Tutorials for acquiring, managing, and staking ICP

The governance of the Internet Computer depends on people staking their ICP token and voting on proposals. To do this, there are four steps. Each step has different sets of options (with trade-offs):

Acquire ICP
Custody
Staking
Voting

This article is an entry point into these four topics. For a simple, opinionated tutorial that makes choices to maximize simplicity, see Staking for dummies.

1 Acquire ICP

To get started, you first need to acquire ICP tokens. You can do this buying them in an exchange or by having someone you send you ICP.

1.1 Buy ICP from Crypto Onramps

Crypto onramps allow you to buy ICP directly from your credit card or bank account without having to open an account. They don't store your tokens, instead send them directly to your wallet address (see Wallet & Custody options).

1.2 Buy/Sell ICP at Exchanges

Please check below for a list of exchanges where you can buy/sell ICP

1.3 Seed Round Contributors

Seed round participants who wish to claim their neurons (from 2021) should first see: How-To: Claim neurons for seed participants.

2 Custody

Custody is the act of managing your ICP. There are many options, each with different security and usability trade-offs. For a summary of the range of options available to you depending on your comfort level, see ICP custody options.

3 Staking

Once you decide on your custody, staking is the action of locking ICP within a neuron with a dissolve delay. Staking and voting are critical to Governance of the Internet Computer.

By staking you can vote on NNS Proposals and collect NNS rewards. There are many options for staking, each with different security and usability trade-offs. See ICP staking options.

4 Voting

Voting is the act of voting on NNS proposals using neurons. See ICP voting options.

5 See Also

The Internet Computer project website (hosted on the IC): internetcomputer.org
Governance of the Internet Computer
Staking and voting
Staking for dummies