How Stripe partnered with Zero Hash to build a better crypto and Web3 payments experience
Stripe now enables merchants to embed the acceptance of digital payments, with a full suite of developer-first tools that makes the entire payments experience seamless. Stripe is not only a titan within Fintech, but has also grown to become one of the most valuable private companies in the world.
Stripe’s mission is to “increase the GDP of the Internet” The internet is evolving and Stripe identified a payment challenge that whilst crypto and Web3 has evolved, the way that people interact with this space is far too complicated. As Guillaume Poncin, Stripe’s Crypto Lead explained:
“Web3 developers have many missing pieces that prevent them from delivering a great on-and-off-ramp payments experience. We need to provide developers with the right tools to get the Web3 payments experience to parity with Web2.”
In partnership with Zero Hash, Stripe took their first step on this journey by launching an embeddable and customizable fiat-to-crypto onramp solution. Zero Hash CEO and Founder, Edward Woodford, had the pleasure of sitting down for a live discussion with Stripe Crypto Lead, Guillaume Poncin, to discuss:
- Why Stripe is excited about innovation with crypto and Web3 rails;
- Why they decided to partner with Zero Hash
- How Stripe and Zero Hash are removing barriers between web2 and Web3 for a seamless payments experience for startups and established companies alike
Let’s start by looking a closer look at the Stripe on-ramp:
A) The opportunity that Stripe saw: Leveling up the Web3 payments experience
The objective for Stripe were to solve challenges in the Web 3 payments experience:
- Support Web3 developers with better payments tools to offer a seamless fiat-to-crypto onramp experience for their end-users;
- Remove the complexity of onramp for Web 3, including fraud and KYC
- Enable consumers to seamlessly purchase tokenized Web 3 assets, including NFTs
For example, today, if you wish to buy an NFT for the first time, you have to go through several steps. From a Web3 developer’s perspective, they need to integrate a myriad of vendors to facilitate the NFT checkout experience. A developer’s time is best spent focused on keeping users in the app and providing the easiest way to complete a purchase.
On the challenges that Stripe sought to solve, Guillaume said that
“to us, this sounded like the early days of e-commerce — in the 2000s, it was very difficult to accept payments on the internet. Stripe made it easy with 7 lines of code famously and this enabled a whole generation of start ups. We wanted to do the same for Web 3.”
B) The solution: A simple & embeddable fiat-to-crypto on-ramp
Stripe integrated Zero Hash’s infrastructure and built an onramp solution leveraging just four Zero Hash API endpoints. Web3 developers can embed and customize Stripe’s onramp into their site, with customization. Merchants have the ability to purchase end-to-end in less than 30 seconds, and even less time when identity and payment methods are remembered through Stripe’s Link product.
“Link is a way to remember users across the internet and we can make the repeat purchase even simpler,”
“Building an onramp solution is like a “complicated layered cake,”
Guillaume
Stripe already manages several layers incredibly well: fiat acceptance, KYC, identity verification, APIs and fraud. Zero Hash provides the crypto infrastructure via API, providing crypto liquidity, custody, settlement as well as the regulatory licensing layer.
C) Today Web3 brands, tomorrow the biggest brands in the world
Today Stripe’s onramp solution, built on Zero Hash’s crypto-as-a-service API infrastructure, is powering some of the leading Web3 brands, including: Myetherwallet, Venly, Orca, Ottr, Niftys, Argent, Fractal, Fastaf, Magic Eden, Magic and Glow.
These customers are already experiencing the benefits of Stripe’s fiat-to-crypto onramp.
“This is a big step toward removing barriers between traditional and decentralized finance,” said Itamar Lesuisse, CEO of Argent. “We’re excited to bring Stripe’s world-class payments infrastructure and user experience to our customers.”
Stripe’s fiat-to-crypto onramp isn’t just for Web3 platforms. Guillaume stressed that
“Feedback came from the 2 person YC startup all the way to very big companies that engage with Stripe already. Taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture, Stripe does payments for some of the biggest brands in the world and all of these are expressing interest in using the solution as they expand into Web 3.”
D) Why Stripe decide to partner rather than build
Stripe recognized that crypto and Web3 evolve quickly, which requires a constant evolution in the technical stack. Stripe also didn’t want to wait years to be able to bring a solution to market.
“Speed to market was a fundamental factor in our decision to partner. In particular, we didn’t want to wait 12–24 months to acquire all of the regulatory licenses to be able to operate,”
Guillaume continued, “We needed a partner who could operate at the technical excellence we wanted but also bring to the table the right set of licenses. Zero Hash fits that set of requirements really well…”
Guillaume
E) Zero Hash stood out above other potential partners
Stripe compared several crypto infrastructure solutions. Our approaches aligned. Guillaume said that,
“Coming out of the deep dive evaluation of the top 3 [prospective partners], Zero Hash came out ahead clearly…Zero Hash shares the same focus on developer-first infrastructure as Stripe. Zero Hash has the right technical excellence, regulatory licenses, and compliance program.”
We’ve purpose-built our platform to be modular, so partners like Stripe can fit our product into the exact piece they need. This resonated with Guillaume who said that,
“We wanted to use components that Stripe already had such as Stripe Identity for a seamless experience. We need Zero Hash for the conversion of crypto and fulfilling the transaction on-chain to the wallet of the user.”
F) Building for the future
“We needed a flexible, future-proof solution. Stripe builds APIs that will last for 10s of years and this formation should exist in any climate,” Guillaume said.
Today, Stripe’s onramp solution provides access to 6 digital assets: BTC, ETH, SOL, MATIC, USDC (on ETH/SOL/Polygon). Zero Hash provides access to 65+ digital assets across 22 blockchains. Guillaume said,
“We wanted a partner we can grow with, whether we decide to add new chains or coins. We valued the expansive product Zero Hash offers today and we believe they will implement new products and features in a timeline that works for both sides.”
Edward further explained why Zero Hash has continually invested in innovation:
“Developers want access to new blockchains that come into the space and even existing blockchains like Ethereum have fundamentally changed. Priorities shift and we’re building the infrastructure to support our customers like Stripe to shift with them, seamlessly.”
Stripe and Zero Hash both remain excited for the future of crypto and Web3 and we look forward to building further innovation to simplify Web3 for developers and consumers
You can watch the full discussion between Edward and Guillaume here:
If you are a platform that wants to be a part of the future of digital assets, get in touch with our team and let’s talk about your custom crypto product by emailing [email protected].
