Onboarding new users has been 2020’s biggest challenge, says Money Button’s Ryan X. Charles. But a new deal with digital asset platform Coinify could make things a little easier: this month, the two companies partnered to allow Money Button users to fund their BSV wallets using a credit card.
The process can be completed entirely within the Money Button interface (web desktop or mobile). After clicking the “Add money” button above their balance, users can then select “credit card” alongside the Paymail and standard Bitcoin address options.
Purchase Bitcoin SV (BSV) inside Money Button with a credit card, powered by Coinifyhttps://t.co/wYzeFnhyKs
— MoneyButton and MBX (@money_button) August 13, 2020
They’ll then be asked to provide a location and personal information to proceed, since Coinify complies with international KYC regulations. Coinify’s services are available to all English-speaking countries and most others (though not Japan, mainland China or South Korea). Here are the jurisdictions where you can buy (or even sell) with Coinify.
Many Bitcoin newcomers over the years have expressed surprise and disappointment at not being able to purchase digital assets using a credit card, given cards are still the most common way to pay online. According to Charles, this was due to many banks and credit card companies blocking digital asset-related transactions—however Coinify has “established all the right relationships” to make that option more available.
Coinify is also providing the credit card payment backend for BuyBSV.com, another service that allows users to purchase BSV and send to any other wallet. In that case, users would need to specify their own address to send the BSV rather than buying it directly from the wallet interface. BuyBSV also allows purchases by bank transfer.
CoinGeek spoke to Ryan X. Charles about the Coinify deal, Money Button’s strategy and integration with other services, and what its priorities are for the coming year. Read on to find out more.
Interview with Ryan X. Charles, Money Button founder and CEO
Why did you choose Coinify as the service to do a deal with?
Coinify is an outstanding exchange with good support for BSV. They provide a reliable service and a cost that is reasonable to the users. Furthermore, they have an advanced API that allows us to integrate the purchase directly inside the Money Button wallet application.
What has been the biggest challenge Money Button has faced in 2020?
The biggest challenge by far is onboarding. In other words, it is difficult for people who are not already familiar with BSV to be able to use Money Button. Integrating with Coinify is a key milestone to make Money Button more accessible to a mainstream audience. Now our users do not need to figure out how to sign up for a BSV exchange somewhere else. They can do so directly inside Money Button itself.
One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard from Bitcoin newcomers over the years is that it’s hard to get into Bitcoin via a credit card. Why has it taken so many years to get deals like this working?
The biggest issue with this is that many banks and credit card companies have blocked cryptocurrency purchases for various reasons. Fortunately, Coinify is an outstanding exchange that has established all the right relationships to make credit card purchases work for a large number of users.
Was it easier to do a deal like the Coinify one now, as compared to a year or two ago?
Yes. A year or two ago there were no options. But today, Coinify has an outstanding service that is easy to integrate.
What should be a higher priority (in your opinion) for Bitcoin wallet operators: developing mobile apps, or doing deals to integrate with other Bitcoin services? Why is that?
The most important thing is integrating with applications, not mobile support. The primary reason is that we do not yet have a killer app and we can iterate with new apps much more easily on the web than on mobile. Once the killer app is established, it makes sense to dedicate resources to mobile.
Can you drop any hints on future improvements you’re making to Money Button?
We care deeply about the onboarding experience.
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