Step of Exchanges Comparison
ChangeNOW
ChangeNOW is a non-custodial exchange with the purpose to make your exchange experience as simple as possible where the steps are:
1 Have cryptocurrency wallet. If you don't have any crypto coins, then you need a credit card.
2 Visit any ChangeNOW exchange interfaces.
3 Choose a coin that you want to exchange and if you are happy with the rate, then confirm.
4 No registration, just input the receiving coin address of your wallet.
5 Deposit your coin into the generated deposited address.
6 If everything goes well, you will receive those coins. Here is my receipt https://changenow.io/exchange/txs/978626e7ab7df9.
Looks like there is not KYC/AML for low transaction amount. I do read that they require KYC/AML if they detect suspicious transaction. What are the fees?. Well, there are various network and trading fee but they claim that their service are to find the best exchange offer.
Most Custodial Exchanges?
Common Exchange Process
Visit the custodial exchange website.
Register your email address, phone number for extra security, and fill in your profile such as your name, address, etc.
Open your email address and click the link to verify your email address, also open your phone's short message service (sms) to get your one time password to verify your phone number.
Deposit coins or fiat. Fiat deposit is usually only business hour.
Exchange your coins or fiat.
Request withdrawal of your coins.
Verify your withdrawal through email, sms, two-factor authentication (2FA), or all.
Wait until the exchange accept your withdrawal request.
If everything goes well, you will receive those coins.
Increase your account's security by adding 2FA, etc.
The process may not be complicated but contains many step and can be time consuming. However, for most people in the current era, this custodial exchange is preferred because it is made similar to the current banking system. Although there are many time consuming steps in the process, they are all to secure the funds of the users for them. In the true decentralized crypto world, the users may have complete control but bears the responsibility of securing their funds alone. Most people today are not ready to bear such responsibility, for example when they lose their keys, they lose their funds forever, and another one is that the transaction process is irreversible where if they make a mistake in writing the address, they also lose their funds forever. When the user have problems with the interface, exchanging, depositing, withdrawing, and even when they lost their password, the support can help them. When anything goes wrong, the users can even blame the support and may even get refunds.
If KYC/AML are Involved
Additional steps are:
Fill in your complete profile. Some exchanges allows you to withdraw very little amount after finishing this step.
Upload your identity card which can be citizenship card, driver license, passport etc.
Upload your selfie where each exchanges varies from just your selfie is enough, your selfie while holding your identity card, until selfie hodling both identity card and a piece of paper with the date and your signature etc. Some exchanges allows you to withdraw lots of fund after this step
An even stricter exchange requires proof of address where you need to proof that you live on that address by for example uploading a letter to you from the government, and bills that shows your name and address.
For withdrawing massive amount of fund for high networth individuals requires further proof of fund origin, clearly stating where the fund came from.
The highest level of KYC/AML is direct interview.
Image from Coincheck. KYC stands for know your customer and AML stands for anti money laundring. For advocates of privacy, this is a very annoying requirement. I can guarantee that almost everyone are not willing to open their identity. However, for the bigger picture, most people probably agree to KYC/AML high networth individuals. Who knows if those people are stealing your money through corruption, taxes, inflation, etc. If they buy cryptocurrency before you, than you will be the loser.
In App Exchange
In Wallet Exchange
Open your wallet and deposit coins into your wallet if you have not.
Choose exchange and choose coins to exchange.
If you accept the rate, then proceed to exchange.
In wallet exchange is by far the simplest but do you know that ChangeNOW is one of the 3rd party exchange applications that can be integrated into any wallet? Guarda wallet built-in exchange utilizes ChangeNOW. Well, it's up for the developer but for anyone who wants to integrate the functions, just learn how to use their APIs. Who knows, it may give better exchange rates and fees.
Decentralized Exchanges (DEX)
Open your web3 wallet and deposit Ethereum and other coins into your wallet if you have not.
Find a DEX service.
Choose coins to exchange.
If you accept the rate and Ethereum gas fee, then proceed to exchange.
DEXs are mainly used for P2P transaction where the smart contracts performs the automation. The point of DEX the control of own funds and censorship resistance. However, most DEX that I know today relies on Ethereum where you always need Ethereum for transactions.
Affiliate Program
After this I will write about embedding ChangeNOW widget on your personal sites but before that, join the affiliate program or you will miss out on the 0.4% commission of the fees when users use your widgets or any built-in you made, for example, here is my referral link: https://changenow.io?link_id=123040aec1d261.
Widgets
Since I am a content creator and a blogger, this is my favourite part about ChangeNOW. Unlike decentralized finance, exchange, and token in the old days, ChangeNOW is one of the platforms that provides widgets for bloggers like me where all you need to do is to paste the code provided on your widget section. However, before that you need to make sure that your blog, platform, or website can run:
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
JavaScript (JS)
Well, you don't need to thoroughly check but just copy&paste the code and see if it works. If it doesn't work, then your platform does not support so your next best thing is to just post your referral link. Disclaimer, below is my widget code, don't use mine because all the commissions will go to me. Therefore, get your own code at https://changenow.io/embeds/widget.
This is a screenshot of ChangeNOW widget that I tried placing on Blogger Sidebar through Layout function.
Full Wordpress Exchange
They provide a pack to build a full Wordpress ChangeNOW exchange site. The experience is like having your own full exchange website. You can get the Wordpress plugin, them, and intallation guide at https://changenow.io/your-exchange. I have my exchange ec2-52-69-251-238.ap-northeast-1.compute.amazonaws.com by following the installation guide and recorded a video of the process. Although the installation guide starts with building your own cloud VPS but actually most of the procedure is installing Wordpress. If you already have Wordpress, all you need to do is to upload the plugin and theme, and install an additional Polylang plugin. Finally, navigate to Theme NOW gear somewhere at the buttom of the admin panel and input your API key.
My Comments and Questions
I think is a great idea to integrate web3 wallets if there are no problems with regulations regarding to decentralization.
From the FAQ about fees, they claim that they are trying to find the best offer, but how much fee do they take for themselves?
They have KYC/AML FAQ in their website but when I tried exchanging 5 USDT, I did not encounter KYC/AML. If my understanding is correct, they have an algorithm to detect suspicious transactions. It would be nice to share their explanation.
Mirrors
