Some Insights about Cryptopayments for a Better (BH) World

[SirLouen]

After a couple of months, I've found that many sellers are completely lost when it comes to deciding which Cryptopayment system is best for their sites.
I've also noticed that Russian BH service providers are, 100 years in front of most sellers around the world, in this regard.
So I decided to write a little guide to explain which are the better options in 2023 from my point of view.

The first point: About USDT​

USDT is everywhere. We all love USDT for sure. 1 USDT = $1. Simple for all the family. But did you know that the lower the payment, the more expensive is a transaction via USDT?

First lesson: USDT is not meant for microtransactions. ​

I see people offering USDT through different networks, Binance Smart Chain, TRON, and even ETH20.
It doesn't matter the fricking network. USDT disincentivizes microtransactions.
For a 5 USDT payment, it could perfectly be like $3 worth of TRX in gas fees in the transaction. But for 1000 USDT it is only $0.5 worth TRX in fees.
"But with Binance you pay a fixed rate of 1 USDT per transaction"
Time to have this clear: Only crypto noobs use Binance. And if we are going to use Binance, why not use Binance Pay straightly, which is 0% fees?
So please: Stop using USDT for receiving micropayments. For anything below $300, USDT is a ripoff

So what can I use?​

Instead of offering USDT via the TRON network, why don't you offer the TRON coin TRX instead?
But generally for microtransactions in the world, the most used is Litecoin.

I'm worried about the exchange​

If you can, integrate Bitpay in your site is the best by far. It's like the PayPal for crypto and offers a ton of coin options for all tastes. You won't need to do the exchange on the fly, they will take charge of everything.
There are many other Crypto payments gateways, but if LEDGER official shop uses Bitpay, Bitpay is definitely the best for a reason. Don't break your head and go with the simplest

I'm still worried about the exchange​

If you 100% need a stable coin, USDC via Polygon is the cheapest by far (still expensive for little transactions but the cheapest).
For USDT microtransactions, the only worthy method is Binance Pay as I have already stated

Conclusion​

Please stop using USDT.
And for my lord: STOP OFFERING BITCOIN AND ETHEREUM PAYMENTS
When someone offers me BTC or ETH as a payment method for a microtransaction (under $300), I pray for his soul, considering that hell could be awaiting.

 

[maxlinks]

Totally Agreed for Microtransaction part! some time paying 2 usd for 10 usd transaction is funny.

 

[Salamouna]

It doesn't matter the fricking network.

That statment is very wrong
Like usdt on polygon network will take just 0.1$ fees

 

[SirLouen]

Like usdt on polygon network will take just 0.1$ fees

Very true, I never saw anyone offering USDT on Polygon for some weird reason but I've tried it right now sending a couple of USDT in Polygon network and it's barely cents for a $5 microtransaction, which is great. Only saw USDC but it seems to follow the exact same transfer logic. When I was writing this I was thinking: have I tried USDT over Polygon? And I remember that once I tried just to check which were the fees in Binance and other exchange and they were the same as for TRON. But if you do this straight in the Polygon network, without the exchange in the middle they are super-cheap. So basically the solution here is clear for me. MATIC and USDT/C are the way if you need 100% stable coins. I would update the post but I can't anymore.

Stil for some weird reason, everyone is fricking using TRON/ETH20/BSC and I don't understand

 

[Sargist2k]

Maybe that's why payments with crypto are usually 10% off..?

 

[Gogol]

Maybe that's why payments with crypto are usually 10% off..?

It doesn’t have to be. Volatility is a problem, but it can also go up as well. For accepting crypto, you could use a payment gateway like coinbase commerce self served. It only takes 1% of the payment as fees, which is affordable imo. It gives you advanced features such as webhook and dynamic “quote” depending on the current price. You could also use their hosted checkout which needs no coding knowledge (like paypal hosted button).

 

[SirLouen]

It doesn’t have to be. Volatility is a problem, but it can also go up as well. For accepting crypto, you could use a payment gateway like coinbase commerce self served. It only takes 1% of the payment as fees, which is affordable imo. It gives you advanced features such as webhook and dynamic “quote” depending on the current price. You could also use their hosted checkout which needs no coding knowledge (like paypal hosted button).

I was expecting to read something like this to elaborate more on the topic. I personally like a lot Bitpay everytime I've found, because it accept a massive of payment options thru cryptos.
I don't remember a coinbase processor payment I've done in the past: do you have an example to check what they offer?
The 1% is definitelly great. If I had to set a crypto in any of my markets I would definitely consider using it.

 

[Gogol]

I was expecting to read something like this to elaborate more on the topic. I personally like a lot Bitpay everytime I've found, because it accept a massive of payment options thru cryptos.
I don't remember a coinbase processor payment I've done in the past: do you have an example to check what they offer?
The 1% is definitelly great. If I had to set a crypto in any of my markets I would definitely consider using it.

Here's one I made as a dummy hosted checkout page..

https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/b7a98189-0132-41dc-8258-a7ae0bd16043

The only problem it has (I think, I am not sure about it) is the fact that it does not send you a notification in the webhook. For that you will need to create a charge with the API.

Please correct me if I am wrong, guys. I would love to use this checkout page instead of making a charge.

