All too often, someone has expressed an interest in purchasing cryptocurrency, only to fall at the very first hurdle when they realize how difficult it can be to purchase digital assets.
Onboarding cryptocurrency can cause a lot of headaches as it is a slow and tedious process that involves many complicated steps. For anyone new to crypto, the very first step is to download and set up a digital wallet, write it down, and secure the private key. Once the wallet is ready for use, the user can proceed to an exchange platform, where they will need to open an account and go through the KYC process. Only then are they ready to navigate what can often be a bewildering user interface that lists hundreds of obscure cryptocurrencies, making it difficult to find the actual coin they want to purchase.
If the promise of Web3 and decentralized technologies is ever going to become a reality, the industry will need a more efficient way to acquire new users. Unless value can flow efficiently and seamlessly between the two worlds of traditional and decentralized finance, most of it will likely stay where it is: stuck in the existing financial system.
This is why the industry has made a concerted effort to increase crypto accessibility, building more seamless and user-friendly on- and off-ramps to ease access.
The need for crypto on-ramps
The term “on-ramp” refers to the process by which people can use fiat money to acquire digital assets such as crypto and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Until recently, crypto on-ramps left a lot to be desired, with most people starting their journey by creating an account with an exchange like Binance or Coinbase. They also need their own digital wallet to protect the tokens they buy. It’s a clumsy process that requires you to provide several pieces of documentation to prove your identity and address, and for many it’s also a very cumbersome way of doing things.
For example, a video game player may need to obtain crypto for the very first time when playing a blockchain-based play-to-earn game. To properly enjoy the game, they’ll likely need to buy an NFT, and they’ll soon discover they’ll need crypto to pay for it. This means that you close the game and go through the steps described above. It is extremely inefficient and many gamers may give up and move on to another game.
Off-ramps are the same process done in reverse, and allow people to sell their crypto for fiat money.
Without these on and off ramps, the crypto industry wouldn’t even exist. There simply needs to be a way for users to buy and sell their digital assets for ‘real’ money, because the traditional financial system is still by far the most dominant in the world. More than 99% of the world’s value remains captured in the existing fiat-based system.
If crypto is ever to surpass TradFi, it needs an easy way for anyone to transfer value between the two ecosystems, and it needs to do so immediately, without hassle for the end user. Furthermore, these smoother on- and off-ramps should be accessible through any application that requires crypto.
Crypto-on-ramps, streamlined
Onboarding is often described as one of the crypto industry’s biggest challenges, so it’s no surprise that it’s been receiving a lot of attention lately as innovators strive to simplify the process.
One of the most promising players in this regard is Ramp Network, which has not only built an easily accessible gateway to the crypto world, but also made it available to any developer who can add it to their dApps with a simple plug-in wants to integrate. play offering.
Using Ramp’s API, developers can integrate one of the most streamlined onboarding systems into any type of application. By doing this, developers can provide their users with a near-instant way to purchase the crypto they need to interact with their dApps, eliminating perhaps their biggest onboarding challenge.
Ramp likes to keep things simple, with its slick user interface allowing users to select their desired asset from a long drop-down list, enter the amount they want to purchase and see the latest quote. Once they’re happy, they can log in with their email account, choose a payment method such as their debit card, credit card, bank transfer, Apple Pay, Google Pay or Pix, and then click to confirm the transaction. The tokens are then immediately deposited into the user’s wallet.
Off-ramping is done more or less in the same way, with the user specifying the token they want to sell, the amount and the payout method chosen. Ramp allows users to purchase small amounts of crypto without undergoing KYC, while those looking to expand their transaction limits only need to do so once.
Ramp’s on and off ramps are not only easy to use, but also fully compliant with regulatory bodies such as the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the UK Financial Conduct Authority.
Some of Ramp’s top competitors include Bolt Finance and MoonPay, which have created similar, streamlined onboarding processes for buying and selling cryptocurrencies, combining every step of the transaction flow. Users simply specify the assets they want to exchange and the payment/cashout method, and they are good to go. Under the hood, on-ramp providers take care of the complexity around asset linking, liquidity, reserve management, transaction processing and compliance. The end result is that users can buy and sell crypto assets much faster, directly within the dApp they want to use, without having to go to an external exchange.
By integrating these simpler on- and off-ramps into their dApps, companies can make their Web3 services much more accessible and will likely see a significant increase in user acquisition.
Facilitate access to the Internet3
Many of crypto and Web3’s most enthusiastic proponents remain convinced that decentralized money will one day rival and perhaps even surpass fiat money as the world’s primary instrument for exchanging economic value. But it is clear that this will not happen as long as crypto remains inaccessible. For crypto to triumph, the industry needs an idiot-proof way for users to purchase digital assets with nothing more than a few simple clicks.
The efforts of Ramp, MoonPay and others have made this possible to some extent. But the real innovation isn’t so much simplifying the on-ramp process as making it accessible to any developer. By leveraging their APIs, companies can quickly integrate a gateway between the worlds of crypto and fiat into their Web3 dApps, overcoming one of the biggest barriers to adoption.
This new generation of crypto on- and off-ramps will have major implications for DeFi, GameFi, SocialFi, tokenization, and every other kind of decentralized protocol, making these services as easily accessible as those in the more familiar world of Web2.