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How to Buy ADA in Singapore (Independent Reserve)

First Fully Licensed Exchange in Singapore

On 1st October 2021, Independent Reserve became the first fully licensed exchange to operate as a regulated provider of Digital Payment Token Services in Singapore.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) approved the license under the Payment Services Act.

Trading Pairs:

Independent Reserve currently operates SGD trading pairs with 10 cryptocurrencies. Besides our favorite ADA, one can also trade BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH, DOT, ETC, LINK, LTC and USDC.

However, please note that no cross-crypto trading pair is available (e.g. ADA/BTC, ADA/ETH etc.)

In addition, this platform is currently desktop-based only. There is no mobile app version, which makes it difficult to trade on the move.

Referral Code:

KOPI stands to earn 50% of all brokerage fees paid by referred customers for the first 90 days.

Enter RGTAUW referral code at signup
Or use this link

Sign up and Verification

As expected for regulated exchanges, KYC (Know Your Customers) is inevitable during the sign up process.

You will need to provide:

Front and Back photos of Identification Card (NRIC etc.)
Selfie photo with Identification Card, and a piece of paper stating “Independent Reserve” and date
Latest Utility Statement

It should take no more than 48h for them to verify your account.

Also, it is good practice to enable 2FA and Whitelistings for security purposes.

Deposit SGD

Before you start trading, you need to deposit SGD into your Independent Reserve account.

If you have previously verified your personal bank accounts in Xfers, chances are your SGD bank accounts will already be displayed in the top right corner under “accounts”.

If not, you will need to manually add your bank accounts here.

Once your bank accounts are added, you can perform a SGD FAST transfer from your bank account to Independent Reserve.

Note that there is a deposit limit of SGD20,000.00 during a 24h period. In addition, there is a SGD deposit fee of 0.55%.

Once your transfer is complete, you should see your SGD funds displayed on this page.

Buy/Sell and Trade ADA

There are two ways to buy ADA on this platform:

First Method: Buy/Sell ADA

Under the tab “buy/sell”, you can perform simple buy and sell actions using either “Buy in SGD” or “Buy in ADA”.

This is recommended for beginners looking for the easiest way to buy or sell ADA at the indicated live price.

Second Method: Trade ADA

Under the tab “trade”, you can perform both market and limit/stop trades.

This is recommended for experienced traders, as limit/stop orders allow more control over price points.

Note that there is a 0.5% Brokerage Fees and Taxes on your trades. This fee percentage varies from 0.5% to 0.02% according to the Trade Volume Discount:

Withdraw ADA to Daedalus/Yoroi for Staking

Before you can withdraw your ADA to Daedalus/Yoroi for staking, you need to verify your Cardano address in Independent Reserve under tab “accounts” (below Bank Accounts).

To verify your Cardano address, you need to send a specific amount of ADA to your ADA wallet address in Independent Reserve from your own Cardano wallet address (the one you are verifying).

You can find your own Cardano wallet address from the “Receive” tab of both your Daedalus and Yoroi wallets.

Note that there is an ADA withdrawal fee of 0.5 ADA.

After withdrawing your ADA from Independent Reserve to Daedalus/Yoroi, you may want to delegate your ADA to KOPI.

Verification Issues

Receiving address differs from Sending address:

Cardano uses randomly generated sending addresses due to security/privacy control.

Hence, the receiving address that requires verification will be different from the one used to send across the specified amount.

Please write in to Independent Reserve on this issue and they will ask you to send across screenshots for verification instead.
Receiving address is empty:

If your wallet is empty, you won’t be able to send across the specified amount for verification.

In this case, also write in to Independent Reserve. Screenshot that proves you are the owner of that wallet address should suffice for verification.

Withdraw SGD to Bank Account

After you sell your ADA, you may want to withdraw your SGD back into your bank account.

Note that there is withdrawal limit of SGD20,000.00 during a 24h period. In addition, there is a SGD withdrawal fee of 0.55%.

Cardano Africa Special

"Cardano is not a cryptocurrency project. Cardano is a world operating system."
- Charles Hoskinson

Mambo Jambo!

The bird has finally landed, and the Cardano Africa Special certainly did not disappoint (even though it was past midnight in SG when the video started)

TDLR, here are some of the highlights of the 2.5h long video:

Deal with MoE of Ethiopia, onboarding 5m students onto the Cardano blockchain using digital IDs, with 30m in the pipeline.
Partnership with World Mobile to connect the unconnected at 50% price, 2x speed.
COTI launched ADA Pay on Cardano mainnet, with first merchant being the charitable organization. Save The Children.
Synergy between IOG and SingularityNET‘s iCog Lab team in Ethiopia.
Potentially, 5 new African countries by 2021, 20 countries by 2022.
100m loanbook after Alonzo HFC, doing #RealFi (probably Aug 2021)

I applaud IOG, Cardano Foundation and Emurgo for taking the road less traveled. The Africa Special is an important milestone worth celebrating, because building solutions from the ground up at where the demand is highest, and bringing real life use cases of blockchain technology that improves the lives of millions of people, is a truly noble cause.

