[DEX, CEX, POPULAR EXCHANGES AND TRADING CRYPTOS] - Steemit Crypto Academy Season 4 - Homework Post for Task 7 by @ochang

Hello fellow Steemians and welcome to my home work task 7 on DEX, CEX, POPULAR EXCHANGES AND TRADING CRYPTOS.
Without wasting much of your time let's dive into the business of the day.

Explain in your own words what an Exchange is. Differences between a Wallet and an Exchange. Mention the advantages and disadvantages of DEX and CEX. Have you used an Exchange before? tell us about your experience.

An exchange is a website, service or application that someone can buy, sell, trade or convert digital currency. Digital currencies can also be converted into fiat currencies on an exchange. All exchanges have wallets which are mostly web-hosted on their site. For users to be able to access this wallet, they must create an account with the exchange and sign in.

An exchange create an atmosphere where it is easy for users to access all crypto account information such as Balances which makes it easy to trade and also buy/sell Cryptos. Examples of exchange includes; Waves.Exchange, Binance Exchange, Huobi, Global, Kraken, Uniswap, Coinbase, Roqqu etc .

S/N	WALLET	EXCHANGE
1	The sole purpose of a wallet is for storing/holding of Cryptocurrencies	While an exchange also helps store Crypto, it also has other functions such as buying/selling of Cryptocurrencies, trading etc
2	Once a user lose access to his/her wallet, he/she can login with private/public keys.	Once a person lose access to the exchange, he/she would lose access to his/her Crypto assets.
3	There offline and online wallets which means without internet, a user can still access his/her wallet offline	There is no offline exchange which means without internet, exchange can not be accessed
4	A wallet user has full control over his crypto stored in a wallet	An exchange user has limited access to his/her Crypto stored in the exchange
5	A wallet is more secured compared to an exchange	An exchange can easily be hacked or tempered with by hackers making it less secured

Advantages and Disadvantages of Decentralized Exchange (DEX) And Centralized Exchange (CEX)

This is a type of Exchange that is not controlled by any central authority in the sense that users are allowed to act on their own without the control of a single authority or any organization/company.

It is Peer-to-Peer market which allows buyers deal with sellers directly through a smart contract without influence from a central authority or third party. It is very secured and most unlikely to be hacked, also users are not asked for personal information such as location, Bank Details, photograph or ID documents for KYC verification. Example of DEX include; Kyber, Uniswap etc

This is the direct opposite of DEX because it is owned an run by a company and this company serve as the central authority that controls all the activities even that if the users. in CEX, users don't have total control over their Crypto because the Exchange owners have access to the keys which makes CEX to be insecure.

CEX is very common and used by most traders because it's interface is user friendly and easy to navigate (reason why it is less difficult to hack). Kyc verification is also required in CEX and records of transactions are saved in one server. Example of CEX include; Roqqu, Binance, Coinbase, Waves.Exchange etc.

• Users details is not in a public domain which means that DEX offers privacy to it's users

• DEX is highly secured and it can not be easily hacked since it runs on a Blockchain technology.

• It can not be regulated by government or any central body since the users are in control.

• A third party is not required in DEX transactions and it maintains user's anonymity.

• Public and private keys are within the user's possession and this gives the users full access over assets.

• DEX platforms are most times not user friendly and very difficult to operate.

• Since KYC is not required, fake accounts for fraudulent practice is much.

• Finding traders in DEX is hard because trading volume is low in DEX.

• From this low trading volume, liquidity in DEX is also low.

• Transfer of assets like Crypto to a wrong Account cannot be reversed in DEX.

• CEX trading volume is high, which results to a high liquidity in Crypto market.

• CEX interface is user friendly and easy to navigate.

• CEX gives a user different types of Crypto to trade so users can choose from list of Crypto currencies available.

• CEX has a high transaction speed for it's users. Which helps traders initiate and complete trading very fast.

• CEX has more popularity in the Crypto world. It is easier for me (a new trader) to list different CEX than DEX.

• Owners of CEX can decide to manipulate the price of assets or even the trading volume of the assets displayed in the platform.

• Since the CEX has only one server, and all the keys of the users are stored there, it is easier for CEX to be a target for hackers.

• Privacy is reduced since the exchange have full control over the assets and also personal details of the users.

• A breakdown in it single server can cause system failure on the whole platform.

• KYC (Know Your Customer) is a must before becoming a CEX user.

Have you used an Exchange before? Tell us your Experience?

Well yes I have used an exchange before and the name is Waves.Exchange to trade BTC to USDT but this exchange (waves) can be used to buy/sell or store Crypto.

First I had to launch the app
Second step: I clicked on trade and and searched for BTC/USDT pairing

Thirdly, I inputted the amount of BTC I wanted to convert (0.00000018) and how many USDT I will get (0.007995) and I clicked on sell BTC
If I wanted to convert USDT to BTC I would have clicked on buy BTC.

Forth Step was to wait till the trade was achieved which was done in less than one hour.

In the course of this lecture, I have have seen that both Wallets and Exchange are very important in the Crypto world as without this, there will be no where to save or trade our Crypto. In doing the assignment I learnt the difference between CEX and DEX as I had earlier taken both exchanges to be the same thing.