Fiat on-ramp integration in the NNS dapp

Governance
1

TLDR: Proposal to add a buy ICP button to the NNS FE

Motivation

  • Increased governance participation on the Internet Computer is key to the success of the network, and its ecosystem.
  • A step towards increasing governance participation is to remove barriers of entry for first-time users by allowing them to quickly experiment with staking, and interact with the Internet Computer’s governance system via the NNS dapp.
  • ICP utility tokens are necessary for voting on proposals that upgrade the network.
  • Currently, there is no way for users to acquire ICP through the NNS dapp.

Suggested approach

  • Introduce a “Buy ICP” button in the NNS dapp that would open up a list of fiat on-ramp service providers that users can choose from.
  • Once selected, the user is taken to the service provider’s website to purchase ICP where their ICP account id is pre-filled.
  • Once completing the purchase, the user will have ICP in their NNS wallet, that they can use to create neurons.
  • DFINITY, or the NNS will not receive revenue from this integration.

Next steps

  • Initially, a single fiat on-ramp provider is to be implemented depending on the simplicity of integration to test the feature.
  • Later on, more providers would be added in order to cover a wide range of fiat currencies and countries.

We welcome your feedback on this proposal and any suggestions on how to improve it.

26 Likes
2

Makes a lot of sense.
Actually, no company is going to deploy critical systems on ICP if experience is crypto-related.

We should run away from crypto-coin world and create a seamless experience as if I was working on AWS, where payment system is just a tokenized card that I input on day 1 and forget about it.

8 Likes
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Please use coinbase, other providers can look shady

7 Likes
4

GREAT IDEA. I think this would help us onboard more users to our community

2 Likes
5

I love the idea, but I don’t really understand the insistence on not receiving any revenue or fee from the transaction. All the other wallets and/or services that do this all charge a fee. I think a small fee would make sense. If the NNS doesn’t want to receive revenue from that it could be allocated to a special treasury for future dApp development grants.

1 Like
6

New NNS dapp upgrade proposal includes an initial version of the “Buy ICP” button using Banxa as the first provider. Please consider voting!

7

I’m not sure if Coinbase uses fiat onramp integrations. Could you point me to a site that uses Coinbase as their onramp?

I like the idea in principle, but I think it’s a lot trickier in practice. I haven’t heard onramp providers partnering with a DAO, where the DAO takes a cut. Or if it’s another entity, who would control this special treasury, and who would decide what projects get grants?

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Dear @chepreghy,

But I am afraid that the use of Coinbase Pay supposes to have a Coinbase account, so that would spoil the 1-step process we want.

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9

How can ICP team develope this in 2 days and take over a year to bring ckETH?

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10

Are you being sarcastic? ckETH is a novel idea that is completely unique and has never been done before. Adding an existing fiat on ramp from a 3rd party that is already developed is a joke compared to ckETH… cmon now

1 Like
11

I’m not sure how this change will bring substantial improvements, the % of users who happen to know about the NNS and require an on ramp to get into the ecosystem is quite small I’d assume.
I’d rather have the team spend the time working on other QoL features, but since it seems to have already been worked on, my only concern are the possible legal ramifications of integrating an on ramp in the NNS.
With the US legal system seemingly gearing up to heavily crack down on cryptos, could this addition further substantiate the token being a security in a hypothetical SEC lawsuit?

12

Doesn’t Plug use Coinbase as a fiat on-ramp?

1 Like
13

Plug is using Onramp Money. As far as I know they don’t yet work in Switzerland.

2 Likes
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PLUG uses onramp and Coinbase pay

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1 Like
16

This looks awesome, thank you! Doesn’t work for me in Switzerland, do you know if this is US-only for now?

EDIT: I see it works, just wasn’t obvious in the Plug UI, my bad.

1 Like
17

Hey, is it possible to talk with Tether to bring USDT to ICP ecosystem (I mean ICRC-2 token)? If so, this would mean a lot I think.

1 Like
18

There is a lot of difference. One is adding fiat onramp and the other is making two blockchains talk to each other. Monumental difference.

1 Like
19

So what do you think ? Would add Coinbase Pay to the NNS be soon feasible ? In addition to Banxa I mean. It would definitely give trust and increase volumes.

1 Like
20

I really like the motivation behind this, adding a “Buy ICP” button in the NNS front end would definitely help lower barriers for first-time users.

One suggestion I have is to build in a small fee that burns a portion of the ICP purchased through this integration. For example, 0.5–1% of the ICP could be burnt as a “convenience fee” for allowing users to purchase directly within the NNS app. This would capture some value for the protocol itself, while still keeping fees low for users. It’s much better than the 0.5- 4.5% you will find on exchanges, and burning the tokens would permanently lock value into the Internet Computer by reducing the overall supply.

2 Likes