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The Cheapest Way To Buy Crypto With Fiat Currencies

Oleg Giberstein — Thu, 16 Jul 2020 14:18:29 +0000

Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain promise a new digital and decentralized paradigm for the global economy and our daily lives. While adoption improves every year at increasingly growing rates, Crypto still relies heavily on the existence of efficient gateways with Fiat currencies. Whether you are a seasoned crypto trader, or you are approaching the space for the first time, you will need to fund once in a while your crypto wallet with fresh capital. Then the common question is: what is the cheapest way to buy Crypto with Fiat currencies?

When looking to convert Fiat to Crypto, it is always essential to get the most out of your money, and this can be difficult because most exchanges do charge a hefty transaction fee. Choosing the best option to fund your Crypto wallet consists of finding the perfect balance between the convenience of the cost of the transaction and the supported funding method. The most common ways to fund a crypto wallet are payment cards (credit or debit) or bank transfers.

Beware of Hidden Fees.

Arguably, Coinbase is the most well-known crypto company. When assessing the cheapest way to buy Crypto with Fiat, it certainly is on top of the list of possibilities for a vast portion of investors and traders. Coinbase represents a secure and user-friendly Fiat-to-Crypto gateway. They offer very convenient options for funding the account using bank transfers.

Coinbase’s reputation, however, translates into a premium price of which users are often not aware. Coinbase’s price structure is indeed not as user-friendly as its interface. You can buy Bitcoin with Euro in just a few clicks yet at a relatively high cost. In the following example, I simulated a buy order for €10.

Coinbase applies minimum fixed fees on orders, in this case, €0.99 (equal to about 10% of the order). On top of that, the price at which I would buy Bitcoin is €8,031, which is 0.51% higher than the market price on Coinbase Pro or Kraken (around €7,990).

buy crypto with Fiat on Coinbase

Increasing the size of the order only slightly smoothes the cost of the transaction. If you purchase $50 worth of BTC, Coinbase charges you $2.51 in transaction fees, approximately 5.02%. Not taking into account the mark-up applied to the price, which increases the overall cost further.

If you use Coinbase, it’s much cheaper to buy crypto on Coinbase Pro. You log in with the same credential buy you have access to much better prices. You trade directly with other traders so you can get the real market price for your coins. If you want to buy immediately select “market” as price parameter and the amount you want to buy. Here is an example of how it would look on the trading interface of Coinbase Pro.

Buy Order on Coinbase Pro

The main difference here is that in the first example Coinbase sells you the coin, in the second, you trade on the exchange with other traders as counterparties. That gives you the possibility of saving a significant amount of money. Other popular options are Kraken and Bitpanda Pro.

What are the best alternatives to Coinbase?

While claiming to be a global company, Coinbase currently covers mostly Europe, North America, Singapore and Australia. That excludes some of the geographical areas that have the highest levels of crypto adoptions. Investors in emerging markets, especially Latin America and Asia, struggle daily with finding the most efficient and cheapest way to buy Crypto with Fiat.

Not All Fiat Currencies Are Equal.

Binance is trying to solve this, regularly adding new currencies as funding options for their wallets. Binance is likely the global exchange that covers the largest number of fiat currencies supported. In some cases, Binance allows topping up the accounts using bank transfers directly, but most of the time, the gateway Fiat-to-Crypto works via payment cards, debit or credit.

Funding your wallet via card payments allows the funds to be credited in real-time so that the exchange can settle the purchase of the coins immediately. The main limitation for bank transfers is the processing time, where a transfer can take up to three working days to go through. On the other hand, SEPA transfers within the Euro Area don’t carry any additional cost. The exchange will credit the same amount of funds you deposited. Only in the US, when using a Wire Transfer, the deposit is subject to a fee, usually around 0.05% of the amount.

