The Ultimate Guide to SmartBCH for Newbies

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Alright, you have probably seen the screenshots of other people earning approximately 1,000% APY (annualised percentage yield) on smartBCH and you want to have some of this passive income for yourself, but you have no idea what smartBCH is or how to use it? Welcome! I wrote this article specifically for you.

I am trying to keep this article as short as possible. That's why I'm not explaining everything in great detail, but I provide links to where you can find more info.

First of all: What is smartBCH?

The short version (for crypto experts)

Think of Ethereum but with optimisations for higher throughput and lower fees. SmartBCH utilizes the Bitcoin Cash miner network for determining who gets to validate the next block. Therefore, it combines the advantages of proof of work with the energy efficiency of proof of stake.

The long version (for crypto beginners)

Stay tuned for my upcoming article. I am writing an article about smartBCH which will be pretty easy to understand. The article still needs some polishing and it is too long to be included here. Once the article is done, I will add the link here.

What we need to get started

I am using an Android phone for this article. You can use a smartphone or tablet with a different operating system, too. The steps will be very similar.

If you use a computer or notebook, you will need the Metamask browser plug-in and a desktop wallet. The steps will be similar.

Instead of the Bitcoin.com wallet, you can use any other wallet which supports Bitcoin Cash.

Bitcoin.com wallet

Just search for "Bitcoin.com wallet" in your app store and install it.

Bitcoin Cash

We need some Bitcoin Cash (BCH) in our Bitcoin.com wallet.

The quickest way is to buy it in the Bitcoin.com wallet app or on a centralized exchange.

A free way to get some BCH is to create an account on noise.cash. You can just use noise.cash as a social media platform and in a couple of days, you will receive your first tips into your Bitcoin Cash wallet. Alternatively, you can create a read.cash account and write an article on this platform to receive some Bitcoin Cash.

Metamask

In our app store we search for "Metamask" and install the app.

Configuring Metamask

Metamask is configured as an Ethereum wallet after the install. We need to manually configure it to SmartBCH.

The steps are quite easy.

Click the three lines on the top left to open the side bar.

Go to "Settings", then "Networks" and click the "Add Network" button.

Insert the following:

Network name

SmartBCH

RPC URL

https://smartbch.greyh.at

OR

https://smartbch.fountainhead.cash/mainnet

Chain ID

10000

Currency Symbol

BCH

Block Explorer URL

https://www.smartscan.cash/

And hit the Add button at the bottom.

Now our Metamask wallet is configured to be used with smartBCH. Now we need to get some BCH onto that wallet.

Exchanging BCH for "BCH on smartBCH"

Yes that part is confusing. It will make more sense after I explain smartBCH in my next article, but the idea is this:

We have the Bitcoin Cash blockchain and BCH is the coin on that network. This blockchain is used for payments and if you have used BCH before, you are already familiar with it.

Our Bitcoin.com wallet works on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain. The Metamask wallet works on the smartBCH blockchain. (You may want to read this again more slowly if that sounded confusing.)

SmartBCH is a sidechain. That means that it is a new, separate blockchain. But this new blockchain is connected in several ways to our pre-existing Bitcoin Cash blockchain.

Why do we need a new blockchain?

The reason is that BCH is optimised for payments. But there are other things you can do with blockchains. Think of smartBCH as an unstoppable computer network which you can use to run programs on. These programs are called "smart contracts".

Smart contracts allow to create new crypto - which are called tokens. Another example for a smart contract is a decentralized exchange (DEX).

We will discuss tokens and decentralized exchanges in more detail in the other article, but for now:

You can use a DEX to exchange one token for another - if both tokens exist on the same blockchain. The DEX works like a robot which automatically sends you the right amount of token B when you send it some amount of token A. (This will make more sense when we use a DEX later in this article.)

We already know that we use the Bitcoin.com wallet for sending and receiving BCH on the BCH blockchain. And we need Metamask to access the smartBCH blockchain.

