtherWallet or a hardware wallet like the Ledger Nano S.
How the Centrality platform and CENNZ tokens work
According to its website, Centrality is “a venture studio that partners with leading innovators in key industries to create a marketplace of applications. These applications allow consumers to manage everyday tasks and experiences using peer-to-peer transactions – all via one login and using blockchain-enabled infrastructure.”
In other words, it helps tech startups and other business put their products and ideas on the blockchain ecosystem. Centrality then becomes the central hub for all those dapps, which consumers can access using just the one login.
With staff in Auckland, London, Melbourne and Singapore, the Centrality platform offers the base for this marketplace of dapps. It also offers tools, services and applications that developers can use to create dapps. This design aims to give startups flexibility over their product, but at the same time ensure that there’s a standardised look and feel across all Centrality platform dapps.
Centrality’s white paper sums up how the project works:
- The platform. The Centrality platform creates the technical foundation for dapps. In return for offering the ecosystem a dapp needs to run, Centrality receives an allocation of tokens issued by any dapp it powers.
- Dapps. Dapps can be plugged into the Centrality platform and require CENNZ tokens for their creation.
- Smart contracts. Separate dapps can interact with each other to acquire users, data, merchants and content, with smart contracts ensuring trustless engagement.
Centrality’s token launch took place in early 2018 and reportedly raised US$265 million, well in excess of its US$100 million hard cap. A quick look at its marketplace reveals more than a dozen dapps.
What to consider if buying CENNZ
Cryptocurrencies are complex and speculative assets, and there are many factors that can influence the price of any given coin or token. With this in mind, you should always thoroughly research any project before deciding whether to make a purchase.
If you’re thinking of buying any CENNZ, make sure you consider the following factors:
- Supply. According to CoinMarketCap, at the time of writing (May 2018), the circulating supply of tokens was 687,568,002 CENNZ out of a total supply of 1.2 billion.
- Use. CENNZ is a utility token that can be used to connect dapps in the Centrality marketplace, connect users and access Centrality software. For example, a dapp creator can use the CENNZ token to purchase modules for their app or to reward their customers for participation.
- Limited availability. As Centrality tokens are currently only available on one exchange, this lack of accessibility could have an impact on demand for the tokens on the open market.
- White paper. If you want more information about how Centrality works, the problems it aims to solve and how the CENNZ token fits in, take a look at its detailed white paper.
- Centrality Ventures. Centrality also runs Centrality Ventures, a blockchain incubator programme designed to help startups scale within a blockchain ecosystem. As part of the programme, approved businesses receive initial funding totalling NZD$100,000 worth of ETH in exchange for 20% equity.
- Government grant. The Centrality white paper states that the project has received a non-refundable research grant from the New Zealand government of up to $15 million over three years.
- Partnerships. It’s also a good idea to consider the strategic partnerships and relationships a project has when determining its potential future growth. Centrality’s list of partnerships includes SingularDTV and Blockhaus AG.
By considering these and other factors, you’ll be able to make an informed decision about whether to buy CENNZ.
Image source: Shutterstock
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author holds IOTA and XLM.