Nevertheless, especially if you wish to buy Crypto most quickly, card payment is the optimal solution. Of course, that doesn’t come cheap. Processing the payment can be expensive as it involves many intermediaries. On some exchanges, the transaction fees can rise up to 6%. So make sure you can assess the transaction fee before confirming the payment.

For investors looking for seamless user-experience and the possibility of buying Crypto in just a few clicks. Brave Browser has gone above and beyond to provide convenience in the purchase of Crypto. In partnership with Binance, the company launched a new way to buy Crypto directly on the Brave Browser. All you need to do is connect your Binance account and then create buy orders easily by selecting the type of coin you want to purchase. Then you can set the quantity to buy, and the coins will be added to your wallet almost straight away.

Do you really own the Crypto you bought?

Centralized exchanges run on the servers of a private entity. While the coins you trade rely on decentralized technology, you interact with your assets through an intermediary, the exchange.

This brings us to one of the most common phrases used in the world of Crypto: “Not Your Keys, Not Your Crypto” by Andreas Antonopoulos. The quote is suggesting that if you are not storing your private keys, then you don’t have any guaranteed ownership of your coins. The exchange stores all your data, including your Private and Public Key. In other words, if hackers gain access to these keys, they can steal your funds!
Nowadays, global Crypto exchanges have advanced security measures in place to prevent malicious attacks. Even in the unlikely event of a hack often they set up insurances to protect users from losses. For instance, Binance’s insurance fund is so well-known in the crypto industry that its acronym (SAFU) inspired countless memes.

Binance’s insurance fund crypto meme

Other than hacking, other cases may lead to a situation where you lose access to your funds. What if the exchange goes bankrupt or regulators freeze the exchanges’ account?

Buy Crypto Directly Into Your OWN Wallet.

Assuming you are not willing to trade all your coins frequently and security is a top priority for you, buying Crypto and receiving the coins directly into a decentralized wallet may be the best option for your needs. Providers like Changelly rely on a peer-to-peer protocol that sends the coins directly to your wallet, once the payment is complete.

Changelly has partnered up with third-party service providers to process your payments. Before confirming the transaction, you have the opportunity of reviewing the option you prefer based on transaction fees and price offered. In this case, you are the sole owner of your private keys. Therefore, you are your own bank.

Changelly Price Options

Another popular alternative if you want to avoid centralized entities and you are not comfortable with KYC, which stands for Know-Your-Customer, is to buy Crypto on a peer-to-peer marketplace. Regulations worldwide are becoming increasingly restrictive. Each company managing money on behalf of users needs to collect data to track where the funds come from. When companies operate on a global scale, they must abide by the local regulations in each market they work in. However, when using peer-to-peer applications, you don’t require a KYC as the transaction happens between single users.

The best platform that offers this service is Coinrule, via Moonpay.

Key Aspects To Consider.

When assessing which is the cheapest way to buy Crypto with Fiat for your needs, there are four main aspects to keep an eye on before confirming the transaction.

Funding method

Bank transfers are much cheaper than card payments, yet they are slower. In some cases, you don’t have the rush to fund your wallet; in other instances, you may be willing to pay a premium price for a faster transaction. Moreover, depending on your location, card payment could be the only viable option to pay with your local currency.

Price offered

Pay attention to the price of the asset displayed at the moment of the purchase. When buying directly from an Exchange, such as Coinbase, the platform adds a markup to the price displayed. This price adjustment increases the overall cost of the purchase. The best way to avoid that is to use the trading platform, i.e. Coinbase Pro, where you place your order versus other traders on the same exchange. Only in this way, you will be able to get the real market price for the coin and guarantee the execution at the best rate.

Security

Centralized exchanges store your coins on your behalf. This is the best option if you are going to trade your coins often. Yet, in this case, you need to pay great attention to the level of security that the exchange can guarantee. Reputation is a critical asset in the crypto industry. The alternative for HODLers is to use a decentralized wallet and protect their private keys with methods that fit their own needs.