Be inspired, watch the video here:

Special mention of Singapore too @2:18:30!

When Does Cardano Realize its Potential?

Or "When you know Cardano has made it"

“What really tells you that Cardano has done something unique, magical and special?”

Charles has made it his life mission to create an open source, decentralized version of Kiva running on the Cardano blockchain.

To accomplish this, a lot of tech has to happen, and be done right:

Identity system (Reputation & Social Structures)
Metadata system
Payment system
Works in locations with intermittent internet
Stable Coins

If these infrastructures come together, meaningful techs like oracles and DEXes will be here, and economies will run on the Cardano blockchain, thereby attracting the treasury management functions of corporations.

Accountability in Voltaire Funding

Who Pays, Who Decides

Project Catalyst is based upon the question of “Who Pays, Who Decides”.

Its main challenge is the fact that the blockchain (Cardano) lacks agency. It is not a real thinking person, and has no ability to judge good RO”I”, or Return on Intention, on the grants it gives out.

After the submission and discussion phases on Ideascale, we go into the phase of Final Ballot, before voting takes place. There are two “who” questions here:

Who gets the money?
Who holds them accountable?

On the accountability portion, a separate entity/person (such as PWC or equivalent) can come in on a ballot-by-ballot basis to provide the oversight function. They would ensure regular reports are produced, audit the code, and verify the claims made by the fundee.

Essentially, they act as a stand-in for the fact that Cardano lacks agency, and act as the eyes and ears of the community.

For smaller projects where the funding outcomes are clear to the community, such as a podcast, it is not necessary for this entity to step in. But for larger projects, it is essential to have this counter-party mechanism to hold the person receiving funding accountable.

Structures of Accountability

After the ballots have been approved, the business and social structures that are required to maximize project successes involve different contractual relationships among custodians, auditors and clients.

And to address project failures, there will be feedback loops to both the Structures of Accountability and the initial ideation phase in Ideascale, to remove ballots with historical high failure rates.

These feedback loops will form part of the learning phase to fine-tune project suitability. As a result, Project Catalyst evolves and improves in execution, and funding can increase gradually as the process stabilizes.

Over the coming years, with inputs from a dedicated group of academics, entrepreneurs and consultants, Cardano will have a best-in-class innovation management platform built right into the global system.

Charles’ Goalpost

Basho, Cardano's Mission and The Meaning of Success

Charles began by talking about scalability.

There is a mention of Basho, which is the Shelley/Goguen/Voltaire-eras equivalent of performance scaling, or Hydra which people are probably more familiar with.

SPOs are very natural parties to put Hydra channels on. And every time a new SPO joins the network, its performance will increase.

When the Cardano eco-system becomes more valuable over time, k will increase to attract more SPOs, thereby creating more Hydra channels and better performance without sophisticated tools like sharding.

In a nutshell:

Growth -> Appreciation -> More Decentralization -> More Performance

Next, Charles discussed the four dimensions of a successful cryptocurrency, namely:

Security and Correctness
Ease of Maintenance and Deployment
Performance
Operating Costs

In the final third of the video, Charles revisited the mission of Cardano, which is ultimately to provide economic identities to a billion users around the world, and to bank the unbanked.

According to Charles, success for Cardano is not about being the king of the crypto hill, or to have a larger market cap than Bitcoin. Charles’ meaning of success is to provide the platform for those who don’t have an economic identity to get it, keep it, and of which no one can take it from them; that they can enjoy growth in their standards of living, by having wealth and prosperity.

This is Charles’ goalpost.

Cardano Updates

Goguen to the Fore in September

August is almost over, and it has been a busy month for Cardano.

We have had the release of Shelley, an upgrade to node version 1.19.0 which brings significant performance improvement, and hours earlier, an update to Daedalus mainnet wallet 2.2.0 (which is based upon node version 1.19.0).

For September, IOG (and Charles himself) is concentrating on Goguen. We can expect these features to crystallise:

Native Asset (move from Single Asset Ledger (SAL) to Multi Asset Ledger (MAL)
Plutus Foundation
Plutus Application Framework

(1) and (2) might be scheduled for a bundled release as a Hard Fork Combinator (HFC) event, while (3) should just require a node version update.