 

[SirLouen]

Very neat, plenty of great options for me.



Definitely I'm going to check further into Coinbase. I used to have an account in Coinbase ages ago, but I completely forget about it, when I moved to my Ledger Live. I only kept Binance because when I work with some VA they prefer payments through Binance Pay to avoid all fees.
In fact, now I received this email 3 days ago:



But I'm certain that they will change that fees when they grow, for sure.

 

[cracklings10]

That statment is very wrong
Like usdt on polygon network will take just 0.1$ fees

This...

 

[TimeKeeper5]

After a couple of months, I've found that many sellers are completely lost when it comes to deciding which Cryptopayment system is best for their sites.
I've also noticed that Russian BH service providers are, 100 years in front of most sellers around the world, in this regard.
So I decided to write a little guide to explain which are the better options in 2023 from my point of view.

The first point: About USDT​

USDT is everywhere. We all love USDT for sure. 1 USDT = $1. Simple for all the family. But did you know that the lower the payment, the more expensive is a transaction via USDT?

First lesson: USDT is not meant for microtransactions. ​

I see people offering USDT through different networks, Binance Smart Chain, TRON, and even ETH20.
It doesn't matter the fricking network. USDT disincentivizes microtransactions.
For a 5 USDT payment, it could perfectly be like $3 worth of TRX in gas fees in the transaction. But for 1000 USDT it is only $0.5 worth TRX in fees.
"But with Binance you pay a fixed rate of 1 USDT per transaction"
Time to have this clear: Only crypto noobs use Binance. And if we are going to use Binance, why not use Binance Pay straightly, which is 0% fees?
So please: Stop using USDT for receiving micropayments. For anything below $300, USDT is a ripoff

So what can I use?​

Instead of offering USDT via the TRON network, why don't you offer the TRON coin TRX instead?
But generally for microtransactions in the world, the most used is Litecoin.

I'm worried about the exchange​

If you can, integrate Bitpay in your site is the best by far. It's like the PayPal for crypto and offers a ton of coin options for all tastes. You won't need to do the exchange on the fly, they will take charge of everything.
There are many other Crypto payments gateways, but if LEDGER official shop uses Bitpay, Bitpay is definitely the best for a reason. Don't break your head and go with the simplest

I'm still worried about the exchange​

If you 100% need a stable coin, USDC via Polygon is the cheapest by far (still expensive for little transactions but the cheapest).
For USDT microtransactions, the only worthy method is Binance Pay as I have already stated

Conclusion​

Please stop using USDT.
And for my lord: STOP OFFERING BITCOIN AND ETHEREUM PAYMENTS
When someone offers me BTC or ETH as a payment method for a microtransaction (under $300), I pray for his soul, considering that hell could be awaiting.

I partly agree about anything on the ERC(ETH) network is pretty much non-usable for smaller transactions. BTC however has lightning which is fast and cheaper than TRON or MATIC, but takes a bit more effort to set up.

Also sending USDT on TRX isn’t 3$ if you’re using the correct wallet. It’s always like 1TRX gas fee through Tronlink, even free if you’re staking energy (look it up).

 

[PauncheousPirate]

Aren't crypto fees from using a well known chain just the cost of convenience? It's inconvenient for customers to switch between fantom/polygon/whatever low-volume-high-performance chain you offer payment over, particularly if they aren't that crypto savvy. If the seller community somehow coordinates and picks a single chain so users can just use one, tx's costs on that chain go up. I agree that doing micro over layer 1 btc is probably not the future. I wonder if there's value in creating a wallet that doesn't care about the chain and just route's you down whatever is cheapest at the time. It would expose a simple interface that just says "send" but under the hood it would spread your crypto over the chains and you'd pay over the cheapest ones. It would have to be really smart under the hood though and do things like rebalance your holdings accross chains while tx costs are low. Sounds hard. Come to think of it I think your right, most scalable chain should be settled on and promoted.

 

[SirLouen]

Also sending USDT on TRX isn’t 3$ if you’re using the correct wallet. It’s always like 1TRX gas fee through Tronlink, even free if you’re staking energy (look it up).

Do you think people have time to waste so much of their attention to that degree, for example to stack energy for lower cost TRX transactions?

In fact someone also told me that Tronlink was a solution, so I tried Tronlink some days ago, and it has been super expensive also as expected (not 1 TRX by any means)

Check this (I've done it right now). 30 USDT fricking 27.25TRX. Are we crazy?



We all need something simple please, USDT microtransactions are a serious problem overall, except for MATIC/Polygon which seem to be pretty clean even with USDT as I have recently observed (I would edit the original post but I can't). But it also happens that noone use Polygon

About BTC Lightning...... it's not yet an option. Let's see maybe in 3 or 4 years. This is why I explicitely put this in the beginning:

So I decided to write a little guide to explain which are the better options in 2023 from my point of view.

The only good thing is that I've seen that Bitpay and now Coinbase payments as @BlurryBit have suggested here, are also accepting Polygon transaction which mean, a brighter future for both USDT/USDC and I'm happy that maybe, in 1 year, 2024, I will see in most ecommerce that accept cryptocurrencies, offering the Polygon option.