Until now, Breez users have been able to top-up their Breez balances either by transferring bitcoins from their on-chain wallets or by buying vouchers via FastBitcoins. Both options work great, as droves of active users can confirm. However, many users may not be able to reach one of FastBitcoins’ many locations conveniently, and the procedure of buying bitcoin over an exchange might be daunting for many incoming fiat users.

That’s the beauty of integrating MoonPay into the Breez app: it lets users in over 35 countries top-up their Breez balances via credit card. In addition to being the first mobile Lightning app to integrate Neutrino and having the best non-custodial UX out there, Breez is now also the first credit-card-compatible Lightning app.

Getting to the top is hard, and staying there is even harder, but what a view! (Photo credit: pxhere)

The road to the Lightning economy is paved with fiat

Giving users the ability to buy top-up directly with their credit cards, as MoonPay does, is so important because of who those users are and the experience they’re looking for.

Perhaps the most important point to remember in kickstarting the Lightning economy is that most users will be transitioning directly from fiat, not from bitcoin or another crypto. The reasoning is simple: given about 25 million bitcoin users worldwide in a population of about 7.6 billion, only about 0.33 percent of all people hold bitcoin. And given that everybody has to make payments, but not everybody has to invest, most people will gravitate towards Lightning as the best technology available for bitcoin transfers and payments.

There’s a lot of transitioning left to be done. (Photo credit: Wikimedia)

Since the focus ought to be on users transitioning from fiat, how can we make that transition easier for them?

We have to do better than just meeting fiat users halfway and hoping that they’ll make the effort to complete half the journey themselves. No, we have to pick them up where they are, just like an Uber. In other words, users will only be willing to make the transition if they can use their existing mobile devices, whether Android or iPhone. They will only transition if the Lightning UX is at least as good as fiat. (We think about UX a lot.) Perhaps most importantly (and obviously), they will only transition if they can easily convert their roughly $37 trillion of readily accessible fiat into readily spendable satoshis.

A lot of transitioning. (Image: Brian Altmeyer)

MoonPay: how fiat users want to top-up

Buying bitcoin can be a pain. While crypto exchanges generally do care about UX, they tend not to be terribly user friendly, especially for incoming fiat users. But the inconvenience is not necessarily their fault. Cash is exempt from KYC regulations, which is one reason some countries are looking to curtail the use of cash and move towards a cashless economy. And those KYC regulations are arguably exchanges’ greatest UX hurdle.

That’s the beauty of integrating MoonPay: users can purchase up to 150€ of bitcoin top-up per month KYC-free with their credit cards — the technology they already use daily for purchases. After a quick identity-verification procedure, that limit goes up to 10,000€/month. With MoonPay, Breez users can purchase top-up with the same ease as they would buy a gift card for Google Play or Steam. It’s a fiat-like experience, which is what most incoming users want and probably need.

#UXGoals

So what’s the catch? MoonPay does charge a transaction fee. It’s 4.5% per transaction with a minimum charge of $4.99. Oh, and it’s only available to users in any one of the over 35 countries across four continents that MoonPay currently services (based on IP addresses).

By being the first to introduce credit-card-compatible top-up, we’re making it easy for any user to buy the bitcoin they need to use Lightning. And by embedding MoonPay inside the app, Breez has done the work of finding the best, most user-friendly provider on the market. Everybody’s grandfather can now buy bitcoins and get them ready for Lightning because the procedures mimic the typical fiat transactions users already complete daily.

Behind the scenes

The MoonPay purchase is on-chain, but Breez provides users with a single balance of the funds they have available off-chain for Lightning. How do we do it? Very cleverly. Observe:

Once the user has purchased bitcoins on-chain with MoonPay, Breez uses Submarine Swaps to send the on-chain funds to the user’s node in a trust-free transaction. Should the transfer to the user’s node not succeed for any technical reason, the funds become available for a refund after 288 blocks — about 48 hours. For example, a refund may be triggered if the user doesn’t complete the Lightning transfer to her node by opening the Breez app after the on-chain transaction has been confirmed. In that case, the user will be prompted to enter another on-chain address in which to deposit the funds.

In other words, if the transaction fails for a technical reason, the funds never get lost. Instead, they simply await the user’s rerouting instructions.

How to use the top-up: spend it!

The in-app marketplace full of things you already buy.

Being able to top-up a Lightning balance with a credit card is convenient, but it’s not an end in itself. Users need somewhere to spend those funds. Lightning is a technology to facilitate everyday transactions, which means it exists to help people buy the phones, earbuds, and Swarovski-encrusted bridal crocs they really want (we don’t judge). That’s why the Breez app also includes an in-app marketplace.

After all, everyone, whether long-standing bitcoin enthusiast or fresh convert making their first real purchase in the Lightning economy, has to buy stuff. And there’s no good reason they should have to leave the app to do it.

Thanks to MoonPay, anyone can buy bitcoin with a credit card. Thanks to Breez, everyone can spend their bitcoin on everyday purchases quickly, cheaply, and easily. This is the open beta of the Lightning economy.