📚Mission 6

Learning to purchase MATIC.

We are evolving. In the previous mission, we understood the functioning and importance of the signature mechanism in the world of web3, as well as experiencing a real signature integrated with Metamask.

In today's mission we will learn how to purchase the official token of the Polygon network, MATIC, using the RampBR service.

To complete this mission, your MATIC balance must not be greater than or equal to 2 MATIC. If this value is not reached, the test will not be validated.

As we learned in previous missions, MATIC is the default token of the Polygon network, used for transactions on the blockchain and gas payments in non-native token transactions. Before making the purchase, let's understand how it can be done, introducing the concept of Exchanges (brokerage firms).

1. Centralized Exchanges (CEX)

Centralized exchanges - despite web3's decentralized purpose - are still heavily used in the crypto world. This mainly happens for the purchase of cryptocurrencies from fiat currency, which is the money we are used to using like dollars, euros, etc. At centralized exchanges you can also swap listed tokens. Each exchange has its own list of registered cryptocurrencies, however some newer cryptos cannot be purchased on centralized exchanges because they are not yet listed.

The main global centralized exchanges are: Binance, Coinbase and Crypto.com.

In addition to Exchanges, we have services such as RampBR, which allows the purchase of cryptocurrencies in a quick and practical way, through bank transfers (PIX), for example.

2. The MATIC token and transactions

It is extremely important to highlight some central aspects of MATIC transactions. Since the token has a financial value, it is necessary to declare it in the income tax as Goods and Rights.

If you make a sale where the profit exceeds BRL 35,000 in a month, you must pay capital gain tax.

We must also understand that after purchasing the MATIC token, we will be exposed to the currency's volatility, that is, its price fluctuations. Cryptocurrency prices are very volatile and vary much more than stocks in the traditional market.

In summary, it is important to know that the token is an asset, represents an investment and is therefore subject to taxes, gains and losses.

3. Analyzing the token

To understand a little more about MATIC, let's go to CoinGecko's website and analyze some of the token characteristics. If you want to follow along, click on the link above.

The home screen looks like this, a listing of coins ordered by the market capitalization of each asset. Market capitalization is the market value, that is, how much in dollars is bought in that currency. This value is the result of multiplying the unit price and the number of coins in circulation. As of the day this mission is being written, the Polygon network (where our MATIC token lives) is ranked #19 with a market capitalization of just over $10 billion.

Let's understand some of these highlighted values. First we have the token price in dollars, as of today. In the next three columns we have the percentage of price fluctuation in the last 1 hour, 24 hours and 7 days respectively. In the next column we have the 24h volume. The volume represents, in dollars, the amount of money that has been transacted on the network in the last 24 hours. Then we have the market capitalization, as introduced earlier. Finally, we have the price chart for the last 7 days, indicating the currency's price change.

Now, let's click on Polygon. Your screen should look like this:

We have a lot of information here. But let's talk more specifically about the highlighted part of the image above.

As a first item, we have the market capitalization associated with Polygon, which I explained above. Then we have the total dollar volume traded in 24 hours, also explained above. The greater the volume traded, the greater the liquidity of the currency, that is, the easier it will be for you to sell it if you want to get rid of it. You can see that, on the day I took the screenshot, more than 300 million dollars were traded. It's an expressive volume. Even if you buy U$ 1 million, for example, you will be able to sell immediately.

Now we have a new concept, the Fully Diluted Valuation (FDV). This value is the market capitalization (assessment) if the maximum supply of a coin is in circulation, which may take years to reach, depending on the issuance schedule.

Then we have the Total Value Locked (TVL), which is the capital deposited in Smart Contracts in the form of loan guarantee or liquidity trading. It is a value that is not in people's personal wallets, but in the addresses of Smart Contracts, which are systems that keep the currency for certain purposes. The entire DEFI (Decentralized Finance) market runs through Smart Contracts.