So now we need to send BCH from the Bitcoin.com wallet to the Metamask wallet, right?

Yes... And no...

Yes, we need to send our BCH from the Bitcoin.com wallet to the Metamask wallet, but we cannot do that directly, because the "BCH on smartBCH" is actually different from our normal BCH. Remember when I said BCH and smartBCH are actually two different blockchains? That's why the coins are different, too, even though they have the same name - which drives me crazy... ๐Ÿ™ˆ

We need a bridge (or gateway) to exchange our "BCH on the BCH network" to "BCH on the smartBCH network" - also known as "BCH as an SEP-20".

I know that is confusing as fvck. It would be better if "BCH on the BCH network" was just called "BCH" and "BCH on the smartBCH network" was called "sBCH", right? So let's use these names in the rest of the article.

CoinFlex

Ok, we said that we need a bridge to get from the BCH blockchain to the smartBCH blockchain.

Right now, there is only one bridge available and it is CoinFlex. In the future, there will be several bridges available.

We need to create an account on CoinFlex and send them some BCH from our Bitcoin.com wallet. Then they will exchange the BCH for sBCH which we can withdraw to our Metamask wallet. (What CoinFlex actually does is they lock your BCH and send you the corresponding amount of sBCH.)

The great thing about CoinFlex is that they don't charge any fees for this conversion. They only charge a small fee for withdrawing the BCH from CoinFlex.

Alternatively, you can use sideshift.ai instead of CoinFlex, however, the fees are higher.

Create a CoinFlex account

  • Copy this link if you want to support me with no disadvantage to you:

    https://coinflex.com/user-console/register?shareAccountId=TRD4aEW9

  • We use the built-in Metamask web browser. Open Metamask, click the three lines on the top left and select browser.

  • Paste the link you copied above into the URL field of the browser.

  • Coinflex wants you to create an account. They only ask for an email address. You can register that way - or if you prefer not to give them an email address, you can register anonymously using Metamask as I describe now:

  • 1 On the "Register" page, select "Metamask".

  • 2 Check the box "I agree to CoinFLEX Terms of Service".

  • 3 Click the "Connect" button.

  • Metamask will now ask you to connect to Coinflex. Click connect in the popup.

  • Now you have to click connect in the Coinflex website once again and Metamask will show you a cryptic message to sign. Click sign.

  • Next prove that you are human by solving the sliding puzzle.

  • You are now being presented the mobile Coinflex website - which is a bit broken and therefore hard to navigate, unfortunately.

  • I would recommend to bookmark the website by clicking the 3 dots in the lower right corner and selecting "Add to Favourites".

  • 1 Next we expand the left pane by clicking the arrow.

  • 2 Click on deposit.

  • We copy the Bitcoin Cash address now and send some BCH from the Bitcoin.com wallet to this address.

And now the waiting game begins. Coinflex will wait for your transaction to be included in one block before they will show your new balance. This may take a while, especially if blocks are currently being mined slowly. So take a break and check back later.

Once the block was mined...

... You can give Coinflex another visit.

To withdraw first click the symbol on the top right, then "Wallet & Order" and finally "Withdraw".

Now we need to select BCH in the menu of cryptos and switch to SEP20.

The destination address is your Metamask address (because we select to withdraw BCH as a SEP20). And the amount can be specified as you wish.

A short while after you submitted your withdrawal request the sBCH should arrive on your Metamask wallet.

And now your funds reside on smartBCH.

Where do we find the Metamask wallet address?

Click the three lines on the top left of the Metamask app and select "Wallet". Then click your address as indicated in the screenshot. It is automatically copied and you can go back to the built-in Metamask browser and insert the address by pasting it.

Using a DEX on smartBCH: Benswap

My next article will be more detailed, but here is the quick version:

Benswap is currently the only DEX on smartBCH. It is still in development and the code is currently being audited. Take this increased risk into account when you use Benswap for staking.

