If you’re like me, the more you learn about and use cryptocurrencies, the more of your fiat income you want to convert to crypto. While using exchanges such as Coinbase and Gemini are good experiences for the most part, I don’t like waiting on the archaic ACH system’s five-ish days for a purchase to process, nor do I like having to manually initiate the purchases. What I want is a way to have my wages automatically converted to cryptocurrency. Enter Bitwage. Bitwage is a service that will convert a percentage of your paycheck into cryptocurrency automatically. Very cool!
The way it works is that after signing up with their Invoicing service, Bitwage provides you with a bank account number that you give to your employer for them to direct deposit your paycheck into. After Bitwage has received your deposit, they convert a percentage of your paycheck to your choice of cryptocurrency, and then deposit the remaining fiat into your bank account.
The process of getting set up with Bitwage is mostly painless but in order to prevent someone from registering an account in your name and stealing your income, you will have to provide multiple means of identification. I had to provide my mobile number, email, driver’s license and passport. While I’m always a little hesitant to provide personal information in this day and age of government spying and other malicious actors, I didn’t mind in this case as it really is for my protection. The last thing you want is for someone pretending to be you and receiving your paycheck.
After you’ve got your basic account set up, you need to configure how you want to distribute your paycheck. You do this by providing them the pertinent information to your existing bank account, the cryptocurrency addresses you want to use, and how you want to divide your paycheck. You can select either a percentage or a dollar amount. I chose to split mine up 50/50 where 50% of my paycheck goes into my bank account as USD and 50% goes into bitcoin. You can always change this ratio at a later date if so desired. If you’re using the Standard account, which is what I’m using, you’re limited to two distributions, but if you have the Premium account, you can select up to seven different distributions.
Currently Bitwage is offering payouts in bitcoin, litecoin, and ethereum. For improved privacy, you can also input up to 100 different deposit addresses, with each one being used only once and in succession. Once you’ve deposited to the last address, all future payments will go to that address until you input another batch. I need to mention though that the option for using a single BTC address wouldn’t work for me. Bitwage support couldn’t resolve this glitch but it doesn’t really matter as you can simply input a single address in the multiple address option. I just bring this to attention so you don’t waste time trying to figure this out if this glitch happens to you; just select the multiple address option (which you should do anyway as its more private) and you should be good.
The fees for the Standard Invoicing service are 1% per deposit, or $15.99 per month for the Premium Invoicing service. Regarding processing time, it takes them 48 hours to get your money and crypto to you. I consider both their fee and their processing time to be very reasonable. The exchange rate used for converting your fiat to crypto isn’t clear. They claim that for bitcoin (XBT in their parlance), it’s 2.5% over Mid-Market Rate, but I don’t know how they determine what MMR they’re using. I’m not that worried about it though because in the grand scheme of things, a few percentage points aren’t going to make much difference as the value increase of bitcoin has been so astronomical.
At this point I need to mention their website; it’s not good. It’s convoluted, awkward to navigate, and the information about the services they offer isn’t presented clearly. There’s no FAQ, just a community forum. On the flip side, their support is reported to be very good. I had to deal with them a little in getting my account initially set up and they were very pleasant and prompt.
While I’ve only just started using Bitwage, so far I’m very pleased. Poor website aside, the service seems to work as advertised and their support was easy to deal with. I plan on continuing service with them for as long as I’m paid in fiat.
Author: Chris Webb
