Steemit Crypto Academy Contest / S1W2 – Reviewing Centralized Exchanges by @breeze.com

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Hello good people of steemit and this beautiful crypto community . I am super excited to take part in this beautiful contest which is reviewing centralised exchanges.

Discuss briefly Centralized exchanges and its Benefits to crypto users.

It is said that Centralised exchanges have come to change the game as far crypto transactions are concern. A centralised Exchange is a plat form through which crypto traders can buy, sell or swap crypto currencies. These exchanges could be in the form of Web or mobile applications. In recent times centralised exchanges have flooded the market and users have the opportunity to choose which ever they deem beneficial to them . Some good examples of centralised exchanges include Binance , Coinbase , Bittrex , Poloniex etc.As of the moment of writing these post there are more than 200 of these exchanges. I have used a couple of them and i will discuss about my favourite in this post .

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Centralised exchanges have many advantages to the crypto trader and i will talk about a few of them here .

• Easy to Use.
  Centralised exchanges are very simple and easy to use especially to beginners . You just need to sign in with a user name and password on the application and you are good to go.
• With centralised exchanges user do not need to border about keys .This makes users go through the platform with a lot of ease .
• Centralised exchanges have proven to offer a high level of guarantee to users when in comes to crypto transactions . This gives the user a level of security and assurance.
• Fiat payment. Users can easily buy and sell cryptos using fiat easily in Centralised exchanges

What do you look out for when choosing an exchange to trade your crypto assest?

When choosing a centralised exchanged they are certain parameters i look out for before investing. How ever i know one exchange cannot offer 100% satisfaction as far as customer's needs are concern , but I do look out for the following first;

• Fees

When carrying out a transaction such as a buying and selling i normally lookout for the transaction fees . Where it is cheapest i go for it.

• Security

Entrusting your money in the hands of a third party could be a major risk .And as we know crypto trading is not backed by any insurance policy. Once you lose your funds no body can be held liable. So i will normally look for an exchange that is well rated. And has proven to be trusted.

• User's guide

I will work easily with a decentralised exchange that drill users on how to go about transactions
Especially trading and other sensitive transactions. A user guide or learning tools is very important especially when users are still new in the platform .

• Availability of coins and pairs

A centralised platform that has listed numerous coins and pairs will be my ideal. This is because i will have the choice to trade whatever currency i choose to trade at my convenience.
At times you want to trade a particular coin and you will not find it in most exchanges . So i normal go for an exchange that has numerous coins and pairs .

• Availability of enough liquidity

Have you ever tried to carry out a transaction in a an exchange and they tell you there is no liquidity ??🤣🤣🤣🤣This could be funny right? Myself i thought this cannot happen but i will normally lookout for a decentralised platform that has enough liquidity.

• Reputation

Generally they say good things do not hide . If a platform is not reputable , you will hear less about it so i will normally make sure i find out out about the rating of any decentralised platform before working with it .

Review your favorite centralized exchange and explain its unique features

I have heard about many decentralised platforms but the one i am more versed with and i think is my favourite is Binance.
Binance is the most popular decentralised platform in the crypto market . I have have used Binance for some time now i have grown to love because of the following features .

• User friendly.

This platform is very user friendly and has a user tool that guides users on how to carry our operations and make sure users understand the risk they are getting into before using the future. For example you will not carry out feature trading without properly reading their terms and understanding the way to go about it .

• Low fees per each spot trading

To carry out spot trading in Binannce one pays very low transaction fees as compared to other exchanges .

• High level of security.

For my 3 years of using this platform i have never for once even hear of the platform being hacked. Thus my funds are always in tack. This gives me a high level of confidence .

• Supports hundreds of coins and pairs

Binance supports hundreds of coins and pairs and this give users flexibility to trade with coins and pairs of their choice .

Is there anything about your favorite exchange you will like to be changed? Discuss.

I think for now there is nothing much But i will like for Binance to change except for transfer fees Transferring USDT for example cost 1 USDT and I think it is much.

Also at times the application is associated with a lot of bugs.At times deposit to some particular cryptos like Steem is restricted and it takes time to fix. Well there is no application without bugs but i will prefer that these issues be adjusted within the shortest possible time.

What shortcomings do you see on centralized exchanges and how do you think user funds can be protected since we don’t have access to our wallet private keys?

This is a very important issue and not having access to the private key is even more disturbing.

Most of these exchanges to not have an customer service support . I would have preferred most centralised exchanges provide live customer support to their customers . This could go a long way to instill some confidence in the hearts of the customers.

Also, centralised exchanges are more prone to hacking as compared to decentralised exchanges. This issue can be fixed by constantly upgrading the system.

Conclusion

It was nice reviewing centralised exchanges which have been in existence since 2010 Centralised exchanges have proven themselves worthy and provided numerous services to crypto traders. However, most of these exchanges are prone to hacking so users are left with the choice to choose wisely .