🇺🇦 Читати інструкцію українською: bashuk.net/crypto 🤝 Credits for translation: Ivan Mylianyk, Kateryna Tverdokhlib 🔍 Spotted a mistake? Let me know: crypto@bashuk.net
ℹ️ Why crypto?
The Guide below describes purchase and transfer of stable cryptocurrency Tether (1 USDT = $1) in GBP via Kraken platform (FCA regulated).
- ✅ Relevant: Chmut is grateful for donations in crypto and uses it to by “specific products”. Prytula asks for crypto, prays for it, uses it to buy thermal imagers and “hell cars”. Chobanian explains how crypto can save lives.
- ✅ Fast: works 24/7, transfers in minutes.
- ✅ Cheap: total fee = 0.2% of total amount + $4 flat rate.
- ✅ Efficient: fair exchange rate, no double conversion.
- ✅ Simple: only the address of the crypto wallet is required.
- ✅ Confirmation: transaction is traceable in public blockchain explorers.
🪜 Step-by-step guide
Note. The author is not responsible for potential fuck-ups. And generally is not responsible for anything. Please be careful and exercise caution.
- Register on Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/
- Verify your account: Menu in top right → Get Verified → Intermediate → follow the instructions.
- Add GBP to your account: Funding tab at the top → Deposit → GBP → follow the instructions. Once the top-up payment is made, it may take 5-10 minutes for the account balance to update.
Note. I used the Fund with Plaid option → Monzo, works perfectly.
- Buy USDT: At the top left corner under the kraken-button press Market → enter “USDT GBP” → Trade → Simple tab:
- Order: Buy
- Volume: <transfer-amount-in-pounds> GBP
- Order type: Market
- Press Buy USDT with GBP
- Find the wallet address of the recipient: We need the USDT TRC-20 address (a.k.a. Tether TRC-20):
- Example #2:
TX9aN...BXWzonfor Come Back Alive fund (Povernys Zhyvym)
CAUTION! USDT ERC-20, Tether ERC-20, TUSD – all of these are completely different currencies. It must say specifically “USDT” or “Tether”, AND specifically “TRC-20”.
- Send USDT: Funding tab → Withdraw → USDT:
- Withdrawal type: Tether USD (TRC20)
- Withdrawal address: <address-from-step-5-above>
- Withdrawal amount: <transfer-amount-in-dollars> USDT
- Press Withdraw USDT
- Now wait: It usually takes a few minutes for the the transaction to be completed and for the status to change to
Success.
- Check the transaction: Funding tab → Recent transactions → click on the ID → click on Transaction ID to be transferred to tronscan.org, where you can check your transaction on blockchain.
Note. You need to use the Funding tab, and not the History tab. The latter shows all the transactions, but won’t give you the blockchain transaction ID.
Note. Alternatively, visit tronscan.org, enter the recipient’s wallet address, and then navigate to the Transfers tab. You should see your transaction there.
👛 Who accepts crypto?
- Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine – the mail official crypto-wallet of Ukraine
- Come Back Alive (Повернись Живим) – biggest non-governmental organization providing support to the Armed Forces of Ukraine
- Prytula Foundation – another big and reliable fund
- KOLO – smaller foundation specialised in rapid support to the Ukrainian military
🤔 Why this way and not that way?
All the fancy details for the most curious folks.
Why...
... crypto? 🪙
Transfers in ordinary (fiat) currencies have significant disadvantages. I have compared several payment methods accepted by several well-known funds, and every single one of them isn’t that great:
- Any transfers to hryvnia (UAH) accounts: Double conversion into hryvnia and back. You pay in pounds, the fund receives hryvnias and then exchanges them for pounds / dollars / euros and buys ammunition in Europe for them. Given the volatility of the hryvnia exchange rate, double conversion is, to put it mildly, suboptimal.
- Card systems: Moderate fees (1-3%) + potential limits on cards. For example, the Fondy card system used by the Come Back Alive foundation takes more than 2% of the transfer amount in fees.
