How best to spend crypto with lowest risk

porina · March 5, 2018

What I have:

A bunch of ether in own wallet

A tiny bit of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash on Coinbase - I have done the ID verification thing already but don't have a payment method linked.

I want to spend it at a site that uses Bitpay. Last time I did it, they only look Bitcoin, and this was during the peak and transaction times were off the scale. I believe things have improved since then, but how much? I thought Bitpay also takes Bitcoin Cash as well now, but I'm finding it hard to get a definitive statement of support on their website.

Part 1: how to convert ethereum into either Bitcoin. I believe Coinbase could do it, but I have to effectively cash it and buy the other. Would it be better to link to GDAX and do a trade there? I think I might have to do more ID for GDAX, only reason for choosing them is I can shift the small bits of Bitcoins over with no fee if I understand correctly.

Part 2: Bitpay don't recommend paying from an exchange. Should I create a holding wallet on Bitpay for example? Or other local one I can fully control? Then use that to send payment.

Anyone know for sure that Bitpay takes bitcoin cash for all payments? I'm thinking Bitcoin Cash is potentially less risky, as its price (like Ethereum) has been pretty flat over the last two weeks. Bitcoin is still all over the place. What is the speed and fees looking like on the two Bitcoins?

Edit: having actually looked at GDAX again, it looks like they only do BTC-ETH and not Bitcoin Cash, so that might steer me in that direction...

Airdragonz · March 6, 2018

You need an exchange to transfer BCH and ETH to BTC. Bitpay only accept btc. I won't use GDAX to sell, but which exchange you use is up to you. Personally I use Binance or Kraken. Remember, selling BCH/ETH directly to btc is typically faster than trading to fiat first then btc.

porina · March 6, 2018

30 minutes ago, Airdragonz said:

You need an exchange to transfer BCH and ETH to BTC. Bitpay only accept btc. I won't use GDAX to sell, but which exchange you use is up to you. Personally I use Binance or Kraken. Remember, selling BCH/ETH directly to btc is typically faster than trading to fiat first then btc.

I only considered GDAX as there are zero fees to transfer from Coinbase, but this isn't too important. I don't think Coinbase allows crypto-crypto conversion, but as my ETH isn't held with them I will look at the others mentioned, thanks.