KYC and ID-verification

Most of the Fiat-to-Crypto gateways nowadays require passing KYC processes and providing your ID for personal identification. If you are not willing to share personal and fiscal private data, peer-to-peer marketplaces are the perfect venues to conduct your transactions.

All roads lead to the same place, while some are more efficient and secure, others are more convenient. It’s always appropriate to assess carefully which of these ways of buying Crypto fit your need to avoid unnecessary hurdles and costs.

The post The Cheapest Way To Buy Crypto With Fiat Currencies appeared first on Coinrule.

The most promising Cryptocurrencies in 2019

Oleg Giberstein — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 12:29:13 +0000

The year that just ended turned out to be very tumultuous for all those that invested in cryptocurrencies as most of the assets experienced losses between 80 to 95% from their all-time highs.

That was a harsh lesson for newbie investors looking for easy gains, forcing a high number of them to leave the market as they were not able to carry any further losses.

However, what happened to the cryptocurrencies’ parabolic rise and fall in 2018 is no different to what many other assets in financial markets previously experienced: a rapid price appreciation, inflating a bubble, which when it bursts, has effects on all the companies involved.

In times of price depression, great opportunities arise for those that can select those projects with better potential and more solid value proposition. What follows is my selection of cryptocurrency tokens and coins that I see to have the potentials to be very successful in 2019.

Binance Coin (BNB)

Binance is unquestionably the number one crypto exchange in the World according to many metrics. Apart from recording the highest traded volume (30 days volume according to Coinmarketcap), Binance is positioned as one of the most innovative and transparent ventures in the crypto-space. Their goal is not only to act as an exchange for tokens and coins but to become a real catalyst for the development of the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry and work for its global adoption.

The creation of Binance Labs designed to fund and support new startups, Binance Academy promoting an in-depth knowledge of Blockchain technology, Binance Research providing high-quality analysis and reports and Binance Charity Foundation are all side-projects but will contribute to a significant strategic advantage against competitors as wider adoption of cryptocurrencies continues.

The Catalyst

In early 2019, Binance will be the first “centralized” exchange to switch its operation to a fully decentralized system, featuring high-performance trade execution made possible by a 1-second transaction confirmation time.

The BNB token has played a central part in the success of the company (incentivizing competitions and encouraging the holding of the tokens to obtain discounts on transaction fees) with a very solid tokenomics and it will soon play an even more relevant role in the operations of the exchange.

Chainlink (LINK)

One of the biggest challenges for Cryptocurrencies and, in general for Blockchain technology, is the lack of everyday application in real-world use cases and the currently minimal connection between the “real” and the “crypto” world.

Among the projects most likely to solve this soon is Chainlink, which is a “smart-contract oracle” for decentralized applications. An oracle is a data validator that checks whether data entered into a Blockchain is correct. Blockchains alone can only validate data that is already “on-chain”, meaning events that have happened on the Blockchain. This is, in turn, a significant drag on the implementation of new features and developments linking Blockchains to real-world use cases.

Simply put, the value proposition of many smart contracts based Blockchains is to radically improve the efficiency in establishing agreements between two or more companies thanks to the tamper-proof nature of Blockchains.

In reality, this currently often fails because companies operate in the “real world” and most agreements involve ‘off-chain’ data such as money transfers (e.g., through the SEPA system), product production data, deliveries of physical goods, inflation data, and so on. In contrast to ‘on-chain’ data, such ‘off-chain’ data is not tamper-proof and could be manipulated, thus undermining Blockchain’s central value proposition. To address this, Blockchains need some sort of third-party data feed (the oracle) to import external data and trigger smart contract executions.

Chainlink allows decentralized applications, also known as dApps, to interact with “real-world” data and run transactions through third-party APIs. Chainlink solves the problem thanks to API connections to all the data with which decentralized applications interact via the Chainlink Smart Contracts, finally opening the possibility of developing hybrid systems of Blockchain-based architectures actively interacting with events happening in the “real world”. But there is even more to add on the potential of Chainlink.

