The long awaited Parachain Auctions finally started!

They allow Dot token holders to vote/crowdloan their dot to a project and recieve token of that project in exchange.

The dot you crowdloan can be used trustlessly so you wont even give away your keys! Your Dot will be returned to you after the Parachain's lease period.

Sounds good? Well then i got a few options here that will allow you to participate in a matter of minutes!

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Below I will explain what options you have to contribute your Dot to the Parachain Team's, which option I took and what differntiates the options in Terms of Trust and Rewards.

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Option 1: Contribute using the Polkadot.js web app.

• (Tutorial Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA9mPANmzmU / 7 minutes)
• (Link: https://polkadot.js.org/apps/?rpc=wss%3A%2F%2Frpc.polkadot.io#/parachains/crowdloan)
• Pros:
  • Using Polkadot.js is one of the most secure ways to contribute.
  • You contribute on chain and no 3rd party will ever hold your Dot
  • Using the website you don't run risk of signing a transaction that is not crowdloan related
• Cons:
  • Needs the Polkadot.js extension installed
  • While the extension is easy to handle the Website was made for developers and can be overwhelming

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Option 2: Contribute using a Website of a Parachain Team.

• (Tutorial Video: https://youtu.be/RTCCRVsdzmg / 5 Minutes)
• (Example links: Acala: https://acala.network/acala/join-acala // MoonBeam: https://crowdloan.moonbeam.foundation/ )
• Pros:
  • User friendly interface. Rewards calculations are being shown.
  • If a crowdloan transaction is signed this options is also trustless and no 3rd party will ever hold your dot
  • Some teams offer additional options to contribute here that grant liquidity
  • These options can circumvent the minimum of 5 required dot to contribute (e.g. you can contribute only 1 dot)
  • Extra bonuses like NFTs are possible
• Cons:
  • Higher chance for impersonating websites
  • A new user might not know if the transaction he is signing is actually for the crowdloan
  • Requires Polkadot.js Extension
  • By using additional options that grand liquidity you will send your tokens to the crowdloan team and trust them to contribute and return it after 96 weeks.

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Option 3: Use centralized exchanges

• (E.g. Binance, Kraken, etc)
• Pros:
  • Convenient participation
  • There might be bonus offers from the exchange
• Cons:
  • You trust your coins to a 3rd party and dont hold your keys
  • 96 weeks is a long time and a lot can happen to exchanges in that timeframe
  • Exchanges might take a cut from your distribution
  • No NFT distribution

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Option 4: Use a mobile/web app/wallet

• (E.g. Polkawallet, Talisman, Nova, Math Wallet, Fearless Wallet)
• Pros:
  • User friendly interface
  • Smart phone comfort
  • Might support NFTs and additional options to distribute (liquid options)
• Cons:
  • Some people might not be comfortable with a 3rd party app (even if it is open soruce)
  • Might not support all options you would get on the official crowdloan pages
  • Fear of accidently using a phising wallet

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And thats it.

Those are the 4 options you can use to participate in the crowdloan.

And now to which one I used.

I personally used the option to contribute via the teams official websites.

I did so by not giving away my keys even though that means I am unable to use the liquid offers.

For me it is the best middle ground for user experience, bonuses and of course you can still hold your own keys.

Polkadot.js might be a bit confusing at the start but I am actually starting to like it.

I personally do not recommend using an exchange because even with good intentions they are a big target for hackers. And of course because you give your keys away. They will probably also take a cut on your contributions (you would have to check back with your exchange).

Now I am wondering which option do you choose and why?

Do you have more arguments that I missed? If so please let me know!

Also if you have additional questions let me know as well and I will do my best to answer them!