Lisk is one of the most thought-provoking cryptocurrencies out there – a virtual coin that makes the thinking investor sit back at their chair, scratch their skin, and go “hmmm”.
This is because Lisk’s potential is enormous, their team of developers is excellent, and their disruption potential is off the charts. But will Lisk make good on its promise?
Like so many new cryptos out there, Lisk is a smart contract/dapp blockchain meant to launch killer apps and change the internet as we know it forever.
Of all of the projects trying to accomplish these goals (and dethrone Ethereum), Lisk is one of the most productive and promising. We’ll cover all the reasons to buy Lisk coin below.
How to Buy Lisk Coin
Lisk coin is available at nearly all of the major exchanges (and a bunch of the minor ones, too). To buy Lisk, you’ll need Bitcoins, as there is no site where you can trade USD for Lisk coin just yet. Check out our Bitcoin buying guide to learn how to use Bitcoin to buy Lisk coin, or simply head on over to Coinbase.
Recommended places to buy Lisk
How to Buy Lisk Coin With Exchanges
If you have an account with Binance, or Poloniex you can buy Lisk coin there, or on any exchange that offers it. Poloniex is used as an example below.
Step 1: Complete the signup and registration information that you’re asked for. When you’re replied to any confirmation emails, provide images of your government issued ID or Passport. This will help Poloniex secure their site from phony traders and is the only way to get your account set up so you back buy Lisk coin. 
Step 2: Using Bitcoin that you bought at Coinbase or some other source, fund your Poloniex Bitcoin wallet. You can find your Poloniex Bitcoin address under “Balances”. Paste this address into the address bar in the outside wallet from which you are sending your Bitcoin, hit “Send”, and wait for the coins to appear in your Poloniex wallet.
Step 3: Now that your Bitcoins have appeared in your wallet, head over to the main currency exchange page and find the BTC/LSK trading pair. In the bottom lefthand corner, input the price (in Bitcoin) at which you would be willing to buy a single Lisk coin. Then put the number of Lisk coins you wish to buy today. This will give you a total. If you have the Bitcoin to pay this price and are ready to do so, his the Buy button.
Alternately, you can choose to make an order for Lisk at a lower price than what is currently being offered in the marketplace. You’ll have to wait (and hope) for the price of Lisk to drop to the level you at which you set your order. If and when that happens, your order will be completed and you can send your Lisk to an exterior wallet for safekeeping.
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How to Send Your Lisk Coin from an exchange to a safe exterior Lisk wallet
One of the best things about Lisk is how they’ve created all the tools you need to use their currency. You can’t count on just any cryptocurrency to do this. The Lisk wallet is available for desktop and mobile. We’ll show you the basics of how to use the Lisk desktop wallet here.
Go to Lisk.io and download the wallet that works with your device and/or operating system. Once you’ve logged in and taken careful note of private keys and phrases (these are the only way to regenerate your account if your device gets stolen or destroyed!), go inside to find the “Address” which you can see in the upper left hand corner of the image above.
Copy this address and take it back to Poloniex, where you’ll head over to your Lisk coin wallet as described previously. Select “Withdraw” and paste your exterior Lisk wallet address where indicated. Select how many coins you wish to transfer (all, probably), and send. After several confirmations, your coins will arrive in your wallet for safekeeping.
Your personal wallet is safer than the one you have on Poloniex for two main reasons.
- 1) Poloniex is occasionally buggy. They’re overwhelmed with demand and this sometimes prevents people from being able to withdraw their coins when they wish to. Other basic user problems have been reported.
- 2) Poloniex, like all major exchanges, is a target for hackers and coin thieves of all stripes. Think of Poloniex as having a huge target painted on its back. Little ol’ you, meanwhile, will attract little attention from thieves.
What is Lisk Coin?
Lisk coin (LSK) is one of the 100,000,000 tokens that act as currency on the forthcoming Lisk network. The Lisk coins are bought and sold on many crypto exchanges, with a steadily increasing Lisk price.
Lisk coin acts as the currency of the Lisk blockchain. The Lisk blockchain (when they release their Main Network and Software Developer Kit in Q1) will be a place where developers can easily build Dapps and smart contracts.
Lisk coin will be used for many Dapps, and for paying for transactions of more general types on the Lisk network. Lisk coin can also be traded against other cryptocurrencies on crypto exchanges around the web.
What Are Smart Contracts and Dapps?
A Smart Contract is an algorithm that performs a specific function on the blockchain, without any human intervention once deployed. Smart contracts are most well known from the Ethereum blockchain which popularized them.
Dapps (decentralized apps) are any sort of application (like Paypal, Facebook, or LinkedIn), only build using Smart Contracts. There are already many of these which already exist on Ethereum and other blockchains.
Why Is Lisk Different?
One of the main problems with Ethereum’s smart contract model, is that all smart contracts operate on the main Ethereum chain, often slowing down the network. For Ethereum to grow to meet demand, it’ll have to find a way to scale its blockchain.
Lisk will use Sidechains. When a Lisk user uses Lisk coin to issue a new token or create a new Dapp, the new algorithms will function on a Sidechain, which is linked to the main Lisk chain, but which doesn’t tap into Lisk’s resources very often at all.
This means that no matter how many Dapps are created through Lisk, there won’t be dramatic strain on the network. Blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum are creating “second layer” solutions like Lightning and Raiden to try to perform the same function.
Lisk also differs from Ethereum in that they allow programmers to use Java Script, a well known programming language, rather than forcing them to learn Solidity, the proprietary programming language of Ethereum. This could promote fast developer adoption. [/su_note]
The Benefits of Proof of Stake
One major selling point of Lisk is their Delegated Proof of Stake governance model. Not only does voting for a delegate help you raise your voice on the future of Lisk, these delegates are the only people who can “Forge” new Lisk coins (kind of like mining new Bitcoins). These coins are, in large part, distributed to their voters. You heard right; that’s free money.
Why Buy Lisk Coin?
The company is also due for a full rebranding on February 20, 2018, an evolutionary stage that may result in a large Lisk price increase, much as it did for ARK last year (ARK is a hard fork of Lisk with some major differences and use cases).
So far, the Lisk team has been very active, responsive, and successful in deploying their technology. The big test is yet before us, but if we indeed see the changes they’ve promised in the next month or so, you can bet the Lisk price is going to soar.
To learn more, search out a Lisk forum with Reddit or BitcoinTalk. Now we’ll show you how to buy Lisk and invest in Lisk.
Final Thoughts on Lisk
Lisk is one of the most solid projects in crypto. Their concept of push-button blockchain deployment and easy dapp development in Java Script is a compelling path forward. Their development team is solid and has proven their mettle up till this point.
The field Lisk has entered is thickening. They remain the first mover in their specific niche, giving them an advantage. Do your own research to decide if you think Lisk is going to win the marathon. We think they’ve got a very, very good chance of doing so.
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