The project aims not only to connect Blockchains to the real world but it will also provide an interoperability solution for the crypto world, ‘linking’ different blockchains to each other that otherwise wouldn’t be able to interact with one another. To give an example, just imagine the benefits for all of the crypto industry if the Ethereum and Bitcoin chains could exchange data with one another in a safe, secure and decentralized way.

The Catalyst

The Chainlink mainnet was expected to be launched in late 2018, and a big announcement is expected soon about the new launch date. When this big step is undertaken, it will provide additional value and will attract more investors. To be noted, the price of the token posted a tremendous performance in the recent months, marking new all-time highs in BTC terms, something that is not easy to be found during a Bear Market.

Furthermore, the company has a long history of establishing partnerships with solid API providers and very likely, this trend will continue to increase the number of possible future use cases.

Waves

Another broad critique for Cryptocurrencies in 2018 has been the shortage of progress delivered by development teams. On the other hand, the Waves team raised $16 mln in 2016 (long before the 2017 Great ICO-Hype) and successfully delivered a fully working a decentralized exchange in 2017 and kept adding features since then.

Other than a DEX with multiple crypto and FIAT gateways, Waves is a fast and scalable Blockchain allowing cheap transactions, permitting a smooth deployment of personalized tokens in a matter of minutes, an efficient staking system based on hundreds of Nodes and tens of Pools, Multi-sig wallets and recently introduced Smart Accounts and Smart Assets onto its Mainnet.

Especially the activation of Smart Assets is significant as they feature scripts that will make asset freezing possible, allow whitelisting/blacklisting specific addresses to implement controls and restrictions to the asset transfers, taxation and controlling asset pairs so that tokens will be traded only against selected currencies. While a lot of this goes against the core ethos of decentralized and censorship-resistant public blockchains, Waves positioning is aimed at Business use-cases that require full and out-of-the-box regulatory compliance.

Waves positions itself as a comprehensive crypto-ecosystem backed by a structured and skilled company behind it. Everything in Waves is manageable through a Desktop App, Online Client, Mobile App, and a Chrome Extension, demonstrating a focus on user experience design that is rare in the current cryptocurrency world.

The Catalyst

The Waves team announced the launch of Tokenomica, a platform aiming to radically simplify the issuing of Security Tokens. This has been a “hot topic” lately and will be more and more important as players such as private companies, institutions and investments funds will finally have the tools they need to move to a real tokenization of their assets.

The first important implication will be the opportunity of running a global Regulated Token Offer complying with local regulations and being able to apply all the necessary restrictions required to the asset. This will likely not only be a significant milestone for the Waves Roadmap but for the broad crypto ecosystem in general.

Furthermore, Waves has secured a $120 mln funding round for the development of Vostok. Vostok will allow the creation of private permission-based Blockchains based on the fast and reliable Waves-NG protocol and will represent the perfect enterprise-oriented tool enabling companies to fully benefit from the security and privacy of Blockchain technology.

According to the developing team, this new development will mark a significant step towards WEB 3.0, where new internet-based technologies will shape and enhance new forms of Businesses.

Enigma (ENG)

Privacy has been a central theme since the beginning of the Blockchain Era. Nonetheless, few are the projects that can truly provide a real degree of secrecy for transactions. Leading “privacy” focused projects such as Monero, Zcash and Dash are still focused solely on transactions, meaning that their use-cases are limited.

One of the main projects whose aim is to add a high degree of privacy to more complex computations (Smart Contracts) is Enigma. The development team claims to be “building Enigma to be the privacy layer for the decentralized Web”. More than ever in times like these, this looks like something that is an urgent need. The first more obvious application will be the deployment of agreements between parties combining the tamper-proof nature of Smart Contracts and the privacy protection offered by the Enigma protocol.

