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Over the past 12 months there has been an explosion of interest surrounding NFTs and DeFi (decentralized finance). This has occurred not only in the press, but also in the numbers of users that are pouring into the Web3 ecosystem. With almost 400,000 people dabbling in NFTs and well over 100,000 daily active users of dapps (decentralized applications), it is evident that more and more people are joining the Web3 revolution.
In order to take part in NFT and DeFi ecosystems, it is necessary to have access to a wallet that can hold cryptocurrency and can interact with different platforms. A wallet can come in the form of a software or hardware wallet and are also specific to whichever blockchain protocol you will be interacting with. Although the market is starting to become populated with many alternatives, for now, there is one clear leader in Web3 wallets — our partners over at MetaMask.
MetaMask is a mobile app (iOS or Google) and browser extension that enables users to store Ether (ETH), ERC-20 tokens and even NFTs, as well as interact with decentralized applications. It was created by an organization called ConsenSys and is the Web3 wallet that was the original bridge to the distributed web. With its mission to “democratize access to the decentralized web” MetaMask has brought over 30 million active users to Web3. The majority of these users are active on the Ethereum blockchain, but MetaMask also enables access to any of the dozens of EVM compatible networks, which further opens the broader crypto ecosystem to the masses.
MetaMask has had enormous success not only because it’s a superior product, but also because of the meteoric rise in the adoption of Ethereum based dapps and NFTs. OpenSea, the NFT marketplace, has alone done over $2.9 billion of volume in ETH NFTs in the past 30 days (from the time of this writing) — and that doesn’t include any volume from other Ethereum-based dapps or protocols. Simply put, activity on Ethereum is huge.
Ethereum Metrics
- Total Value Locked — $110 billion (Defi Llama)
- Number of daily active wallets — 500k+ (Glassnode)
- Number of active dapps — 3000+ (State of the DApps)
- Transaction volume — 1 million per day (Etherscan)
Ethereum has now established itself as one of the most widely adopted protocols on Earth. But why did Ethereum become so popular? Ethereum popularized smart contracts as the basic building blocks for applications. These changed the game because they allowed automatic, fully public, predictable and decentralized contracts to be created and executed on the blockchain.
It has been very clear that these decentralized contracts embody the desired features when transacting online — there are over 1 million transactions on Ethereum every day. This may sound well and good, but as Ethereum gained more traction, there was a question that was being asked by many eager participants: How do I get my money onto the blockchain?
Since MetaMask is a decentralized software, connecting MetaMask users to the traditional financial system (banks, credit, debit cards, and other traditional payment methods) used to be a challenge. That is why MetaMask has partnered with companies that provide onramping (buying crypto) services for end users.
Onramping (verb): the act of exchanging fiat currency for a cryptocurrency
Wyre is the third-party onramp solution that is integrated inside the MetaMask wallet. With a very simple process of a few clicks, MetaMask users can easily and securely use debit cards, credit cards, Apple Pay or ACH transfer to purchase crypto to their MetaMask wallets. The Wyre-MetaMask onramp is one of the safest ways for users to purchase crypto and is also available in over 100 countries around the world (see unsupported geographies here).
This is one of the most popular ways to purchase crypto in MetaMask due to the slick experience with Wyre’s Checkout Widget. The Checkout Widget allows MetaMask users a fully hosted service that includes card processing as well as KYC processes (which is only necessary for ACH transfers in the US and higher limit purchases). End users experience a simple onramp to MetaMask, while MetaMask itself can rely on Wyre’s infrastructure so they can spend more time building the wallet that the Web3 world loves to use. The Wyre-MetaMask partnership embodies both companies’ missions to solve user pain points while providing efficient access to the most open & inclusive monetary infrastructure in the world.
For info on implementing Wyre’s Checkout Widget or any of Wyre’s powerful APIs, visit the fully comprehensive API documentation or contact the sales team.
Connect with our community & dev team on Discord to get answers to all of your integration questions.
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