We need a Fiat / Hive onramp.
Simplify everything
This has always been my motivation when dealing with large groups of people and with a complicated system like crypto it is no different.
I have been looking at so many apps across so many chains lately and what I have noticed is the way that they are moving towards a more business orientated model to sustain their price and growth rather than just depending on the market swings.
The simplest way to increase the price for any token is to increase the demand or reduce the supply. Simple economics but an important part of the lesson.
We all love hive but can often forget the struggles of your first steps into the crypto world.
Just signing up to hive and creating an account is an ordeal never mind getting involved in the whole crypto eco-system and it's different exchanges and tokens. We have enough on hive to keep any new users learning for months without leaving the eco-system.
Make it easy for us.
For me, the most likely people to buy and hold $hive are people already in the eco-system. People that have created an account and want to start staking and earning more tokens.
When I wanted to do this it was not an easy process.
- Joined Kraken
- KYC and approval
- Bought XRP with my card
- Signed up to Bittrex
- Another KYC and approval
- Send XRP to Bittrex from Kraken.
- Sold XRP to Bitcoin.
- Bought Hive with Bitcoin
- Withdrew Hive to wallet.
Phew!!!
That is a lot of work, fees, waiting, documents to buy 100 Hive.
Why?
Why does it still take multiple steps to buy Hive with fiat. I know that is it a lot easier than before but you will still need to go through and exchange using 4 or 5 steps to power up and a lot of people would not want or be prepared to learn all of these steps to put $50 in their account.
We need direct links.
At this stage of our development surely we can have a widget on hive.blog or hive-engine for a direct purchase of hive?
People should be able to type in their card number and buy at market prices from @hive-engine or @blocktrades.
Would this be an impossible task?
Are their regulations that need to be considered for these to make directs sales?
Looking at other sites
From my explorations to other chains, they are making it much easier to get involved with direct token purchases. A lot of them offer purchases directly on site and while I wouldn't expect to sell millions of hive on chain, if we could offer that as a service it might start soaking up tokens a few hundred at a time.
Look at $WAX
$Telos
$TT , Thundercore
As just three of many but they offer direct card to wallet purchases for their tokens. Something that we could look at maybe for $hive @therealwolf, @aggroed?
Two of whom use moonpay as an intermediary.
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Looking even further.
Where I would like to see this evolve to over time would be to see hive keychain as a mobile app turn into a real world link between hive and fiat. It would need the ability to word as a virtual debit card through a third party but that might not be as far off as it seems.
Imagine being able to swap any hive based token to dollars on your keychain app. Having a dollar balance and being able to pay at any debit terminal with your hive keychain app. This would instantly resonate with everybody online as a system where your activity online would translate to real world value.
Your tokens balances keep stacking up from the different hive based apps.
You make a simple and free swap to dollars on the app.
Tap it off a debit terminal and pay straight from the app in real time with maybe a small processing fee.
That is a system that people will want to be a apart of, especially in poorer countries where the wages are only a few dollars a week that can suddenly earn the same from commenting on an app or playing a game on their phone.
Think of how fast a system like this would spread through these demographics once they see it in action and want to sign up too.
I'm just throwing out ideas as I don't have the legal or technical knowledge to make these things happen but I would hope that there is somebody out there who can and open up Hive to even more people.
Light accounts would be my other main topic but giving people the ability to buy and sell hive instantly would b e abig step forward in my opinion.
What do you guys think, or any other ideas?
Lets get the business conversations flowing and see if we can come up with something special that we can bring to the people who can make it happen.
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Welcome to crypto. This is the big challenge when it comes to using Bitcoin protocols, trying to cash in or cash out. Personally I prefer to use a BTC atm and then I buy from @blocktrades and power up. !PIZZA
@niallon11! I sent you a slice of $PIZZA on behalf of @darkflame.
Learn more about $PIZZA Token at hive.pizza
Story of my life in crypto so far. Luckily I have spent three years building the knowledge to make it a lot easier but that knowledge was hard earned and there are a lot joining now that shouldn't have to go through the same struggle.
It is getting better but very slowly and if we want more people it needs to get easier.
Now it's about 4 steps but 1 is always better.
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Onboarding is definitely something that need improvements.
I did not know that there are so many steps involved in order to buy hive with Fiat. This is very discouraging.
We need a simply 2-3 click solution in one flow not moving around different websites and exchanges.
Onboarding will need to be a big focus for the team going forward. Leofinance have a good system but we need the same for all tribes to help them grow.