After that, we have the FDV/TVL ratio of this asset. A ratio greater than 1.0 refers to the fact that the FDV is superior to its TVL. Basically, we divide the FDV by the asset's TVL.

We also have a market capitalization ratio over the TVL of this asset. A ratio greater than 1.0 refers to the fact that the asset's market capitalization is greater than its TVL. This relationship is used to approximate a market value and the amount of accumulated/locked assets.

The circulating supply is the amount of coins that circulate on the market and are tradable by the public. It is comparable to checking stocks readily available on the market (not held and locked ones).

The total supply is the amount of coins that have already been created.

The maximum supply is the maximum number of encoded coins that will exist in the lifetime of the cryptocurrency. It is comparable to the maximum number of issuable shares on the stock market.

In Polygon's case, the total supply is equal to the maximum supply, which means that new coins will not be created.

As part of our exercise, we will use RampBR to buy MATIC, due to its practicality.

4. Buying MATIC

At the end of this mission it is important that you have at least 2 MATIC in your wallet balance.

This mission verifies the reward through your Matic balance. So, if you already have some MATIC (more than 2) in your account or know how to buy in another way, feel free to skip this part.

If you have never purchased cryptocurrencies, follow the steps below:

First, follow this link: https://rampbr.com/

Alternative applications and/or brokers to the site indicated above:

• Binance (https://www.binance.com) - Exchange

• Coinbase (https://www.coinbase.com) - Exchange

• Crypto.com (https://www.crypto.com) - Exchange

Your screen should look like this:

To get started, let's explain some screen elements. First, we have the transfer value (in BRL) that will be used to exchange our money for cryptocurrencies.

Click “Select Token” and choose Polygon’s MATIC token:

Then enter the amount (in BRL) that will be purchased. For this mission, the value is chosen by the user, as long as the purchase results in 2 MATIC or more. To demonstrate, we will use the value of R$30.00 (which on the day I wrote this tutorial, resulted in approximately 4.1 MATIC).

Note that the token value is constantly updated.

Click the “Comprar” (buy) button:

Here the site will ask for your email (to track the purchase), it will show the service cost (fees) of the transaction and the MATIC value in BRL.

Enter your email and click on “Prosseguir” (proceed).

After entering your email, the site will ask for a verification code, which has been sent to the email address you entered. Enter the code and click on “Prosseguir”.

This screen should appear for you:

Complete with the necessary information (which serves to prevent fraud and malicious transactions). Then click on “Continuar” (continue), and your screen should look like this:

On this screen, you are asked to connect your Metamask wallet, where you will receive the MATIC tokens.

Remember to be connected to the Polygon network with the same wallet you used to complete the other missions, otherwise the post verification will not be completed.

Solve the captcha, connect your wallet and your screen will look like this:

A transaction confirmation window will then appear. Click on “Confirm”.

After loading, the website will show a QR code for a PIX transfer of the selected value. Confirm the network and value:

After paying for the transfer, do not close the site. After a few moments, your screen should change to this one:

Once the payment has been received, the transaction for receiving your tokens will be processed and when it is completed, this screen will appear:

Congratulations!!! The tokens should now appear in your Metamask wallet! You have completed mission 6!

5. All ready! Now send your MATIC balance to Discord!

In this mission we learned several things, such as what centralized exchanges are, some general analysis of the MATIC token and how to purchase Polygon’s default currency!

To prove you've completed today's mission, send your MATIC balance on the MELK Experiment discord channel to win 10 MELK tokens! Your balance can be found by opening the Metamask extension.

To receive the reward, send ONLY the INTEGER NUMBER of your balance.

Ex: 4

If you purchased or received MATICs in any other way, send your MATIC balance on Discord at the time the mission is being carried out.

Any questions, feel free to send a message on the chat channel and ask your questions.

Congratulations! You now have a currency that has real value in your wallet, which is already a good step forward for someone starting out. From now on, your attention needs to increase, because if you lose your seed words or make an unwanted trade, you could lose real money.