For Friends & Family

Onchain payments bring the same innovations to personal use as they do businesses, and sometimes onchain can feel more innovative for some people.

The Onchain Advantage

Speed

With traditional payment systems, payments can take days to process. With modern blockchains like Ethereum, Solana, and the Bitcoin Lightning Network, payments move faster.

Security

As long as you keep your seed phrase secure, nobody can compromise your funds. When you make transactions, you're cryptographically signing a statement saying “I want to send X amount to some account.” No compromising information ever leaves your possession in a transaction.

Sovereignty

Blockchains are controlled by no single entity. Blockchains are made of many decentralized nodes, each keeping a copy of the blockchain's state, and using algorithms to agree on changes to the state of the blockchain. With decentralized architecture and self-custody combined, blockchain technology provides unparalleled financial sovereignty.

IMPORTANT

Stablecoins are controlled by their issuers!

Stablecoin issuers such as Tether and Circle have been known to blacklist addresses in exceptional circumstances, such as to meet regulatory demands (anti-money laundering, etc). Some crypto proponents have used this criticism against stablecoins.

Global Reach

Onchain payments are accessible to anyone in the world with access to the internet, giving people in areas without traditional banking access to a place to store value. Onchain technology is also being used by citizens in countries experiencing hyperinflation to safeguard value without the limits of their government, for example in Argentina.

Also, onchain payments make it easy to send payments across nations without the problems of wire transfers or companies like MoneyGram and Western Union. You can send crypto or stablecoins directly to anyone in the world with a wallet, no matter where either party resides. Someone in the US can send some USDC to their family in Mexico, and then the recipient can either spend the USDC where it is supported or use an exchange to convert it to Mexican Pesos. Same if the American wanted to pay a friend in London, USDC goes to the Londoner's wallet, and the Londoner can either spend it where supported or convert it to pounds.

How to use onchain payments

From your wallet you can send and receive with an address. You can also scan and generate QR codes that contain the same address. It's also possible to use usernames of different types, either a username native to a particular app, or an ENS name that works across apps.

Some wallets support special ERC-681 links that are basically payment requests (if you want to generate one yourself, I made a website for that at https://erc681.littlebitstudios.com), although this isn't common (the only wallet I know of that supports this is the Base App).

CAUTION

Onchain payments have zero protection! Be aware of scams!

Once an onchain payment has been processed, you can do nothing to reverse it. Make sure to educate yourself on what scams are currently happening and how to avoid them.

Receiving

To receive funds, look for the “Receive” button in your wallet. It may look like a QR code, a downwards arrow, or something else. If it leads to a screen with a QR code on it, you're in the right place. In some cases on mobile devices there will be a QR code button that can either scan codes or show your code. It may be wise to ask the sender what chain they're sending on so that you can see if your wallet supports it. Most wallets will display supported networks on the QR code screen.

Now show the QR code screen to the sender, and they can scan the code with their wallet to send you funds. They can even keep your address in their wallet's contact list so they can send money to you without the need to see your address QR code again.

If chatting online, you can simply paste a username or address in the chat, and the sender can paste or enter it into their wallet to perform the transaction.

Sending

To send funds, look for the “Send” option in your wallet, which may have many different icons. You'll be asked for an address, or in come cases you can also use an ENS name or other username. On mobile you'll also likely find a QR code option here, to scan someone's address QR code.

NOTE

Having issues with an ENS name (*.eth)?

Try entering ENS names your wallet won't accept into https://ensv.littlebitstudios.com.
It should help you find and copy their address. Learn more on the Simple ENS Viewer page.

Once you've confirmed the recipient, choose the amount you want to send. Sometimes a wallet will do this in reverse, asking for the amount and currency to send before asking for the recipient. Just follow what your wallet shows you.

For Bitcoin

Bitcoin doesn't have a username system unless you're talking about Lightning. If you're using a Lightning wallet, you can send to a Lightning address (someone@example.com). You may also come across Lightning invoices, which start with "lnbc..." and encode the amount to send, useful for paying at businesses.

If you want to transact onchain, it's a similar process to sharing addresses with QR codes for Ethereum.

If you're receiving funds with the Cashu protocol, you may see a rapidly changing QR code that you'll need to hold your phone up to for an extended period to receive the funds.

Sometimes you'll encounter a QR code with a string starting with "bitcoin:", encoding multiple sections of data. That's a BIP-321 link, designed to encode multiple Bitcoin payment methods in one link or QR code.