Qortal has its very own coin called QORT which powers on-chain functionality and can be used as a digital currency just as Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency, without an intermediary like a bank. There is no intention of listing QORT on other exchanges as Qortal has its own exchange and more importantly, is meant to be used on-chain.

Qortal aims to create an alternative infrastructure for a new Internet where among many other aspects, an especially important feature will be the ability for e-commerce stores to host their sites on-chain and have the ability to accept QORT as a form of payment just as they will be able to with other cryptocurrencies we support. We will also create a jobs market board that can utilize QORT and the coins we support.

QORT is used as the base pair for the Trade Portal with cross-chain trades. For example, for a BTC-LTC trade, the trade will actually be BTC-QORT-LTC. QORT can only be obtained by conducting a true cross-chain P2P trade within the Qortal Trade Portal. As everything we are building is 100% decentralized on-chain which means there is no vault like there are on centralized exchanges where you can immediately convert fiat or crypto. This means to conduct a true P2P trade, you will need to run your own node, send LTC to your Qortal LTC wallet, then buy a listed sell order within the on-chain Trade Portal.

QORT will be a great store of value for investors to consider as 1) the wallets are fully secure 2) Qortal and QORT will provide an increasing amount of intrinsic value as time goes on with the plethora of applicability.

There is no cap on QORT production like Bitcoin has with its 21 million. More on the Block Rewards & Distribution page.

Please note: there two ways to obtain QORT: 1) minting and 2) Trade Portal.

To trade for QORT in the Trade Portal, you’ll first need to run your own node as everything within Qortal is truly decentralized. This means there is no centralized service or vault from which you can purchase QORT. You’ll need your own node, fully synced, to utilize the Trade Portal. You’ll need to purchase LTC or the other coins we will support in the future, into your Qortal wallet. For example, purchase LTC on Coinbase then send to your Qortal LTC wallet. From there, you can purchase orders in the Trade Portal between LTC & QORT.

This walkthrough will show the general process for sending coin to your Qortal wallet, to then be able to utilize the Trade Portal to obtain QORT. The example below is for using Coinbase to obtain LTC.

Step one: Buy Litecoin

1. First you need to make sure your Qortal core is installed correctly, and up and running, fully synced.

2. Next, you’ll need to go to a third-party exchange like Coinbase https://www.coinbase.com to buy some Litecoin (abbreviation LTC) with your ‘fiat’ currency such as USD.

3. On Coinbase, once you’ve purchased your Litecoin, go to SEND/RECEIVE and fill in the address of your Qortal Litecoin wallet. You’ll find this within the Qortal User Interface (Qortal UI).

Please note: your addresses for QORT, LTC, DOGE, BTC & other coins we will support are different addresses. The Litecoin address that Coinbase is asking for (long string of letters/numbers) will be found in the Qortal UI, by clicking on WALLET in the menu at left. Then click on LITECOIN. At the top of the page it says CURRENT WALLET, and the address is directly underneath. Copy the address, and go back to Coinbase, and fill in your Litecoin wallet address. Then send.

Step two: Trade Litecoin or another supported coin for QORT

1. We will use LTC in this example, same process applies for all. Once your Litecoin shows up in your Qortal Litecoin wallet, you’re ready to trade it for some QORT. For a full explanation of what actually takes place during a trade, see Trade Portal Overview and How The Trade Portal Works

2. Click on TRADE PORTAL in the menu at left. At the top you’ll see a box marked SELECT YOUR COIN. Choose LTC.

3. Now look in the box of OPEN MARKET SELL ORDERS. Here you’ll see the current sell orders listed by other QORT holders. Please note: there are no sell walls; you can purchase any listing in any order. Pay attention to the cost per QORT as these listings are totally up to the seller to set, and for you as the buyer to select. The second column, which shows the price being asked by the seller, can be configured to show the offerings with their prices listed from low to high, or from high to low.

Take a look through the offerings and choose one that’s selling an amount of QORT that you want, for a price you want to pay. Click on that offering.

The field in the lower right hand BUY/SELL box will automatically populate with the price and quantity of the chosen offering. Click the BUY button.

4. Now you wait a bit, while the process completes. Meanwhile you’ll see your order listed in MY ORDERS (lower left), with the status of BUYING.

FYI: Pages don’t refresh automatically to show updated status. Click away then come back in a few minutes, and you should see your completed trade listed in MY TRADE HISTORY, with the status of BOUGHT. And that’s it! You now own some QORT! Otherwise, the order may be refunded due to someone else making the purchase before you did, or the seller’s node failed to stay online. Remember, this is blockchain technology and truly decentralized peer to peer, so these refunds can happen as it takes time for each block to process the transactions. This is the nature of the system, and will be further improved with time!

With Qortal, we are swapping directly between blockchains with absolutely no central component between them (and no need to trust an entity to "wrap" a coin in a token or any other centralized techniques like this). True cross-chain swaps require multiple transactions to occur sequentially on each chain, and each of these transactions needs time to confirm before it moves on to the next.

If any other platform is swapping instantaneously or within seconds, then it isn't decentralized. The only way to swap that quickly is to have a centralized component handling the swaps, or by staying on a single chain (e.g. using a wrapped coin).

As of August 29th, 2022: Note that confirmations on the QORT side do currently take longer than they ought to, and this slows down the trade process. Longer term we should be able to solve this and this will speed up each trade by 5 mins or so.