Building a bridge between fiat and crypto
Who is NearPay for those who don’t know yet?
In the NEAR ecosystem and the wider crypto world, there are many projects that offer digital or other assets for cryptocurrency. The solution we offer at NearPay is a quick and easy way to add fiat to the crypto projects’ payment methods. It allows them to accept bank cards as payments from customers while receiving cryptocurrency in return. They don’t have to worry about anything here as we handle the entire exchange process. This not only allows accepting crypto payments for goods and services, but also gives businesses a chance to expand and diversify their customer base.
Through our second solution, a crypto wallet, customers can deposit fiat and receive cryptocurrency. By offering a simple and convenient way to deposit money, we streamline the process while addressing the ecosystem’s liquidity problem.
Can you present a typical crypto process for an NFT marketplace participant (or another seller)?
NFTs (non-fungible tokens) or simply said the expensive digital images of monkeys (since these are the most popular) have become even more mainstream in 2022. But to enable even wider use, NFT marketplaces (in basically sites where you can either sell or buy the above images) have implemented new options on the ramp that make it possible to jump on this cart and get off it at any time.
Most new market participants find buying and selling cryptos and NFTs quite confusing. First, you need to find out how to buy crypto, make a choice about the crypto exchange platform, create an account and finally enter the world of digital currencies. However, your journey does not end here. The next step is to create a wallet and transfer funds from the exchange to this wallet to finally be able to trade NFTs.
So you get the point. This whole process can be quite overwhelming and time consuming. Crypto on-ramps eliminate the steep learning curve. NearPay allows you to buy crypto and NFTs with your credit card without having to go the long, hard way.
What are the key benefits for businesses using crypto on-ramps?
From a user perspective, it’s a quick and familiar way to buy crypto or pay for goods/services/assets with fiat when they run out of crypto.
The business side benefits from this, as their customers’ conversion rates increase, while they get the cryptocurrency they used to get – nothing changes in the actual process for them, but more customers are attracted. So this is a win-win scenario for both the customer and the company.
The NearPay team is very enthusiastic about bringing more people into the NEAR ecosystem as well as the crypto world in general.
What about the challenges?
As an on-ramp service, we assist businesses with such challenges as regulations, compliance and negotiations with institutions and banks to facilitate smooth transactions for customers in different countries. In addition, we develop procedures to protect customers by securing transactions, managing risks and detecting fraud in time. We are currently working on improving the service by expanding geographical coverage, streamlining the KYC process, reducing fees and removing restrictions to the extent possible.
You mentioned that you are also trying out a corporate cryptocurrency option. How does this work?
The purpose of this service is to provide blockchain companies and startups as well as retail customers who want to improve their payment options with a custodian service to accept, store, exchange and withdraw crypto funds into their bank accounts. The tool will also give businesses that accept cryptocurrency as payment or that attract crypto investment the ability to compile regulatory reports.
Business owners will also no longer have to set up accounts with liquidity providers such as exchanges, transfer funds, exchange and withdraw cryptocurrency, nor risk having their funds frozen by LPs.
Referring to the two products we discussed, how do you differentiate yourself from the competition?
NearPay offers a unique payment gateway and custodial wallet for businesses within the NEAR ecosystem, one of the most innovative and technologically advanced ecosystems in the crypto industry. We are committed to helping NEAR’s vision of integrating one billion users, providing the invisible glue that binds customers, traditional and crypto businesses together. Unlike similar projects from the ‘big crypto world’, we offer the simplest and most reliable solution when people need NEAR tokens. We have low and transparent fees, unlike our rivals who have tiered interest rate structures, rely on spreads and charge commissions that are volatile and opaque. In addition, as a custody service, we provide our users with a higher level of security. We are therefore a simple and user-friendly instrument, very useful for the NEAR ecosystem and at the same time contributing to mass crypto adoption.
Looking into the crystal ball, what do you think the crypto space will look like in the next 5 years? Do we want crypto mass adoption?
No doubt that within 5 years crypto will be massively adopted. We are currently going through a bear market, which makes cheaper cryptos more attractive to investors. More than that, as soon as we start to recover from this downtrend, which I believe will be in the next 6 months to a year, we will see more people, both small and large investors, companies, businesses and businesses in general rushing themselves to join this space. Mass adoption is a matter of “when” rather than “if” and happens steadily, gradually and surely.
About Ivan Ilin
Ihuhn is the COO of NearPay and he is responsible for organizing all product development and legal processes, managing key partnerships and implementing the NearPay strategy. Prior to joining the NearPay team, Ivan was CEO of Apiqua LLC and co-founder of Da-Mart, a B2C product delivery service.
About NearPay
NearPay is a crypto-finance protocol within the NEAR ecosystem launched by Kikimora Labs. NearPay’s fiat-to-crypto payment gateway gives businesses the ability to accept crypto payments and expand their customer base. With its other offerings, NearPay Wallet and NearPay Card, users can seamlessly buy, exchange and spend cryptocurrencies.