Furthermore, Big Data companies analyze an enormous amount of information every second and most of that data could be considered very “sensible” and worth to be protected with a substantial degree of privacy. Some Business-cases should be required to add this privacy layer to their operations, namely companies dealing with pharmaceuticals and genomics, personal data, credit or more generally the Internet of Things.

When Enigma fully deploys their Secret Smart Contract, decentralized applications will be enabled to handle sensitive data significantly reducing the risk of exposing sensitive data to nonauthorized parties. The full potential of this tool will be released in combination with Enigma’s Data Marketplace, which is already live and functional, where that data will be exchanged without risk of compromising its privacy.

The Catalyst

The development team stated that the delay in the deployment of the next Milestone on the Roadmap, Discovery, was caused by the fact that the partners were not ready to act as active nodes. The choice was made to prioritize long-term growth over short-term risks. This release is basically the MVP of Secret Contracts and will mark the full integration of Enigma with the Ethereum Mainnet.

For sure this will be a game changer and will prove the real potential of the project. Additionally, another major stimulus could come from the partnership side. The company relies a lot on stable and reliable partners (the most notable being Intel) and new partners are expected to be added in the coming months.

HOLOChain (HOLO)

Holochain is one of those projects that are so visionary that it is almost impossible to describe them without forgetting to cite some (even crucial) aspect of their essence. We can summarize Holochain as a computing system that enables developers to build any kind of application without requiring any centralized organization. Those applications will run across a peer-to-peer network, whose nodes will be a wide range of devices, including any modern smartphone.

It is important to note that Holochain is not based on Blockchain technology but is much more aligned with traditional peer-to-peer networks such as Tor. Unlike Blockchains which depend on finding a consensus between all nodes on the status of a ledger, Holochain is focused on finding a consensus on the infrastructure and DNA of any given application and then allows users to build this application based on that consensus. As such, Holochain is not data-centric but user-centric, taking a (decentralized) applications-first approach to the problem of ever greater centralization of the internet.

One of the main differences between Holochain and any other crypto-related project lies in the philosophy that stands as its bedrock. Holochain defines itself as a “distributed” network more so than as a “decentralized” protocol for dApps such as Ethereum. While the difference may appear to be small, it is one of the main pillars of the project.

Distributing the computational power across many nodes and letting them act as independent players in the system, Holochain aims to solve the scalability problems that affect Blockchain-based protocols. Just like in old-school peer-to-peer networks, the more applications will be developed on Holochain, the more nodes will have an incentive to participate, and the more computational power will be added to the network, making it faster and more secure.

Another significant difference that distinguishes Holochain from other Blockchain projects is the rejection of consensus mechanisms such as Proof-of-Work or Proof-of-Stake in favor of a de-facto Proof-of-Service approach in which those users that complete tasks for other users get rewarded in Holo Fuel. Around this new “money”, the project expects to build a whole new value-oriented ecosystem and community.

The Catalyst

Once again, just like for other projects, the launch of the Mainnet will mark a crucial moment for Holochain’s development. However, probably more than for other projects, this will also represent an opportunity to demonstrate that the great idea that inspired the Holochain founding team is technically feasible. Perhaps this will come later this year, but in the meantime, the development team is expected to deliver other important milestones.

One of the most important among them is the delivery of the first HoloPorts, specific pre-configured devices that will offer storage and processing power needed by the applications running on the network and which will grant Holo Fuel rewards to their owners. Some of the first applications that will be run will be HoloVault, HoloChat, Fractal Wiki and Errand which will help to grow the already vast and very active Holo Community.

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DISCLAIMER

I am not an analyst or investment advisor. Everything that I provide here site is purely for guidance, informational and educational purposes. All information contained in my post should be independently verified and confirmed. I can’t be found accountable for any loss or damage whatsoever caused in reliance upon such information. Please be aware of the risks involved with trading cryptocurrencies. I own positions in the coins cited in the article as part of a broader diversified portfolio of crypto assets.

The post The most promising Cryptocurrencies in 2019 appeared first on Coinrule.