Guide to Converting Grain

Community
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This is a step-by-step guide to converting your Grain to USD (or any other currency of your choice. @decentralion, if you could comment on anything that needs editing or anything you think would be useful to add, that would be helpful. Miguel and I were unsure on some of the FAQs. @panchomiguel, if you could double check the step-by-step directions for the mobile app, that would be great as well. Any and all comments are welcome, I would love for this to be clear to non-devs and non-crypto peeps

This is also a new way of creating a doc and asking for review and collaboration, compared to the way we reviewed Beta docs. Any feedback on this method is also appreciated.

Important information:

It is recommended that once you convert your Grain to USD, that you finish converting to whatever currency you are comfortable with and withdrawing it into your bank account, NOT holding onto USD in your CoinbasePro account. SourceCred cannot guarantee the safety of currency in CoinbasePro. SourceCred wants to be transparent that here is risk in holding USDC and in holding anything on CoinbasePro.

This is not the only way to convert Grain to USD. There are payment processors (apps) that can work too, but they often have higher fees and shifting regulations. If you have any questions about other options to convert Grain, please ask in the Discord Questions channel.

FAQ

  • What are the tax implications of receiving Grain?

    • We are not tax advisors. This is not tax advice. The following statements are informational only and provided on a best-effort basis. Please consult a tax professional for advice about your situation.
    • As soon as you have Grain, it is taxable and should be reported to IRS the proceeding tax season

  • What is USDC?

    • USDC is a stable coin within the Ethereum ecosystem. It stands for United States Dollar Coin.

  • How long does it take to convert Grain to USD?

    • Converting Grain to USDC takes up to 7 business days, although is often done sooner than that. After converting USDC to USD, you have immediate access to the USD in your CoinbasePro account once your limit order gets filled. However, withdrawing that USD to your US Bank account can take a few days.

  • Can I convert Grain to a cryptocurrency rather than USD?

    • Easily. Instead of converting USDC to USD and then transferring it to a linked bank account, you can buy cryptocurrencies at their market price with your USDC. This is, of course, variable, as market prices change for most cryptocurrencies.

  • How do I know how much Grain I have to convert?

    • You can check the Grain Ledger to see how much Grain you have available. Grain in the SourceCred community is distributed every Sunday.

  • What if I want to continue getting paid in DAI, the cryptocurrency SourceCred used before USDC?

    • Talk to @panchomiguel directly if you would like to be paid in DAI. To do so, you must know how to do a limit order.

    How it Works (the basics)

  • You open a CoinbasePro account.

  • You send our Treasurer, Miguel, a Grain Sale Request Form and he will send USDC from the SourceCred hardware wallet from the SourceCred account to your wallet on CoinbasePro. He will then create a Pull Request on Github telling the SourceCred code that this transaction took place, so your Grain balance on the Grain Ledger will show the adjusted amount.

  • You go on CoinbasePro and sell your USDC for USD (or any other currency).

Step by Step (Desktop)

Convert Grain to USDC

How to get your USDC-USD address for the “Grain Sale Request” form:

(Props to @LB for making this section easier to digest)

  1. Sign into your already-created CoinbasePro account. (Note that we are specifically using CoinbasePro and not Coinbase.com)
  2. Click on “Portfolio” in the upper-righthand corner.
  3. Click the “Deposit” button (This is because you want an address that will “deposit” currency into your CoinbasePro account.)
  4. A new pop-up window opens displaying a long list of currencies. Select “USDC” from the list.
  5. The pop-up window content will shift to display two options: “Crypto Address” and “Coinbase.com”. Choose Crypto Address .
  6. Read and click the two confirmations to arrive at the wallet address; in the form of a QR Code, and a text address (a long string of letters/numbers below the QR code).
  7. Copy the text-form wallet address and add this to the appropriate field of your Grain Sale Request form.

