A step-by-step guide on how to buy & store the Maidsafe (MAID) cryptocurrency

If you use this link to sign up to Coinbase we'll both receive ten dollars of free coins when you spend over $100 (or the equivalent in your currency).

Press the 'sign up' button and fill out your name (make sure this is exactly how it's written on your photo ID), email and a password.

Just like a US bank, Coinbase is regulated by the US government, and has to follow strict financial rules. So they take verifying your identity very seriously. It's a pain, but it does give Coinbase a reputation for being the most trusted way to convert fiat currency to cryptocurrency.

To verify your account you must supply a phone number, upload an image of your photo ID and verify a credit/debit card or bank account before you can buy.

Using a credit/debit card on Coinbase means higher fees but offers instant purchasing. Using a bank transfer is cheaper but slower (taking up to a week to get your coins).

Once your payment details are verified, click 'buy/sell' on the top menu.

Select 'Bitcoin', and at the bottom of the page choose how much to spend in your local currency / how many coins you want to buy.

Once you're happy with the amount, click the big 'Buy' button.

You'll be asked to confirm your purchase.

Press the 'Confirm Buy' button.

Congratulations! You now own some Bitcoin. But don't close Coinbase yet, we're going to need it again in a few minutes.

Click here to go to Coinmama.

In the sign up form, enter your email address and first and last name (make sure these are exactly the same as on your photo ID).

Enter a strong password (that you won't forget!).

Select your country, tick the box to show you understand their terms and conditions and press 'Register'.

You will be sent an email to confirm your email address.

Go find that email and click the link in it.

You will be informed that your email is now confirmed. Press 'Continue'.

You will be prompted to log in. Enter your email and password and press 'Login'.

You won't be able to buy any Bitcoin until you verify your account.

In the left-hand menu, click 'Verify your account'.

You will be asked to fill in your personal details. Once you have, press 'Next'.

Here you need to upload some pictures of your ID.

You're also asked to take a selfie of yourself holding your ID, as well as writing 'Coinmama' on a piece of paper with today's date.

Make sure none of these pictures are blurry, or they will be rejected.

Once you've uploaded the files you'll be informed your documents are under review- unfortunately you'll have to wait until you're verified to continue your purchase.

Click here to go to Cex.io

Click the 'Register' button along the top menu.

Enter your email address and a secure password. Click the checkbox to agree to the terms.

Click 'Register'.

You will now be asked to set up 2-factor authentication for your new account. It is strongly advised not to skip this step, as 2-factor authentication makes your account far more secure.

We recommend using the 'Smartphone App' option.

Once your security has been set up, you'll be taken to your account dashboard.

Before we do anything else, head on over to your personal email account- there will be an email from Cex.io asking you to click a link to verify your account. Click it.

You will be taken to a page telling you your email has been confirmed. Click 'Go back to the site'.

Look for your user ID in the top menu, hover your mouse over it and in the drop down menu click 'Verification'.

Every exchange that lets your buy cryptocurrencies for cash require you to verify your identification before doing so.

Complete the Cex.io verification process by supplying your personal information and uploading your ID.

Once you're verified, click the 'Deposit' button along the top menu.

You now get to choose how you'd like to deposit money:

Via credit/debit card

If you choose credit/debit card you can buy instantly, but you pay commission on the money you deposit.

Via bank transfer

This option takes a few days for the transfer to arrive but has no commission fees.

Choose the method you prefer and follow the instructions to deposit your money.

Once your money is in your account, click 'BUY/SELL' on the top menu.

Choose 'BTC' and the currency you'd like to buy it in (Dollars, Euros, Pounds or Rubles).

You will be offered some precalculated amounts of Bitcoin, or you can scroll to the bottom of the page and input the amount of Bitcoin you'd like to buy in the 'Custom amount' box.

Once you've decided, click 'Buy'.

You'll be asked to confirm your buy.

Check everything looks correct and click 'Confirm the order'.

Congratulations- you now own some Bitcoin!

Press 'Ok'.

Click here to go to LocalBitcoins, and click 'Sign up' on the top right menu.

Enter a username, your email and a strong password (that you won't forget!).

Click 'Register'.

An email will be sent to you with a link to confirm your email address. Go find that email and click the link.

This will open a new window that will have automatically logged you into your new account.

Press 'Buy Bitcoins' on the top menu.

Click 'Quick buy'.

In the first input box, write how much money you want to spend on Bitcoin.

In the first drop down menu, select your currency. For example USD is US dollars, GBP is Great British Pounds etc.

Then in the next drop down select the country you're in.

If you wish to buy Bitcoin without needing to provide any ID, click the check box beside 'ID not required'. Please note that this may limit the numbers of sellers, and may be a more expensive way to purchase Bitcoin.

In the final drop down menu you're given a wide range of buying methods. You can choose to look for sellers that accept Paypal, bank transfers, Amazon gift cards etc. - or just choose to look at all options.

Once you're happy with your selections, press Search.

You'll be given a list of sellers matching your criteria.

Beside their user names you will see the number of transactions they have done on the site (e.g. 1000) and their feedback (e.g. 100% positive).

You will also see the payment methods they accept, the price they're selling Bitcoin at and any limit to the amount they will sell in one transaction (for example, they might have a lower limit of $50 and an upper limit of $10,000 for a single transaction).

Choose which seller you'd like to use and click 'Buy'.