More information on the Goguen rollout schedule will be discussed during the September month end product update by Tim and Aparna.

IOG is also looking into a collection of apps that can run as DeFi foundations, such as stablecoins, oracles and DEXs.

On Daedalus, these are the upcoming product features/improvements:

Multisig
Hardware wallet center
1 to many delegation (partial delegation)
Delegation portfolios
U2FA (Universal 2FA) and Yubikey
QR code generator center
Shielded paper wallet

Running in parallel, we can look forward to a voting center (first iteration on a cell phone app, then on Daedalus) for Voltaire. DC Fund submission is starting 7 Sep and Fund 1 (focus group side) has already begun.

September will also see a scale up of Marketing efforts for IOG. Cardano Foundation has already partnered with McCann to revamp their website, and we will see a similar ramp-up of marketing strategies on the IOG side.

One final key takeaway from this whiteboard video is this:

Correctness and Security before Performance Optimization

IOG is now working hard to pay off the technical debts by improving the performance of the Shelley network and Daedalus back end.

KOPI identifies with this mission of first doing the right things, then doing things right.

The Shelley Hybrid Era

On d and alpha

The d parameter represents the proportion of blocks made by stake pool operators (SPOs), not by the OBFT protocol.

When d=1, the network is in a static and federated mode, where the OBFT pools are making all the blocks for no profit or reward.

When d=0, the network is fully decentralized, where the stake pool operators are making all the blocks with rewards.

(1) Moving from d=1 to d=0.5

Majority of the blocks are made by OBFT, minority by Praos
Increase in SPO participation
Increase in active stakes up to ~60%
P2P governor to be turned on

(2) Bookend at d=0.5

Goguen Hardfork Combinator (HFC) event planned when d=0.5 (Native Assets, Plutus Foundation, etc)

(3) Moving from d=0.5 to d=0

Majority of blocks are made by Praos, minority by OBFT
Disaster recovery in place

(4) Bookend at d=0

Voltaire HFC event planned
Replace current update system with dupdate (decentralized update)

Alpha Parameter

Alpha (constant decay) parameter will be explained in more details on 14 August.

Every epoch, d is decremented, at minimum, by alpha. Hence, knowing alpha will give you the maximum time it takes to get to d=0.

Where alpha=0.025, it will take 200 days for d to decrement to 0. Again, decrements of 0.025 is a minimum, and the actual decrement depends largely on network health.

Hence, 200 days to d=0 is the maximum expectation, and it can be accelerated with strong network health.

Postponement of first d decrement

The first decrement of d has been postponed by one epoch to 13 August.

This is due to two issues:

Daedalus bug where 1/3 of stake pools were not showing up on dashboard (resolved)
Some exchanges experiencing difficulties in transitioning to Shelley due to their particular infrastructures (ongoing)

KOPI Thoughts

The Cardano project continues to be transparent and Charles’ communication to his followers is exemplary as usual.

Whiteboard videos by Charles are wonderfully informative, but as pointed out by others previously, I wish that there is an official single point of communication to all ADA holders. This postponement has real-life monetary consequences, so while SPOs and community members can help to spread the word, official announcements on cardano.org or similar will inspire much more confidence.

Cardano has no CEO. With decentralization, the official channel of Cardano gospels needs to shift away from Charles. ADA holders should not need to sift through Twitter, YouTube, Telegram and reddit just to find the information they need.

The postponement of SPO block-making is a little disappointing, since KOPI’s system has been purring along smoothly and raring to go. But we stand by our principle of fairness and community, and re-iterate that the well-being of the Cardano eco-system remains top priority.

How to stake your ADA: Daedalus

Daedalus Wallet Setup

For your Daedalus Wallet setup, we recommend that you watch the official IOG video seen above.

An outline of the steps shown in the video are as follow:

(1) Download and Install Daedalus wallet

It is important to only download Daedalus from the official IOG Daedalus website.

For FAQ on installation and other matters, you can visit the IOG helpdesk.

(2) Start and Sync Daedalus

The blockchain will start to verify and sync the entire blockchain. Depending on the specifications of your machine, the sync will take a few minutes or more.

Concurrently, you can select either:

Create a new wallet, or
Restore an existing Daedalus, Yoroi or Paper wallet

If this is the first time you are using Daedalus, please create a new wallet.

If you have a legacy Byron wallet, you will need to first restore the Byron wallet, and then create a new Shelley wallet to transfer all your funds over. This is because staking to earn ADA rewards can only be done using a Shelley wallet.

(3) Create a Shelley wallet

Remember to keep your 24 seed words safe. You should never divulge your seed words on social media or potential phishing sites.