Convert USDC to USD and withdraw from cryptowallet

The next step is to convert your USDC to USD, withdraw your USD from your cryptowallet on CoinbasePro and have it sent to your linked bank account. CoinbasePro may look complicated, but don’t let that scare you - using it can be simple. Here’s how:

  1. You should still be on your portfolio page from the previous steps. If not, click on “Portfolio” in the upper-righthand corner.

  2. Under the “Balances” tab, scroll until you see USDC.

  3. To the right of USDC there is a button that says “Convert to USD.” Click it.

  4. A pop-up will appear that says “Convert Funds.” Choose the amount of USDC you would like to convert to USD and hit “Convert” in the lower right corner.

  5. Next, you need to withdraw your USD from your cryptowallet and send it to your linked bank account. Click "Portfolio’ in the upper right hand corner.

  6. Click “Withdraw” and select USD.

  7. Select “Bank Account” and choose your amount. A 2-factor authentication code will be sent to your phone.

Have additional questions? Post in the SourceCred Discord Questions channel!

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Thanks! Your timing couldn’t be more spot on @Bex :] Just began sorting things before the end of the year.

A couple of notes that come to mind for me.

  • Tax law (and worker protection laws) varies greatly per country, so definitely check what applies for you. In my case I suspect I can’t receive the DAI as a private entity, so will be looking into business accounts for this.
  • Coinbase is an exchange which manages your wallet for you. Typically this is a good recommendation for exchanging it to fiat currency, but it’s a risky place for long-term storage if you want to hold onto your crypto. For using crypto long-term it’s worth researching secure alternatives. Imo that doesn’t need a step-by-step, as managing your own wallet keys without really knowing what you’re doing is perhaps even more risky. But for people fairly new to it all it’s probably an important warning. Empty out your Coinbase account regularly, lest the 20th headline about stolen coins includes yours.
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The advice I’ve been given since reading this is that any tax advice should be avoided, so I don’t think the different country tax laws will be an issue anymore. As for holding your money in Coinbase, I would imagine anyone not familiar with it would want to get their money out immediately, as Coinbase would be unfamiliar to them. It’s definitely worth noting though that it’s safer to do the full conversion rather than holding onto it as DAI or USD in Coinbase.

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Something to note here wrt @Beanow post

This “Guide to Converting Grain” is specifically for people that want to go as quickly as possible from having Grain to having US Dollars. Coinbase is used here because it seems to be the most pain free and convenient way for Gringos to go from Crypto to a regular old bank account. Because of this, many people including myself, get SC to send Dai directly to their Coinbase exchange hot wallet, and then convert the Dai immediately to USD.

There are different, relatively “safe” things you could do to hold onto your Dai and/or exchange it for a different cryptocurrency that you then hold, but those go beyond the scope of this document it seems

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@Bex Dai is not converted to USD immediately - the order needs to be filled by the market. You have immediate access to the USD in your Coinbase account once your limit order gets filled. However, to withdraw that USD to your US Bank account does take a few days, although in practice I find that it shows up sooner than I expect (often within a day).

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I agree @panchomiguel, the quickest route to fiat is probably a common use-case, and this a sensible way to approach it. Saves a little bit on transaction fees and fewers steps to go through. But the guide isn’t particularly explicit that we’re sending directly to Coinbase with that assumption.

I think the heads up would be useful for people new-ish to crypto and have an interest in doing other things with the DAI. It’s common advice to treat exchanges and managed wallets in general as temporary. Emptying those accounts regularly helps to avoid unnecessary risks. It’s fine for that to be outside the scope of the guide, but it’s probably worth being explicit that’s why we’re going directly to Coinbase and you might want to consider alternatives if this isn’t your use-case.

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This is a great start. A ton of information here which will have to be conveyed to lots of newcomers over time. The overall structure is good, and the writing is clear and concise.