Fiat to hive isn't as bad anymore as i can now buy bitcoin with a card on binance and trade to hive instantly before sending to my wallet so a big improvement there.
However that is me as an experienced crypto user as opposed to a blogger that wants to power up some hive and doesn't know how to do all of these things. They need to be the focus, as they are the lowest common denominator.
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Brilliant post, we are in desperate need of an easier way to acquire hive. I think I saw a BSC/Hive bridge come out earlier today, which is a good step, but there is still a bit of complexity to that process. I think we are on the way to a lot of innovation, I wish I was a developer so I could take some steps myself
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There was one created today which is great. Its not too bad getting hive form other crypto as we are on all major exchanges so it's more for people joining this whole area for the first time and want to get dollars into the system.
We should be delighted to get any investment and make it as easy as possible for that to happen.
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It's a bit tough for me in the US but I am able to use probit in order to get it, would be much easier with a coinbase or binance.us listing for me! I agree though, I'm glad to see people innovating like this
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I would like a crypto.com listing as i have their debit card for crypto so could move funds very easily between hive and the real world.
Then anybody could spend hive with their card in just a few quick moves.
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I would love this as well, I am a big fan of their debit card.
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I use Simplx whenever I need to buy Crypto for my Celsius Wallet. Not a lot of options, but at least I can use my credit card x)
That would be so neat if @blocktrades took credit cards
Looks like they are planning something like that very soon. Hopefully we see a big announcement coming in the next few months as they finalize the deal.
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That would be amazing even if there are credit card fees
I don't mind paying reasonable fees for a good service and if a business takes this on they will need some way to make it worthwhile so can't see a problem there.
I think simplx takes around 3.5% or something, which is quite hard
I think the only way to do this without regulations is to create a marketplace where the transaction happens over the counter between individuals. The answer I have been given for this is that there is too much risk involved. I have used PayPal to buy #hive before, but it was someone I trusted.
That was also one of my thoughts but with a third party like moonpay could you avoid the regulations as they are a fully registered and compliant company for purchasing crypto?
I have seen them on the other sites and it seems to work well by paying them with a card and receiving a transfer to your wallet.
Or in the p2p option a smart contract to take the risk out of the transaction where users could sell directly to others for fiat and reduce the amount on exchanges. Just thoughs as I know antlytging money, finance or exchange related would involve a lot of regulations and could be tough to implement.
I do think that aggroed was trying to get the proper credentials for more work in this area but haven't seen anything about it in a while.
I am unfamiliar with moonpay, but you can do fiat to hive now with Bittrex in the US. I do also agree with your overall statement. It would be great to have an option to buy crypto directly from the site of your choice like peakd.
Even through tribaldex would be great as you could buy hive or any tribe token straight from the site and power up any account that you want,
These would be the next logical steps for growth combined with a better way to onboard users.
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I believe FIAT to Crypto here in the USA is mostly blocked at least in terms of trying to get Wax etc so you always end up buying Ethereum or some ERC20 token stable coin to convert. Makes it a pain.
I've noticed my own back stopping a few crypto buys lately that used to go through no problem so it is a problem everywhere.
We will find a way and they will eventually get on board as more and more people look for crypto services.
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That would be great, but I doubt we will see it as a reality in the next few years. Another great thing would be to have a partnership with some payments system like Binance has and be able to spend HIVE around with a card. A HIVE on ramp would boost our exposure as well.
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Looks like blocktrades will be doing it in the next six months so looking good on that side.
I would love to see hive on crypto.com so that we could use that card as a payments system. I wouldn't be spending any at these prices but at $5 it would be great to have the option to spend some hive and pay for items in real life with my earnings or for people in less developed countries to earn a few dollars and be able to spend them straight away.
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or on binance card.
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That would work too. Any of the crypto cards where a large amount of users could get a card for free and buy/sell hive with as least effort as possible.
I see people discussing coins everyday on twitter. There is so much involved in just tracking down info about them. Once you find them they can be difficult to buy. It's a giant mess.
There are so many different tokens that it can be easy to lost among the information. That is why i went all in with hive and try to learn as much as possible about the system here and earn as much as possible in this eco-system.
I know what i am doing here and can operate across the different apps and tribes so like to stay with what i understand.
Over time the chains will operate with each other and the process will move to layer 2 so we won't need as much knowledge but until then it can be hard to get new people into this space.
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We're working on a partnership to provide a fiat onramp for Hive. I think it should be operational in about 6 months or so.
