Paying to Pay (Part 2 of 2)
There's more money to pay collaborators when I can use my preferred method to pay
In part one of "Paying to Pay," I talked about the challenges associated with getting funds to your comic book collaborators outside your home country. (The article is here if you haven’t had a chance to look at it and the associated spreadsheet.) Ironically, PayPal, the costliest payment system identified in my examples, is also the system I use the most. Comics are collaborative, so paying fellow creators in the way they prefer to be paid is the default. I do it for my collaborators, but it is more than a tad exasperating. I’d rather use the money to fund the creation of more comic pages.
It’s especially frustrating since payment overhead is a terrible waste of money that can largely be avoided. My preferred way to pay collaborators is a no-compromise method that can get funds to a creator literally in seconds, anywhere in the world that has internet, usually for pennies a transaction! The magic comes from using US dollar-backed “stablecoins” on the Solana blockchain.
For many US and Canadian comic creators, the only exposure to cryptocurrencies comes from news reports about sketchy “meme coins” from presidents and influencers. Most of these highly volatile casino coins the less flattering term is sh*tcoins are ethereal nonsense largely meant to separate the gullible from their money. They are only worth something because there is demand for them, and when that demand dries up, they can quickly become worthless.
Stablecoins are the exact opposite of this. These cryptocurrencies are pegged in value to some sort of real-world asset like a traditional fiat currency or a commodity like gold. USDC and USDT (aka Tether) are, as their initials imply, tied to the US dollar. One USDC can be traded for one US dollar1, and the company issuing USDC holds reserves of actual US dollar currency and convertible instruments large enough to facilitate this trade. So, while technically tradable like any other cryptocurrency, these stablecoins rarely move from their $1 USD peg.
In the world of “fiat currency” (i.e. government-issued currency), this happens too. For example, the Bermudian Dollar (BMD) has a one-to-one peg with the U.S. dollar. Conversion from traditional US dollars to a US dollar-backed stablecoin is basically the equivalent of foreign exchange.
If you are new to the world of cryptocurrencies, the idea of money you can’t touch is likely a little unsettling. But it shouldn’t be. We all inherently know that if we use PayPal to send funds to a creator in Argentina, no one is actually getting on an airplane to hand deliver physical pesos. What is less intuitive is the fact that most “money” does not exist in any tangible form. In the case of the US dollar, for example, the M0 money supply (all physical bills and coins) is only about 11% of all US money in circulation2, with most USD only existing as line items in electronic ledgers held by financial institutions. The only difference with stablecoins is that the accounting for coins like USDC and USDT is done automatically on a blockchain, so there is no intermediary financial institution.
That said, just ignore that technobabble and understand that if you send $10 USDC to someone on the other side of the world, not only will they receive it, but there will be a record of them receiving that $10. And, in the case of USDC, if you send it on the carbon-neutral Solana blockchain, that transfer will typically occur in under a second, cost you less than two pennies to send, and have less environmental impact than a Visa transaction. For these reasons, I love, love, love paying my cross border artist collaborators this way whenever possible. If I need to pay for art, colouring, or lettering, I am more likely to select collaborators I can pay with USDC over the ones I can’t, assuming the skills are comparable.
The problem is that many comic creators have no idea what I am talking about when I ask, “Can I pay you with USDC?” Paying and receiving payments in USDC or USDT is actually extremely simple once you are set up. But admittedly, if you get paid in a stablecoin, there are hoops to jump through to make sure you can pay your rent or buy a loaf of bread in your local currency. And that friction, plus the complacency that comes from not being the person paying the PayPal fees in the first place, makes it easy to ignore this option.
Outside of the EU, US and Canada, however, the situation changes. If you are looking to hire a collaborator in the Philippines, Vietnam, or Brazil, there is a strong probability they will be willing to accept either USDT or USDC as payment. It is just a far more reliable, timely, and cost-effective way to receive funds for many overseas creators. If necessity is the mother of invention, it is also the aunty of innovation adoption.