You will find Benswap here:

https://benswap.cash/

Copy the link and insert it into your built-in Metamask browser. You find the browser when clicking the 3 lines in the top left corner of Metamask.

Once the Page finished loading, you are on the main Page of Benswap. Have a look around and you can add Benswap to your bookmarks as described above for Coinflex.

Click the three lines in the top left corner of the Benswap website to get to the most interesting parts. Take not that these are not the 3 lines of Metamask. I'm talking about the 3 lines marked with "1" in the screenshot. They are below the 3 lines of Metamask.

You may be interested in staking some crypto on Benswap. Check out the "farms" and "pools" - which will be discussed in the next article in more detail.

To exchange your sBCH for another token, click on "trade" and then "exchange" (number 2 and 3 in the screenshot above).

Gas fee bug

I have good news and bad news for you. The bad news first:

Due to a bug in smartBCH, the gas fees (fees for doing any transaction on smartBCH) is currently about ten times higher than it was intended to be.

The good news is that even with this bug the fees are still low.

However, when we want to do any transaction on smartBCH, we need to manually adjust the gas price to 1.05 GWEI.

Here is how to adjust the gas price

When you want to perform an interaction with smartBCH, Metamask will show you a dialogue like this.

Click on the estimated gas fee and adjust it to 1.05 GWEI. Leave the gas limit unchanged and save.

Then you're back on the previous dialogue where you just hit confirm to perform the interaction.

The gas fee Bug will be fixed in about 2 months.

Thank you for reading!

That was all for today. If you can't wait for the next article, you can start doing your own research by clicking "more" and then "docs".

Stay tuned for the next article!

Disclaimer

SmartBCH is a new blockchain and as such it is not yet battle-tested in the real world. In the worst case, you could lose all of your funds that you send to smartBCH due to bugs or vulnerabilities.

Only risk what you can afford to lose if the worst case happens. I cannot be held responsible for any financial losses you may suffer.

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Comments

Someone linked to this article on NoiseCash and now I'm signed up here too. Saved this article in my bookmarks, it's brilliant. It got me got started right away. I have Metamask running on SmartBCH network. But I don't seem to have a builtin browser in Metamask.

$ 0.00
2 years ago

That's great that you started right away. Which operating system is your phone using? Is it Android? If so, just tap the 3 lines in the top left corner and select "browser".

$ 0.00
2 years ago

Successfully created my smartbch acount and finally going to next step Thankuu Soo Much sir for this great article and doing great effort y us

$ 0.00
2 years ago

Thanks for the details and the newbie can really understand your tutorials.

$ 0.00
2 years ago

Very informative and nicely compiled. I converted my first BCH to sBCH using this tutorial. Hope your next articles will have more to learn

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Hey there @MoreGainStrategies , really thanks a bunch for this article! It helped me finally start understanding smartBCH and all the fundamentals to be able to start using it!

Also used your link for CoinFLEX, glad to support you any way I can!

Looking forward to your article for newbies too!

I would also love to read guides like this about muesliSwap, MILK, CAT, KITTY and all the projects and tokens that are being so much talked about on noise last weeks and I can't understand a thing from individual posts! I see from your articles list that there you already have written some on these subjects, I will read and practice on them during the next days! ๐ŸŒž

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I'm so happy to hear that you found the article helpful. ๐Ÿ˜Š I found another article that explained adding liquidity and farming on BenSwap really well. That's why I decided to not write one myself. I believe that was an article by @Jane1206.

I do have an article on MILK, one on EBEN and an interview with the MuesliSwap developers and a couple of articles on KITTEN.

I want to still publish an in-depth explanation of SmartBCH in general and a comparison article of the 3 first DEXs on SmartBCH: BenSwap, MistSwap and MuesliSwap - including their native tokens.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Thanks @MoreGainStrategies , in fact your article was the first step for me to stop feeling that it's all alien ๐Ÿ‘ฝ to me! ๐Ÿ˜…

Yes, I found the extra articles you referred and I'm going to read them too! ๐ŸŒž Sorry for the late reply, I was kinda off last days!

