Arionum series #2: LET'S TRADE ARO! - The How-to

Things are looking great for the Arionum platform; seeing continued growth in the official Arionum mining pool (http://aropool.com), everyday new members are joining the Arionum discussion on Discord, and best of all the #trading channel is flowing with buy and sell orders.

If you haven't had a chance to read my first post in the Arionum series, feel free to check out my post below highlighting some of the great aspects of this project.

https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@clshipp91/arionum-the-new-php-based-cpu-minable-cryptocurrency

If you like what you've heard about Arionum and the places it's going, let's take a look at how you can get in on the trading action!

Market Cap Oh Market Cap

Before we get into the trading details, let's take a look at the state of Arionum today. Arionum is a Proof of Work (PoW) coin, meaning, miners are rewarded a set number of ARO coins each time a new block is found. In Arionum’s case that number is 1000 ARO with that number decreasing by 10% every 10800 blocks. As of writing this post the current Arionum block height is 16212. If we do some quick math that means there are just north of 16 million ARO coins currently in circulation.

For now, Arionum trades mostly in Litecoin and occasionally in Bitcoin or Etherum. So to find the current Market cap we can take a look at the historical traded prices using a neat pricing tool set up by the developers (https://arionum.info/prices). The current price recorded for 2/20/18 is 10k ARO to 2.8 LTC. Currently Litecoin is trading for $236 USD. Doing some quick division, we can see that 1 ARO is worth ~$0.066 USD. With the per ARO price in USD we come up with roughly a $1 million Market cap (if my math is right).

To put this into perspective, that market cap puts Arionum at about number 770 on https://coinmarketcap.com. For a coin the has only been around for about 2 months and has yet to make it to an exchange, that number is pretty impressive. I will put a few caveats on this number, just for complete transparency. This only takes into account trades that were executed through the official Arionum escrow tool, (I'll explain more about that later) and there is no doubt that this number is slightly inflated due to the recent Litecoin run.

With all of that said, let's talk through what you need to do to get trading!

1. Set up an Arionum wallet

The first thing you need to do is set up an Arionum wallet. Lucky for you, it's incredibly easy to get one installed.

The easiest way to install the wallet is to head over to https://www.arionum.com and scroll down to the button that says “Download the Windows Wallet”. Once it downloads, you can run the .exe file to install the Arionum Wallet client. You may get a pop up or two from Windows or your Antivirus software warning you not to install, this is only because the software is not widely used and Windows doesn't have record of it. However, if you're still uneasy to click through the warning messages, all of the source code for the wallet client is posted to GitHub for you to look through and compile yourself if so desired (https://github.com/arionum/lightWalletGUI).

Once you have successfully installed the client, follow the on screen steps to create a new wallet on startup. I highly recommend encrypting the wallet for added security. When you open your wallet, you'll see your ARO address listed above the transactions list. You'll need to make note of this to make a trade.

2. Join the Discord group and do your homework

The next step is to get on Discord and do your research. Arionum is not traded on any exchange so to make a trade you need to connect with someone who has ARO and is willing to sell. The best place to find good sellers is the official Arionum Discord group.

To join the Discord group, go to https://www.arionum.com and click on the Discord link in the top right corner. Create a username and go to the #trading channel. Here you will find everyone posting their buy and sell orders.

Brief rundown, WTB = Want to Buy and WTS = Want to Sell. These will be the people you will want to message to trade. Now, before you go in posting buy orders and responding to sell orders, do some homework to be sure you trade smart.

Head over to https://arionum.info/prices and take a look at the current prices for ARO. This list is a running total of trades made through the official Arionum escrow. This should give you a good idea of the market price of ARO.

3. Let's make a trade

Now that you have an idea of the current market price, it's time to trade some ARO for LTC/BTC/ETH.

If you don't have any LTC/BTC/ETH I recommend using Coinbase, there are somewhat high fees but, it is pretty easy to use.

To make your first trade, message someone in the #trading channel willing to sell or post your own buy order for the price you think is fair. Once you agree on the amount and price, it's time to set up the escrow. The escrow is an official Arionum tool used facilitate safe trades.

Either you or the seller will initiate an escrow at https://escrow.arionum.com. Just fill out the form with the info requested, email, ARO address, LTC address, etc. The “Value in ARO” and “Value in Exchange Currency” fields are where you will enter the amount of ARO and LTC to be traded. Be sure all of the info is correct, otherwise you run the chance of losing your money.

Once you or the seller submits the escrow, you and the seller will get emails walking you through the steps to submit the trade through the escrow account. Most of the work happens on the seller side but, there are a few important steps you as the buyer need to be sure to do.

The first is to be sure not to send the LTC/BTC/ETH until the ARO is confirmed in escrow. Once the ARO are in escrow the seller can not take them out and can only be sent to you. You can check the balance by clicking the link in the email from the escrow service.

Once you see the correct confirmed amount you will need to send the LTC to the address provided by the seller. Then upload the transaction ID associated with your trade to the link provided in the email from the escrow service. If you're using Coinbase you can find the transaction ID by clicking on the transaction in the recent activity section of the Coinbase website, then click “View Transaction”. The transaction ID will be listed at the top of the page.

Once the seller confirms they received their LTC they will release the escrow and you'll be the proud owner of ARO!

That's it, hopefully not too difficult. If you have any problems with the escrow service just send @Arodev a message in the Discord group and they will quickly help you resolve any issues. Happy trading!

If you've liked my post and want to hear more, feel free to upvote, comment, and follow me at @clshipp91.