- Paypal: High fees (3-4%).
- SWIFT: Unpredictable flat fee not known beforehand (0-25 USD), takes long time, not working on weekends. Lack of payment confirmation, payments sometimes get lost, and you won’t even know unless you’re in direct contact with the recipient.
The crypto solves all these problems. It is fast (arrives in minutes, works 24/7), cheap (fees about 0.2% - read more below), optimal (avoids conversion into hryvnia), and with confirmation of delivery via a public blockchain explorer.
For completeness, it is necessary to describe the shortcomings of the crypto:
- Learning curve: It takes a little time and caution to understand everything, but it's not that difficult, and it's worth it. IT folks should definitely be okay with it.
- Higher cost of error: Theoretically, you can accidentally send money to the wrong address, and then it’s definitely lost forever. But given the confusing details of SWIFT, it's quite easy to mess up a SWIFT payment too - and you won't even know if your money has arrived.
- Currency stability: No one gives a full guarantee that your crypto will cost as much tomorrow as it does today. But there is such a risk with ordinary currencies. In addition, we do not invest in the crypto for the long run: you send it today – it’ll be put to use by foundations tomorrow.
If you are looking for more motivation - check this quote from Mykhailo Fedorov, the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, as well as this appeal by Serhii Prytula, one of the best-known volunteers of Ukraine right now.
... USDT? 💲
Let’s check out the top-3 cryptocurrencies on the market:
- BTC (Bitcoin): High volatility due to the speculative price, is not backed up by material goods. Can grow 24% in three weeks, but can also drop as fast.
- ETC (Ether): Same as BTC, just a different currency.
- USDT (Tether): Cryptocurrency that is backed by real US Dollars (according to claims by the issuing company). By design, 1 USDT = $1, and the creators claim that thy have enough cash to back every issued crypto coin. That said, there is no confirmation to that, and it’s quite easy to find sceptical reviews on YouTube. That said, it’s been working for many years now without any major incidents ¯\(ツ)/¯
The first two are good for long-run optimistic investments, the latter – for making payments to charities and merchants. Charity funds sometimes buy stuff using crypto, but even if they need to convert your crypto to real cash/fiat currencies – crypto is still the optimal medium for transferring money.
... TRC-20? ⛓️
Alrighty, so we know that we want to buy USDT. But there are several variations of it, in particular – TRC-20 and ERC-20. So what’s the difference?
It’s worth explaining the basics of crypto (at least the way I understood it). Blockchain itself is just a technology which allows to reliably and transparently save information about transactions: who gave who and what. Blockchains are not always restricted by a single currency. In fact, they are not limited by currencies in general: NFT tokens are transferred via blockchains too.
That being said, every blockchain has its “major” currency – the one which it started with. For Ethereum (blockchain) that’s Ether (cryptocurrency), and for Tron (blockchain) that’s TRX (cryptocurrency).
Coming back to Tether (USDT), it has two main implementations: one is implemented on Ethereum, and is denoted as ERC-20, the other one – on the Tron blockchain, and is denoted as TRC-20.
Transfers within Tron are faster and cheaper, which is why I picked specifically USDT TRC-20 as the main cryptocurrency for donations.
CAUTION! You can only make transfers within a single blockchain. To send USDT onto TRC-20 wallet (within the Tron blockchain), you need to send it from a TRC-20 wallet. Despite Tether being a “single” cryptocurrency, it has several absolutely independent implementations.
... Kraken? 🐙
Our goals is to legally convert GBP into USDT TRC-20, and then send it. So I optimised for the following signals:
- Registration with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA);
- Fee for purchasing crypto;
- Fee for sending (”withdrawing”) crypto from your account onto another account.
Optimal choice within the UK is Kraken: it’s registered with the FCA (FCA page, Kraken page), has the record-beating low fees for purchasing stablecoins, including USDT (0.2%), and offers cheap transfers in USDT ($3).
I also looked into Coinbase and Binance, but they have slightly worse fees, and they are not registered with the FCA.