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I'm happy to hear that you found your way to SmartBCH. And I hope that your investments will turn out to be very profitable - in case they haven't yet. ๐Ÿ˜Š

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Just successfully created mine today! Thought I was so noob not to understand this very simple guide. Hahaha I literally doubt myself. Thanks for this! Very helpful

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I'm very happy to hear that the article was helpful to you. ๐Ÿ˜Š๐Ÿ’š

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I'm lost. I'm at Benswap->Trade-> Exchange I connected to my Metamask Wallet. But I don't see that Gas Fee dialog

$ 0.00
3 years ago

In this dialogue, you need to select two SEP20 tokens. For example: BCH and flexUSD. Then you enter the amount of one of the tokens and then you may need to first approve the crypto you want to sell (if it's the first sell of this crypto) and then you can select swap.

Only after hitting swap you will see that gas fee dialogue.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Thank you for this. I will share it to my friend as the photos and instructions are very clear.

$ 0.10
3 years ago

Great, thank you so much. ๐Ÿ˜Š๐Ÿ’š

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Is KYC and valid ID still needed for staking and exchanges?

$ 0.00
3 years ago

No, both Coinflex and BenSwap don't require any KYC.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Thanks for this guide. It helps me a lot.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I've been searching for an end to end tutorial regarding smartbch and so lucky I found this one.. Added it as my saved articles immediately. Will refer to this one when I am already decided to stake in smartbch. Thank you for this one.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Thank you for making this as simple as you can. If a seasoned guy like you gets confused with all the BCH and sBCH and other terms, how do you think a poor-old newbie like me feels? Ugh! Then again, this is the easiest article to comprehend on this subject that I have read so far. Thanks again.

But, I got lost halfway through the article. I guess I will install the Metamask app first (how I wish I could have it on my Huawei phone). Then get back to this.

Question: What's so special about September 20, anyway? ๐Ÿ˜ˆ๐Ÿ˜ˆ๐Ÿ˜ˆ Hehehehe.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Hehe, yeah, they should definitely do something special on that day. ๐Ÿ˜‚

It stands for smartBCH expansion proposal 20 or something like that.

Thank you for your comment! Why can't you install Metamask on your Huawei? Is it too old?

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Its a new one. It doesn't have access to Google Play. And I dont trust APKs coming from third party sources. But i will try installing it on my old phone ans send the apk through shareit. I hope it works. If not.. I have to find another way. Hehe.

Thanks.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Does your phone not come with any app store? Maybe you can find the app in the alternative app store..

If that doesn't work, your plan sounds like a good idea. ๐Ÿ‘

$ 0.00
3 years ago

The new Huawei devices come with their own version/emulation of Android. They are banned by Google in compliance to former Pres. Trumps order.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Oh, I see. That's not good for the users. Huawei should create their own app store and offer the most popular apps to their users there.

I remember that Amazon had an app store as well. That app store can be downloaded and installed as an apk. Maybe you can find the apps in there.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Thanks a lot for sharing this one. My problem is I can't linked my 2FA in Google Authenticator. :( It says "Invalid code." :(

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Hm, that's strange. Did you figure this problem out? If you only use Coinflex as a bridge, then you won't store any value there for a long time. So I think that 2FA is not super important.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

but I can't submit the money that I want to withdraw..

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Could you try to phrase that in a different way, because I'm completely lost. ๐Ÿ˜…

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Great article! I was looking for an explanation as to why we need to change the gas fee to 1.05 GWEI and I found it here. Good to know.

$ 0.10
3 years ago

Thank you so much for your comment, the tip and especially the sponsorship. I appreciate it. ๐Ÿ’š

$ 0.05
3 years ago

Itโ€™s my pleasure. I love supporting good writers, especially those who bring value to the community ๐Ÿ’š

Just wonderingโ€ฆ what would happen if we didnโ€™t change the gas fee? Would transaction fail then?