On this page, read the terms of trade with your selected user. Make sure you're happy with them.

Pay attention to the opening hours- are they open right now? Also pay attention to the 'payment window'- this is how long you have to pay after sending the trade request. If you're not ready to send the payment within that time frame, don't continue.

Once you are ready, input the amount of Bitcoin you'd like to buy in your chosen currency. You may be limited to a smaller amount as this is your first time using LocalBitcoins- your limit will increase as you get positive feedback.

You may choose to write a message to the seller, but this isn't required.

Press 'Send trade request'.

You will now be given the payment details for the seller- for example, their bank account details, Paypal address etc.

Use these details to send the correct amount of money to the seller, within the payment window, by following the steps laid out on the right side of the screen.

It's very important to include the reference message with your payment so the seller knows the money came from you.

Once you have made the payment, click the 'I have paid' button.

You will be asked to confirm that you've made the payment.

Read the information and when you are sure you're happy to accept, press 'Confirm payment complete'.

You must now wait for the seller to confirm they have received the payment.

Once they have, the Bitcoin will be released into your account- you will get a message on the site (which can be seen as a red speech bubble along the top menu), as well as an email to confirm it.

Your coins will appear in your wallet (also on the top menu). Click it.

And now leave this page open as we're going to need it soon.

Note: You may notice that Livecoin allows you to buy coins directly with Dollars, Euros and Rubles. However, the charge to do so is high, which is why it's more cost efficient to buy Bitcoin from Coinbase Coinmama Cex.io Local Bitcoins first and exchange that for Maidsafe.

Click here to go to Livecoin, and click 'Open a trade account' on the top right menu.

Enter a username, a strong password (that you won't forget!) and your email address.

Press 'Next'.

You will be informed that a confirmation code has been emailed to you.

Go to your email account and find that email. If you don't see it check your junk folder.

Paste the code from it into the box on the screen.

Press 'Confirm'.

Your account has been successfully activated.

Log into your account using your email address and password.

You will be asked to enter a 4 number PIN code that will be used for security purposes when you withdraw coins.

Note: Changing this PIN in the future means that you won't be able to withdraw any coins for 10 days. So make it's something you're not likely to forget!

Press 'Balance' on the top menu.

Scroll down the page until you see 'CRYPTOCURRENCY BALANCE'. In the search box type 'Bitcoin'.

The list of coins will narrow and you should see 'Bitcoin'. Beside it, click 'DEPOSIT'.

A pop-up will present you with a list of conditions you must agree to before it will you give you a wallet address to deposit your Bitcoin to.

Read them. Understand them. Once you have, tick the boxes and press 'Show address'.

Press the 'Copy' button to copy the address to your computer memory.

Now we've got to wait a few minutes for the coins to move across the network.

Unless there's an unusually large network backlog, the coins will take between 40 and 60 minutes to appear in your Livecoin wallet.

Close the pop-up showing your wallet address so you can see your wallet balance. The page does not automatically update so refresh it occasionally to see if the coins have arrived.

You will also get an email once the coins have been credited to your account.

While you're waiting, consider sharing this guide with your friends and followers to spread the word about Maidsafe, encouraging its popularity and value to grow.

Here's some share buttons to make it easy:

Once the Bitcoin shows in your 'Available' balance we're ready to trade it for Maidsafe.

Click here to jump straight to the MAID/BTC exchange market on Livecoin. Be patient, it can take 10-15 seconds to fully load the page.

This page will look overwhelming at first, but don't panic as we'll only be using a small part of it.

Beneath the title 'BUY MAID FOR BTC' find the button labelled 'Switch to market order' and click it.

Beside that button is a display telling your how much BTC you have available for trade. Click it.

In the box marked 'You get', you will now see the maximum amount of MAID that you can buy using all of your BTC. If you don't want to use all of your BTC in this purchase, you can edit this number to be lower.

Once you're happy with the amount, press 'BUY MAID'.

Congrats! You now own your own Maidsafe!

If you're comfortable with it, you could just leave your coins on Livecoin and they would probably be safe. However, exchanges have been hacked in the past, and people have lost coins, so we do recommend you keep them in a personal wallet. Here's how:

Click 'Balance' along the top menu.

Under 'CRYPTOCURRENCY BALANCE' find 'MAID'.

Beside it, press 'WITHDRAWAL'.

In the 'TRANSFER TO WALLET' column, in the box marked 'Account, MAID', write the amount of Maidsafe you want to withdraw to your wallet.

Note: You will have to pay a fee to withdraw the coins, the amount is shown beside 'Fee'. Remember to deduct this fee from the number of coins you're withdrawing or it will fail (see the image for an example).

In the box marked 'Maidsafe address' put the wallet address that you copied from Omniwallet (in step 5).

Press 'SEND A PAYMENT'.

You will be asked to confirm the withdrawal. Double check over the details, such as making sure you put the correct wallet address, then press 'Confirm'.

You will have been sent an email to confirm the withdrawal. Go find that email and copy the confirmation code in it, and paste it into the box marked 'Verification Code'.

Now enter the four digit code you used when you set up your Livecoin account in the 'PIN code' box.

Press 'Confirm'.

You will be told the withdrawal is now in progress.

Go back to your Omniwallet.

You should soon see your new coins appear in the balance.

What about when you're ready to sell your Maidsafe?

You simply reverse the order of tasks you performed in this guide.