The Fiat onramp is something that is becoming more and more important.
What is a Fiat onramp?
It is a way to get from your regular Fiat money into the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
What is Fiat money?
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fiatmoney.asp
Fiat money is a government-issued currency that is not backed by a physical commodity, such as gold or silver, but rather by the government that issued it. The value of fiat money is derived from the relationship between supply and demand and the stability of the issuing government, rather than the worth of a commodity backing it as is the case for commodity money. Most modern paper currencies are fiat currencies, including the U.S. dollar, the euro, and other major global currencies.
I guess onramp is a matter of perspective.
For me, it is more a way to get out of FIAT as it is only backed by the faith in the local government. And they have proven time after time that that faith is mostly misplaced. So it would not be an onramp as more of an offramp.
Be that as it may, in these times we still need the bridges to the FIAT world in order to be able to live.
Until you can pay taxes in crypto you need these bridges.
- Bank transfer.
Most exchanges have a bank account to transact with agents in the traditional finance space. The simplest way of depositing money to a cryptocurrency application is by making a bank transfer. This is usually the cheapest but slower way to proceed.
- Card payment.
The possibility of card payments to recharge your fiat balance in a crypto app is usually offered by payment providers. This is the fastest way to proceed but usually costs 3-5% commission from the credit card providers.
So what is with the big promise of crypto to Bank the unbanked...
There we have different options. Since most unbanked have more and more access to mobile devices they can set up crypto wallets. We can see that there are more and more solutions coming as this is a potentially enormous market for those that get it right.
For the moment these people have 4 options:
- ATM's Deposit fiat, get BTC or other Crypto.
- Kiosks and Shops that provide crypto buying services.
- Peer to peer. Services like localbitcoins allow you to buy from other people (usually with a premium)
- get paid in crypto
And this 4th option is how all this grows.