(4) Transfer your funds from Byron to Shelley wallet

Note that small fee of ~0.19 ADA will be deducted for this transfer as a transaction fee.

Now you are ready to delegate to your favorite stake pool.

Delegate to KOPI

(1) Select “Stake pools”

Go to second icon on the leftmost panel, and then select “Stake pools” tab on top.

You will see all stake pools that are available for delegation on the dashboard.

(2) Search for KOPI

Go to “Search stake pools” and type in “KOPI”.

Click on KOPI to see our stake pool details.

For optimal rewards, always select a pool with low “Cost per epoch” (fixed fee), low “Pool margin” (variable fee), and high “Pledge.

Note that in the first few epochs, the rankings will be randomised. The rankings will only reflect performance (relative to costs and pledge) after pools make blocks for a few epochs.

(3) Delegate to KOPI

Select “Delegate to this pool” for KOPI.

Choose your Shelley wallet and confirm your delegation to KOPI.

Note that your first delegation deducts a 2 ADA deposit for staking rights, while all delegations require a transaction fee of ~0.18 ADA.

It is also important to know that delegations will only take effect 2 epochs after current epoch.

For example:

Epoch 0: You delegate
Start of Epoch 1: Snapshot taken
Epoch 2: Delegation takes effect and Pool makes Blocks
Epoch 3: Rewards are calculated
Start of Epoch 4: Rewards are delivered

Please refer to the official Delegation Cycle flowchart below
***Note that the starting Epoch for block-making and rewards calculation/delivery has been postponed for one epoch. Now the first date of block-making will be 13 Aug, rewards calculation will be made on 18 Aug, and the first rewards delivery will be 23 Aug.

Shelley Hardfork Day

Short recap of HF day: An SPO's perspective

It’s 5am in Singapore.

Bleary-eyed from just 2 hours of fitful sleep, I trudged to my laptop and tuned into The Cardano Effect’s live show.

Yes, it’s Shelley Hardfork day.

It was good hearing from Charles, and even better to match faces to some of the most diligent and generous stake pool operators from Telegram and Twitter.

Then the countdown came and went. Nothing. The system didn’t blow up. There was an overwhelming sense of emptiness to it. And that is precisely what made the hardfork combinator such an admirable feat of engineering.

Cardano has done it.

Now the mad race to get registered is on!

Earlier I had updated the Cardano build and synced up the databases for KOPI nodes. It took quite a while, roughly 1.5-2h per node. The initial database bootstrap was perhaps the only time raw CPU power came into play for staking. I had also downloaded Daedalus 2.0.0, synced up the chain, and restored my Byron wallet beforehand.

KOPI was primed to go the moment Shelley went live.

From the get go I created a new Shelley wallet, and swiftly transferred over my Byron funds. Then I steeled myself for the ultimate heart-stopping process, the transfer of pool pledge to the CLI wallet.

Why heart-stopping? This is because pledging is not available from Daedalus, Yoroi or any hardware wallets. It can only be performed through a CLI wallet, which is not a HD wallet with seed mnemonics. Just imagine transferring a big pledge to a random string of letters!

(*Tip: Do a trial transfer with a small amount of ADA first, before committing your full pledge)

As a security precaution, the creation of wallet and pool keys were performed offline and subsequently encrypted and stored in dedicated thumbdrives.

The final act of the morning was to submit the pool registration. To be honest, my fingers were shaking a little when pressing enter to submit. This is the culmination of 2 months of practice runs from testnet v1.13.0 to mainnet v1.18.0. Not to mention the many more hours spent reading and learning about everything Cardano.

My relief was palpable when the pool registration went through without a hitch. And switching to Daedalus, it was gratifying to see KOPI registered as the #46 pool in Cardano’s history.

My mantra for the day was “Proceed slowly and deliberately, with extreme caution”. This really kept me in good stead.

Sweaty palms, wobbly fingers and dazed eyes notwithstanding.

Shelley Hardfork Initiated

We are go for the 29th

“We are Cardano. And if you would permit us, we would like to change the world.” – Charles Hoskinson, 24 July 2020.

After going through a pretty long checklist in the final go/no-go meeting with the core team, Charles has made the announcement everyone has been waiting to hear:

“Rocket is on the pad. We are go for the 29th.”

So, barring any weekend testing catastrophe, the long-awaited Shelley hardfork will happen around 2145 UTC on 29 July 2020. A final abort can happen sometime on Monday latest, but this looks incredibly improbable.

Thank you to Charles and the IOHK team for your dedication and hard work. My appreciation also goes out to the Cardano Foundation and Emurgo, and the wonderful Cardano community members and developers who have contributed to the project in one form or another.

The best is yet to be!