Getting Started
If you can send money via Venmo, you can send a stablecoin like USDC or USDT on the Solana blockchain. You need:
a “wallet” in the form of a Chrome extension or app,
the Solana address of the collaborator on the other end,
and the actual funds you are trying to send.
It’s as simple as that. And as complicated as that. Admittedly, the first time you send a payment, it will likely feel way more complex and scary than it really is. It certainly did for me.3
Let’s break down this list.
Phantom wallet
The Chrome extension or app will be a “wallet” compatible with the Solana blockchain. I recommend that you use the Phantom wallet. Phantom is just the brand name, and “wallet” is the cryptocurrency term for an app that shows you the funds you have, as verified by a blockchain (for this case, I am recommending the Solana blockchain). The term wallet is a tad misleading, as a cryptocurrency wallet is more like a bank app on your phone. The currency isn’t actually stored inside the wallet. Rather, a crypto wallet is like a window that lets you see what is yours. It is just that, in this case, the records are kept by a specific blockchain, not a bank.
The Phantom application is one of the most popular wallets for the Solana blockchain. It is available as a Chrome extension and as an app on iOS and Android. Instructions on how to create a Phantom wallet can be found here: How to create a new wallet and in the following video How to Set Up a Phantom Wallet (Step-by-Step Tutorial).
Their Address
The Solana address of your collaborator uniquely identifies their wallet. Like a street address, it will allow you to deliver the USDC or USDT to their specific wallet. Copy-and-paste from e-mail is your friend as this unique address (aka a “public key”) is typically a very long list of letters and numbers like this:
HsCRVWFH9sbsiGhy7tHCQwAGqviR98suH7DdvCCghuCF
Your collaborator may send you a shorter, easier-to-understand vanity-plate type address ending in “.sol” . Your Phantom wallet will automatically translate a .sol address into its equivalent public key letter-and-number gobbledygook address.
Be sure that your collaborator knows you need an address on the Solana blockchain. USDC and USDT exist as tokens on several chains and you cannot directly send from one blockchain to another4. You both need to use the identical blockchain and Solana is an excellent choice for speed, reliability, environmental responsibility, and low fees.
The Amount You Are Sending
Last but not least, you will need to have enough USDC in your Phantom wallet to pay your collaborator. You will also need to have a small amount of Solana in your wallet to pay for transaction fees. Think of this token amount of Solana as the gas required to make the Solana blockchain engine do something, in this case, “Send USDC to another wallet.” And by small amount, I mean a really small amount. A quick test I just ran showed sending funds would have cost $0.0127 this morning. That is not a typo. Transaction fees can vary based on a number of factors (e.g. congestion pricing), but if your goal is to just send funds, having even a dollar's worth of Solana in your wallet to start should be more than enough.5
On-ramps
Right about now, some of you are probably thinking, “That’s all well and good, Tjosvold, but my wallet is empty. How the heck do I get USDC and Solana in my wallet in the first place?”
This is where things get a little complicated, mainly because there are many options to choose from, but not all methods work in every country. What works best as a crypto “on-ramp” for your jurisdiction may take some research or talking to that one relative who can’t shut up about crypto at the holiday dinner table.
What follows are a few ways users “on board” to the stablecoin world.
Peer-to-Peer Transfer
People pay each other with cash all of the time. In the same way, the best way to receive your first USDC is for someone to send it to you directly as a gift or by being paid for your work.
In 2024, a pitch I submitted for my conspiracy thriller “VXD”6 won the Solana Scribes competition. The funds to create the comic that I was granted were sent to my Solana address at the end of the competition. I encourage comic creators to look at the dReader job board at https://earn.superteam.fun/dreader/ for more posted jobs. People who are assigned each gig receive payment in USDC.
Similarly, selling your digital comic via dReader.com will also generate revenue that will be paid to your wallet.
As a writer of independent comics, any money that comes in usually goes straight back out to a collaborator, so having a reserve of USDC for this purpose is ideal.
Because the amount of Solana you need in your wall to cover transactions is so small, there is a greater than zero chance that you can get that from a friend, relative, or colleague.