As @panchomiguel points out, there are multiple ways to do this, but this is the easiest, most likely path for most. People that want to go through different exchanges or payment processors will likely already be familiar with crypto and won’t need this tutorial. It may be worth just mentioning that this is just one option though? There are likely a number of payment processors (apps) that will allow you to just sell and transfer with the click of a button (I’ve seen them for other cryptos and I’m sure some support DAI). However, fees on a lot of these services tend to be high, and many are short lived due to shifting regulations. May not be worth the trouble researching and documenting those unless people start asking for it.

It isn’t explicitly spelled out that you need to find your crypto address in Coinbase to send DAI to. This may not be necessary, just thought I would point it out. In part because of this step:

This is one way to do it (transfer from SC to your Coinbase wallet → Coinbase Pro wallet). This transfer is free and instant. However, if you’re just planning on using Coinbse Pro, you can also just deposit directly into your Coinbase Pro wallet. Just hit the Deposit button and go through the steps. This is the way I typically do it. Or, I’ll have the DAI sent to my main crypto wallet (MetaMask) Ethereum address (which will be the same as your DAI address), then send it myself to Coinbase Pro if I want to sell.

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Coinbase Pro used to be free, but they recently started charging a 0.5% fee on trades < $10k (if you go above that, you start getting lower rates). Here’s their fee chart. Regular Coinbase fees are considerably higher. Here’s their fee chart. The formula for calculating the fees is fairly convoluted, and varies by region. My eyes just glazed over looking at it as I’m tired. E.g. below is the fees for the US. It’s probably an easier one-click process, but if you’re selling thousands of dollars worth of DAI, %1.49 is gonna add up :grimacing:

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I wonder if this is due to their recently added instant transfer feature. According to the article it only works with supported debit cards. Did you use a debit card, or enter your bank account info (you don’t have to reply here if not comfortable sharing publicly)?

Your description of the steps for selling on Coinbase Pro are good. It might be easier to convey this over video though for some people. Because I bought this screencast software I never use, and want to play with this medium anyway, took a shot at a video walkthrough. Let me know what you think! Be gentle!

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This is a great guide for newcomers but I would also sugest a way to spend your DAI without having to go through the process of exchanging them into fiat. You can just swap DAI to ETH and use a service as Bitrefill to spend your crypto.

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hey, https://app.mooni.tech/ is quite smooth for crypto to fiat (no KYC). I know the dev behind it if needed. And the USD should also be listed soon.

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Interesting, thank you for sharing the Bitrefill link! Do you use it much?

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Have not used it yet but have friends who have.

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This step was initially confusing to me as I followed the instructions. The link listed in this step automatically leads you to a page that’s already for DAI to USD. The left-hand column is headed with “DAI-USD” and within that column are the Deposit and Withdraw buttons.

The part I got hung up on was “search the drop-down Market menu”. After trying to write a description of this step myself, I looked really hard at the whole column and only then noticed the tiny drop-down menu “Select Market”.

For anyone else who got confused while reading this section; the link automatically brings you to the DAI to USD page. If you don’t want USD, then you may need to use the “select market” dropdown menu to change “USD” to your preferred currency. If you didn’t use the link listed in this topic, then you may need to make sure it’s set to the right currency before proceeding.

Just confirm that the right currencies are listed at the head of that column (DAI-Preferred Currency), and then you can click the easily visible “Deposit” button inside that left-hand column.

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Okay, I did things slightly differently and got the double-check from @decentralion to make sure I wasn’t mistaken. I think the way I did it requires fewer steps and may be easier overall so I’ll briefly detail it below so it doesn’t become lost.

How to get your DAI-USD address for the “Grain Sale Request” form:

  1. Sign into your already-created CoinbasePro account.

  2. Click on the CoinbasePro DAI-USD Trading Page link in the topic above. This brings you to CoinbasePro’s Trading Page for DAI to USD. (Note that we are specifically using CoinbasePro and not Coinbase.com)

  3. Double checking that you are am in fact signed in (see your name in the top right hand corner), and the trading market is indeed set to “DAI-USD” (see the header at the top of the left-hand column next to the “Select Market” dropdown menu) Click the “Deposit” button within that left-hand column. (This is because you want an address that will “deposit” currency into your CoinbasePro account.)

