EverPay Partners with Legend to Offer Fiat Services
EverVision's veteran product, everPay, is receiving an exciting new functionality: they will offer the capacity to buy crypto with dollars and with six other different fiat currencies, including pounds and Euro.
They are able to embed this component into everPay by teaming up with Legend Trading. According to their website, Legend is responsible monthly for over 1 billion $ in transactions, has over 800 institutional clients, and what's even more important for arweavers, it's fully compliant with U.S regulations and registered with FinCEN.
Why is this important? For years we received complaints about the fact that it is hard for U.S. citizens to buy Arweave. There are not even too many centralised exchanges that offer Arweave for American residents (I think that until now, only Uphold did). everPay fixed this: you can buy USDC and swap it for AR$ in the same interface.
Before we showcase to you how to do exactly that, let me be frank and come up with some head ups: Yes, it requires KYC, the whole thing - name, address, phone number, pictures of your ID and face, a little questionnaire about the source of your income, etc. However, there are two pieces of good news: first, you have to do the KYC only once; second, you will share your data only with Legend Trading. Nobody from everVision/everPay has access to your data. Truth be told, I would have preferred to share my data with everVision, because I know them, than with a third party, but it is what it is; neither everPay nor we can alter the rules of the world we live in...at least for now.
Another fair warning is that, depending on your location, you may experience some loading issues or even tiny bugs. Nothing you can't surpass without some patience and a casual refresh. Also, the overall UI can be improved, in my opinion, at some critical steps because otherwise, you may feel a little disoriented, but again, nothing that should deem the experience a deal breaker.
Without further ado, let's dive into a mini tutorial on how to use fiat on everPay:
First, you'll be greeted by this message. I didn't comply with the first note, and I went further with the configuration on my PC's Chrome browser and chose to connect with my ArConnect. You can do it, but indeed, you need your phone close by because you have to take some pictures at some point.
After you chose which network and wallet you want to connect with and connect, you'll be prompted with this disclaimer:
Basically, it brings you up to speed that after you check the boxes and press "continue" you're on the realm of Legend Trading and everPay has nothing to do with what will happen there. So, two boxes checked and one button pressed later, you'll encounter this view:
The whole bar is one giant button you have to press (in all fairness they told me from the first step that I'd better do this on mobile, so probably there the button is not that stretched). As you can see, for now, you can buy only USDC. One giant button pressed, and you'll encounter this view:
If you want to opt for SEPA or another type of direct bank transfer, our ways are parting here because I went for the debit card route. As any degen, I'm aping for instant resolution than for the lowest fee...
And boom, the next view after you choose the debit card route will put you in the face of an almost philosophical question: "How much" will it be? Please note that this is the moment when you can opt for the currency with which you want to buy USDC. Also, keep in mind that the minimum amount for a purchase is 50 $ or 40 Euro.
The next field will ask for your email. I introduced my proton email, and it failed.
It's not a bug, it's a feature from Legend Trading. I tried my gmail address, and it worked. everPay team assured me that they will ask Legend Trading about a list of supported email services that will be displayed somewhere in this view.
Anyway, introduce a "valid" email address, and you'll receive a six-digit code on your email. After you've completed the email authentication, you'll have to stay put for a number of views that will ask for your KYC details (I won't put print screens for all the views because they are pretty straight-forward and I don't want to transform this part into an illustration book):
KYC step 1: fields for name and DOB (date of birth).
In between these two steps, there is an intermediary view that looks like this:
I suppose it is meant for you to double-check some details, like is the wallet the one you wanted to link with Legend?
KYC step 2: Phone number (followed by a field where you have to introduce a six-digit code you received via SMS in order to complete the phone verification sequence)
KYC step 3: a short survey that will ask for stuff like the source of income, etc.
KYC step 4: ID verification; it will ask for a picture of your ID document and your face. Those two pictures should be made on the spot.
Somewhere around here, you will be asked to input the information from your credit card. And yeah, I just disclosed the country where I live, not necessarily an idyllic destination, but if you are an arweaver and somehow you end up here, we may drink a beer or something.
As a personal note, the ID verification process was quick, like very quick. One or two minutes tops. Still, immediately after I finished the KYC process, I encountered a hiccup. I don't know if you would as well, anyway, I was promoted directly into this view:
This, from what I understood, is the view branded as "Deposit" and it has to do with bank account operations, so instead of going for any of these two options, push the black square from the upper right corner that will open a menu looking like this:
Once you end up here, push the "trade" option", and you should be promoted to this view:
Push "buy", and it gets you to an almost identical view that we encountered before:
However, this time is for real. You are that close to buying USDC with fiat. One more view where, please be aware, that there is a check box somewhere at the bottom of the page (I didn't see it the first time, and I was just pushing an inactive "confirm" button like a monkey).
As you can see, for 50 $ you'll receive around 46 USDC. There is a flat (or at least that's my assumption because I played around with different amounts, and the network fee was always the same) 1.5 $ fee as a "network fee" and a 4% processing fee that probably goes to the third party involved. Not the best fee when you compare it with other providers, but not the worst, I suppose. Again, I have to remind you that I went for the debit card purchase. If I had tried SEPA the fee would have been substantially lower. So yeah, keep this in mind. If you are a whale and want to spend big, go for the SEPA transaction, you'll probably wait a working day, but you'll save a lot.
Aaaand finally, here you have it. The first ever documented purchase of crypto with fiat on everPay. I'm not gonna lie, it was a bumpy ride for me, but like I said, not at all a deal breaker.
Anyway, that's not the finality we were aiming for. I have 46 USDC but still no Arweave. Well, you have to push the swap button located in the upper middle menu of everPay; you know it already if you used everPay in the past, and just swap the USDC for AR$.
To be honest, it's a pretty striking difference between this swap, which is made by everPay and powered by their own tech, and all the tedious steps required for buying USDC with fiat. The swap is instant, and it carries no fees.
It's mental how you can see the actual clash between two different ways of doing more or less the same thing. The entire clunky process of getting 50 $ from a debit card and purchasing USDC, and then the seamless way of transacting once you are "in".
Until the "new" will totally conquer the "old", we have to rely on both, and that's exactly what everPay did here.
