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What is the Trade Portal?

The Trade Portal is an application which enables users to exchange coins truly peer-to-peer with other users, specifically using what is referred to as cross-chain atomic swaps. Basically the sellers list QORT (only QORT at this time) as a sell order at whatever rate they set, then buyers are able to select these orders in the marketplace as they see fit (there are no "sell walls" or "buy walls" which means trades can be conducted at whatever rates the two peers agree to (regardless of what other trades are listed in the marketplace or have previously traded). Buyers also have the ability to use the 'Auto Buy' feature in the UI, where they can set how many coin they want to set aside for buying orders that meet their criteria. The buyers are able to basically set and forget, while only needing to keep the UI open during this process. For more overview information, see Trade Portal Overview. We also have a page that explains How The Trade Portal Works.

How do I buy QORT easily?

The QORT Coin page has a section that explains how to obtain QORT: https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=the_qort_coin#obtaining_qort

What is a decentralized exchange (DEX)?

A decentralized exchange is one where there is no centralized control. Exchanges occur directly between the two users. When done properly, as Qortal does, this means the user never gives up control of their coins during any part of the process. The only two possibilities are that the trade succeeds, or the trade fails and each user gets their original coins back. In Qortal's case, we prefer to call our DEX a 'Trade Portal' primarily due to the bastardization of the DEX term - but it's a DEX - REAL DEX!

What is an ACCT?

An atomic cross-chain trade (other chains call it atomic swaps) is an exchange of two crypto coins from different blockchains where the entire transaction succeeds or fails as a unit. The key point about an ACCT is that at no time does a third party have control over the coins. Specifically, when a user lists a sell order, their QORT is removed from their wallet and placed in an 'AT' - which is a trade wallet that the user still has control over. The user can either cancel the trade order and have their coin returned to their wallet, or wait for a buyer to select the order at which time the buyer's coin is withdrawn from their wallet via a 'Tradebot' which makes the exchange with the Qortal AT, ensuring there is a clean exchange.

What crypto coins can be exchanged via the Trade Portal?

As of Qortal UI v3.1.4, the following coins can be traded: QORT, LTC, BTC, DGB, RVN, ARRR, and DOGE. Note that QORT is the base pair, so the supported pairs are: QORT-LTC, QORT-BTC, QORT-DGB, QORT-RVN, QORT-ARRR, and QORT-DOGE.

Why can't I list sell order in other coins besides QORT? Why can't I trade BTC-LTC directly for example?

It can be done eventually, but hasn't been developed yet. The trade bot isn't an issue, as that is off chain. The tricky part with buy orders is the on-chain escrow that holds the funds while they are listed for sale (and during the trade). For QORT sell orders, the QORT is held in an AT on the Qortal chain. But for buy orders, the foreign currency (e.g. LTC) would need to be held in the equivalent of an AT on the LTC chain. LTC and the other listed coins don't support smart contracts, so the listed amount would likely have to be held in a P2SH address. The problem with a P2SH address (at least, in the context of HTLCs) is that you need to know the public key of the ultimate recipient _before_ funding the P2SH. So that is difficult for this case, where you are listing an LTC offer without knowing who will ultimately decide to sell their QORT to you.

That's not to say that it's impossible - there are ways to do this, but as you can see it's very different from the way the Trade Portal currently works. So it would need some focused development time. It was a long way down the list, so the auto buy was made as a quick interim solution.

What do I need to use the Trade Portal?

1. You must be running a Qortal Node and it must be synced. Since trading is truly decentralized, both sides must be running nodes to complete their side of the trade (peer-to-peer). For more information see Quick Start Guide.

2. You can follow the How To Use The Trade Portal guide.

Where do I find the Trade Portal

In the Qortal UI, there is a Trading tab in the left side menu. Under that are two options:

Trade Portal - To do individual trades Auto Buy - To automatically perform a series of individual trades