Carbon vs. The Field
Cowritten by Daniel Shiferaw (daniel@carbon.money) and Joel Battsek (joel@carbon.money)
We are committed to providing the best fiat-to-crypto on ramp possible.
What makes a great on-ramp ?
There are several factors to an ideal crypto purchasing experience; it should be fast, easy, and cost-effective. We’re fast, our delivery speeds are as good as it gets, we trigger a blockchain transaction within seconds of you hitting “purchase” at https://buy.carbon.money and the asset hits your account as quick as the transaction can be confirmed. We’re easy, we have multiple integration options depending on developer capabilities and our front-end is simple and intuitive. Additionally, we don’t require KYC for purchases under $250, making the process as frictionless as possible. Finally, we’re cost effective. We not only provide the best rates for your purchase, (with no hidden spread), our 2.99% transaction fee is the best around, giving you the most bang (crypto) for your buck ($$).
We not only provide the best rates for your purchase…Our 2.99% transaction fee is the best around.
It’s easy for us to just say all these things, but we’d rather show you with an analysis of our competition, so you can buy crypto with the confidence that you’re not getting ripped off.
To do this, we tried purchases on all the major crypto on ramps to see how we all stack up against each other.
Prices are obtained at roughly 9:00 PM ET on September 4, 2019 for a Chase US-issued debit card. We have verified accounts with each of the following services. The reference transaction for on-ramp pricing comparisons was a $1000 purchase of BTC (including fees) via debit.
Carbon
To start off with, here’s our bench mark.
- 3% fee
- No hidden spreads
- 14 Cryptocurrencies supported in 2 months of existence (more added every week)
- Support over 100 countries, anticipate US support by the end of 2019
- Optional KYC (only required for purchases of over $250 per day)
- KYC takes ~2 minutes
- Crypto is sent instantly once the purchase is sent
Coinbase
- ~3.8% fee
- Supports only 47+ countries
- Supports 16 cryptocurrencies (has been in business for 7 years)
Simplex
- 3.5% fee (5% by default, but gives a special rate to Binance)
- ~2% hidden spreed charged above the market crypto price
- Requires KYC (cumbersome process, takes 10–15 minutes)
- Slow delivery, (took about 30 minutes to receive bitcoin)
Moonpay
- ~4.3% fee
- Hidden spread of ~2.65% over market bitcoin rate
- 10–15 minutes for crypto delivery
- Supports just under 40 countries
How do we do it ?
We provide our own liquidity via the capital markets team of our partner entity, Katechon. This allows us to optimize our holdings, manage our risk, and provide fair market rates to the end user without incurring the additional costs of a contracted liquidity provider.
Why should you care?
In addition to having a seamless UI, a powerful API, and the fastest settlement in the market, we offer the best rates for credit/debit purchases of crypto. This allows you to maximize your purchases and HODL more assets. We hope we have won you over for your next purchase, try it yourself !