  4. A new pop-up window opens displaying a long list of currencies. Select “DAI” from the list.

  5. The pop-up window content will shift to display two options: “Crypto Address” and “Coinbase.com”. Choose Crypto Address.

  6. Read and click the two confirmations to arrive at the wallet address; in the form of a QR Code, and a text address (a long string of letters/numbers below the QR code).

  7. Copy the text-form wallet address and add this to the appropriate field of your Grain Sale Request form.



I suspect that the currency will go straight into my CoinbasePro as the address from Coinbase.com was different when I compared the two. This makes it so that I don’t have to deal with moving the currency from my Coinbase.com to my CoinbasePro, and makes the whole process a bit more streamline.

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Gentle Crediqutte poke: mind making that into an @-reference to me? Since you are referencing me as having helped in this context (reviewing the flow) I think it makes sense for some of the Cred in the post to flow to me, too :slight_smile:

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Happy to! Also curious how the Cred flow in this instance plays out and looking to improve my Crediquette. Maybe you can help:

Of the like-generated Cred received by the reply, what % goes to the author and what % goes to the tagged participant?

Does a reply receive any Cred from the original topic itself, or is it entirely on the merits of the likes given to the individual reply?

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Alrighty, I’m on to the next step of converting my DAI to USD for the first time. I just wanted to highlight this section in particular; the step around choosing your Limit Price. The concept of a limit price is super unintuitive to a layperson, and I still don’t understand.

  1. What is a Limit Price?

  2. Which numbers should I be looking at (there are A LOT, they’re on both sides of the screen, they’re in different colors, they change constantly) and how do I know what to choose out of this mass of (to my eyes) random information?

  3. How does the limit price I select effect the transfer I’m making?

  4. Can I change a limit price after hitting the Place Sell Order button if I don’t like the effect?

Also, there’s no next step after setting the Limit Price. I assume you hit “Place Sell Order” and it does…random things that give me money? Let’s eventually bring a super Step by literal Step feel to the next iteration of this guide. <3

(Btw, while it’s raw, I’m super grateful to have this guide at all. Excited it iterate on it.)

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@LB have you watched my video walkthrough yet? Tried my best to explain the confusing limit order thing, variation of DAI price. Sometimes easier seeing a visual walkthrough.

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Is it unsafe to convert Grain to DAI to USD to cash? I can definitely add a part that suggests you convert right away rather than holding anything in Coinbase. DAI seems very stable, so I’m not afraid of it acting sporadically and people losing all their money suddenly, as might happen with other cryptocurrencies (which are basically gambling). Happy to hear pushback on this, I’ve added a section at the top that talks about other options and how it’s safest not to hold money in Coinbase and convert right away. Let me know if you see anything that’s missing,

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Thanks for all this information Seth, this is fantastic. I’m updating my draft based on the comments now.

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I haven’t seen any response to this yet so I’m going to try to answer it, add my own follow-up questions, and use this as a poke to @decentralion to respond with an answer that’s even more informed :slight_smile: Also LB, I am currently going through comments on this post, and haven’t forgotten your others. Here are my answers/follow-up questions:

  • Replies do not receive Cred from the post itself, Cred is only generated by likes. In this case, you would only get Cred if someone liked your reply, regardless of how liked my original post is.
  • I know a like for a post gets 4x Cred (but don’t know how many Cred that is). Are likes for replies the same?
  • I tagged Dandelion to get their opinion in this thread, but that flows the Cred. If flowing Cred wasn’t my intention, how else could I get their attention?
  • This line of questions (both mine and LB’s) could be put in the Discourse weights, which currently has the smallest section of weights out of all the platforms.

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