$ 0.05
3 years ago

Yes, Metamask would give you a cryptic error message from which you would never figure out that the gas fee is too low. You can safely try it. ๐Ÿ˜Š

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Hahaha! Its ok, I believe you. 1.05 is now my default I think. Knowing myself if I change it, then I forget I did and panic when my next transaction fails ๐Ÿ˜…

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Haha. I have just read somewhere that 1.047 GWEI should work, too, but I haven't tried yet. ๐Ÿ˜

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Just connected CoinFlex to my MetaMask based on your tutorial. Thanks so much. Easy to understand but the CoinFlex is really a thumbs-down. Will revisit your article after the transaction is successful. Thanks!!

$ 0.05
3 years ago

Haha, yeah, they probably forgot to test the mobile website. I'm pretty sure that's a simple bug to fix. They probably just need to replace an equal sign with an unequal sign and then the website works a lot better than it does right now. ๐Ÿ˜…

$ 0.00
3 years ago

it's very helpful for a newbie like me. lucky that I've found this one. Thank youuu!

$ 0.05
3 years ago

Thank you for your comment. I appreciate your kind words and I'm happy to hear that the article was helpful. Have a great day.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Thank you thank you! I am actually following your instructions right now. this is really a big help to me

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Oh gosh it's a good thing someone shared your article to me. After all the searching amd struggling thinking on how it works, I finally understand how to do it now. Simpler words are better (ใฃห˜ฬฉโ•ญโ•ฎห˜ฬฉ)ใฃ thanks you so much for this

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Thank you so much for your comment. I'm happy to hear that the article helped you. ๐Ÿ˜Š I believe that if someone really understands something, then they can also explain it in a simple way.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

thanks bro for the link! now only i know it need bridging via coinflex. same as you, i dislike that bridging because its confusing and tedious. but its a good move to store some BCH on metamask.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Maybe you should add that you have to use the built-in Metamask browser.

$ 0.10
3 years ago

Thank you! I made it more clear that we need to use the built-in browser. ๐Ÿ‘

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I'm just planning to do this with screenshots and all good thing you already did. We'll save this for the newbies UwU ๐Ÿ’™๐Ÿคฉ

$ 0.10
3 years ago

Thanks buddy for sharing, been trying to understand and know how to get some smart bch. And your article did justice to that. Itโ€™s very detailed and easy to navigate.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Thank you very much for your comment. I'm happy to hear that the article was able to help you. ๐Ÿ˜Š

$ 0.00
3 years ago

A very good guide. I recommend it to every newbie.

$ 0.15
3 years ago

Thank you very much for your kind comment. ๐Ÿ‘

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Nice.. But what can you say about the token $EBEN? there are FUDs about it though

$ 0.05
3 years ago

I will write about it in more detail.

I haven't heard the FUD yet. ๐Ÿ˜… Where should I look for it?

The extreme price hike was pretty surprising to me. In the beginning the inflation is high. But the APY for staking is, too. And as Benswap is the only DEX on smartBCH so far, the demand is high, too.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

This is exactly what I needed! Thanks for taking the time to write this up. This is exciting ๐Ÿ˜„

$ 0.05
3 years ago

This is very detailed and easy to understand article ๐Ÿ‘Œโค๏ธ Thank you so much for telling the difference between BCH and sBCH โค๏ธ

$ 0.02
3 years ago

Well detailed tutorial to setup smartBCH. I will save this for now, the name "sBCH" is better than BCH and BCH of smartBCH hahaha๐Ÿคฃ

$ 0.10
3 years ago

Haha, yeah, that part is otherwise very confusing to newbies. And thank you for actually reading the article. ๐Ÿ˜Š๐Ÿ‘

$ 0.00
3 years ago