Great to see you took my request so seriously and resolved it so fast.
That's some of the best customer service that I have seen to date. Appreciate it. 👍
Seriously though, that's a huge step forward and congrats to the team for bringing in the tools needed to make hive more accessible to new users. I'm very happy to see the direction that hive is moving in and hope for a lot more developments like this for the next year. We will get there. 💪
That's great @blocktrades. Looking forward to such a service. Can you give out more details like for which all countries this service will be available? Like, I am in India, would I able to use my local currency to directly buy Hive, or are we starting with US users only?
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I was wondering about this as well. I think the easiest would probably be credit card so maybe VISA/Mastercard and all the other possible suggestions. Does India have those type of credit card providers?
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Yes we have @jfang003. All kinds of credit/debit cards that work internationally. It would make my life much easier!!!
I might convince a few people to invest in Hive if such a service exists.
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Initially it'll just be for Europe (Euro dollars).
No problem. Gotta start from somewhere! All the best @blocktrades, looking forward to it.
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I think this is great as it would allow me to convert some fiat into HIVE if I need it and save the hassle of KYC.
Is there plans to have it bi-directional? I don't need to cash out because I am economically sound, but there might be a few people who need to convert due to financial times. So having a way to convert without the hassle might also be good for them.
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Yes, the plan is for it to be bidirectional.
This would be amazing.
awesome news!
Great post @niallon11. Crypto is overwhelming to many because it gets complicated. Most of the people who really want to get into it get scared or turned off by looking at so many steps to entry or exit. I could use such service wherein I can directly buy HIVE from FIAT but sadly I have none. This is a major reason why I am not able to acquire as much as I want to. Currently relying mostly on creation which takes a great deal of effort on daily basis.
I hope HiveDevs would look into it.
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This is the biggest barrier to adoption that we have right now. I have introduced so many people to the world of crypto but none have stayed with it. They might hold a few tokens but they don't participate or enjoy moving through the eco-system. It will change but it will take more time and the tools to do it.
Good news as it looks like blocktrades is bringing in a way to let people buy hive directly which is great. This should result in more hive powered up and people can dollar cost into the system if they want. I earn a lot of my hive these days but it is very slow going in the early days.
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I agree @niallon11 If we are able to break such barriers then I am sure many people would stay and realize the potential Crypto offers.
On Hive, even when you can have a decent chance to earn tokens for your activity, people choose to be on Traditional social media platforms because they do not allow themselves to be a part of this ecosystem. I hope what blocktrades is doing will open a few more doors and allow people to enter with ease. Once they are in, the platform will convert them for sure. 😁 Like it did to me.
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Your post was promoted by @finguru
I think this is a great idea and it looks like blocktrades has already responded below. I was wondering it there was a way to convert HIVE back into fiat eventually? I don't require the fiat but I have seen quite a few people mention how HIVE is keeping them afloat during these difficult times (specifically the 3rd world countries).
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Blocktrades replied straight away and it looks like the plans are in place for a two way option of fiat/hive.
At the moment it can be done but takes a lot of steps. I have a crypto debit card but would need to send hive to binance - trade to usdt - trade to a cheap token to transfer - send to crypto card - trade to bitcoin - sell to euro's. That is a lot of hassle and not worth it for small amounts as you will lose some in transfer fees as well.
I won't be selling at these prices anyway but hope that we see a simple solution to make these transfers easy which would encourage more people to join the system and start earning.
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This is one of the reasons why I don't buy Hive anymore. There are too many intermediate steps. It makes taxes a real pain. I'd have to buy Dash or Litecoin for the low transaction fees, from Coinbase or other exchange. Then, I'd send it to Blocktrades to convert and deposit Hive, which involves a fee there as well. For now, I'm just building through activity. I don't see myself using cash to buy Hive again.
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Your not wrong on this point. It is far to complicated and time consuming, especially for new people to the system.
I won't be buying more at these prices but if it goes back to 15C or so i would be tempted. Even if new people wanted to buy 50 hive it would add up over time and take tokens off the exchanges. Growing your account is addictive and if you start, you want to keep going. Building is better but slow so buying a head start is a great option.
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You're right. Most of my buying was to get out of being a minnow. Then we had the great schism, which helped too.
Really liking that last bit, keychain app is great if they can ever implement that direct hive-->fiat and vice versa it would be a game changer and bring in the bigger crowds. A question I often get is "how is that real money?" or "how do you take it out?", would be way easier to convince people then!
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