** Update - Adding some links to the Ramp Network support page and rewording the TLDR section slightly so that people can easily see which countries are not serviced and which states do not support selling of crypto. There is no "one sized fits all" fiat on/off ramp in crypto, but this is easily one of the best I've seen. **

** If you'd like to test the service now or explore their coverage further, you can see which crypto assets are currently supported here. **

Hello Splinterfam! As those of you that follow my monthly updates may be aware, I've been searching pretty relentlessly to find us a solid fiat on/off ramp for the SPS token. Over the last few months I've met with dozens of companies getting quotes and most importantly assessing their coverage in an attempt to find a global solution that will work for the vast majority of our users.

The good news is that I've finally found that elusive one! After meeting with Ramp Network it was abundantly clear to me that this is what I think the DAO wants. They offer global coverage for fiat on and off ramping via credit card and bank transfer. They also offer some regional payment options in countries where those are more or less necessary to do business, such as Brazil. What's even better is this is the first company that I've found that supports on-ramping in all 50 U.S. states and they are in the process of integrating HIVE as well.

There is an onboarding fee of $35,000 per token to integrate with their service. This is a competitive rate as I've had countless quotes going up to $50,000 from other providers that don't even service U.S. clients. After some negotiation, Ramp has agreed to charge us the one fee to list one of our wrapped tokens (ETH or BSC) and to migrate our support over to the native SPS token on HIVE in the future whenever they finish onboarding HIVE.

What does all of this mean? In short, we have the opportunity to integrate a service directly into the Splinterlands website that will allow the vast majority of the world to buy AND sell SPS with a credit card, Apple Pay or bank transfer. We still have some work to do on our end to be able to move forward, but if the DAO chooses to approve this proposal, I feel reasonably confident we could have all of this set up in six to eight weeks, just in time for Conclave Arcana barring an unforeseen issues with setting up the foundation.

I'm sure some people are going to question the value of this and one of the things I want to point out is that if we move forward with Ramp, they will be sourcing the liquidity directly from the DAO's LPs. This means that the DAO earns 1% on any volume that moves through those pools. So while we have to spend $35,000 up front, the DAO should easily recoup at a bare minimum some portion of those funds through LP fees.

As far as the user experience goes, Ramp handles their own KYC and payment processing. This means they assume any risk with the payment processing such as charge backs. Approximate fees will be around 5% for credit cards and should be around 2% for bank transfers. It's hard to know exactly as the rates will be based on volume and we have to factor in the 1% on the LPs. Those rates should be a decent approximation and from the conversation I've had with their rep I think they're fairly accurate to within a percent.

I'm still looking into a few other similar companies and of course I'm always looking for free options. Ideally it would be cool to have multiple options for redundancy, but if we're going to spend the money I think we want to get max value for it and from everything I've seen while looking for a payment processor, this is by far the best coverage I've found and the quote is competitive. The fact they're willing to integrate the SPS token on HIVE in the future at no additional charge is just icing on the cake.

With all of that context, I will leave it up to the DAO to decide what it wants to do. Thanks for your time and consideration!

If this proposal passes, the SPS DAO will allocate up to $35,000 to be used to pay Ramp Network to integrate the SPS token into their platform.

The SPS Treasurers may use any stable coins, Ethereum, or BNB to source the funds to pay this fee.

If for whatever reason the deal does not move forward, then no funds will be utilized for this purpose and a new proposal will be required to request funding for any other similar pursuits.

This proposal will expire after 180 days if the deal has not been executed.