The “Buy” Button
Most cryptocurrency wallets include a “buy” button somewhere in the interface. More often than not, this is an affiliate link to a service like Moonpay that allows you to use a credit card or Apple Pay to buy cryptocurrencies like Solana, USDC, and USDT.
Just know that this option is the equivalent of using the foreign exchange booth at the airport. While it is convenient, you will likely pay a premium compared to other options. Which credit cards will allow you to pay for your crypto this way is also somewhat random, depending on where you live.
Cryptocurrency Exchanges
This is the route I use to turn Canadian dollars into Solana and USDC. Cryptocurrency exchanges rarely charge fees for direct transfers into their ecosystem but instead, charge small amounts for taking cryptocurrency out of their exchange.
Currently, the best option for me here in Canada is Crypto.com7. They’ve gone out of their way to be regulatory compliant, and as a result, they have been able to integrate directly with the Canadian banking system. As such, I can easily use Interac (think Canadian Venmo) to get money onto their exchange, and the withdrawal fees are nominal. They currently charge 1.20 USDC for withdrawals to an external wallet and the minimum withdrawal is a modest 9.95 USDC. Deposits of USDC and Solana into the system from your wallet are free, and the exchange rate from Canadian dollars to the US equivalent is generally comparable to a traditional bank rate.
Binance and Coinbase offer comparable rates and services in other parts of the world.
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Escrow Platforms
Depending on where you live in the world, you may be able to find an escrow service that allows you to trade your local fiat money for Solana, USDT, and USDC and vice versa. These services will enable you to set your own exchange rate. Unlike trading with a friend or relative, these services allow you to sell your crypto or fiat currency to total strangers.
Binance P2P is one such service available in some countries.
Off-ramps
In most parts of the world, you can’t pay your rent or buy your lunch directly using stablecoins. As such, your collaborator on the other end will likely need to convert the USDC or USDT you send into their local currency. In some ways, this is like the extra step of getting money out of a PayPal account into your bank account.
In general, the on-ramp methods above also work in reverse. I can on-ramp CAD to Crypto.com via Interac and use that CAD to buy USDC. And similarly, I can sell my USDC for CAD on Crypto.com and then withdraw that CAD to my bank account using the Interac system. A collaborator in Argentina might use the Binance P2P system to sell their USDC for Argentine Pesos.
The one option not discussed in the on-ramp section is the use of a crypto debit card. I have a Crypto.com debit VISA card that can be loaded using crypto in the Crypto.com app. My first “tap” of this card was used to donate some funds to a Salvation Army kettle one Christmas. It was irrelevant that the original source of funds was cryptocurrency - the charity received Canadian dollars. Other countries have equivalent cards. For example, the Lemon Cash card in Argentina can be used as a conventional debit card and to withdraw ARS from ATMs.
Conclusion
There is comic book talent all over the world, and paying someone outside your home country can be slow, expensive, or both when using legacy financial services. It is my hope that more creators learn how to accept their pay via stablecoins. I, for one, would love to see more of my comic creation budget going to pay artists instead of giant fintech companies like PayPal and Western Union.
Have you ever been paid using stablecoins? I’d love to hear what on-ramp and off-ramp services you use in your area. Please leave a comment below.
In practice, this is rarely done by regular folks, as there are fees and minimums involved. Instead, this exchange is done by other larger entities (e.g. cryptocurrency exchanges) on behalf of the users they support.
Subscribers, if you need help and know how to show your screen via Zoom, I’ll do my best to find time in my calendar to walk you through setup.
It’s beyond the scope of this post, but there are tools called bridges between some blockchains that allow similar tokens to travel between them.
If you are a comp or paid subscriber to Tech4Comics or one of my past Kickstarter backers, I’ll gladly send you a smidge of Solana for you to use to get started. Just e-mail me your Solana wallet address.
“VXD” was pitched as “The Cull” before I discovered Kelly Thompson had an Eisner-nominated series by that name. Doh! Artist Stan Yak is about 3/4 of the way through the art as I type this. The book should be available on dReader and Kickstarter later in 2025.
Full disclosure: this is an affiliate link.