Topic: [ANN] Archway - Invoice & get paid in crypto without asking for permission (Read 131 times)

Note that this service is also a big advantage if you're a (small) business, hiring abroad: you can simply pay freelancers using a SEPA transfer, without 1) having to worry about crypto and 2) them producing a valid invoice.

Both are actually quite the headache for businesses, at least in Europe. There are quite a few rules on what constitutes a valid invoice, and it can be quite annoying to get a freelancer from a different region to produce a valid invoice. Yes, it sucks. Bureaucracy, yay.  

The "holding crypto" part is even more problematic: holding crypto is still quite complicated for businesses. You need to get your accountants and tax advisors on board, you need tools, etc. Of course it can be done, and it's not a big problem to most of the people in this forum - but it's a nightmare for all non-crypto businesses.

So Archway connects freelancers from countries that are difficult or expensive to pay, with businesses that sit on the overregulated side of the world.

Disclaimer: I was involved in the development of this service.

Limit for no-KYC is per account, cumulatively across transactions.

OK, that sounds much better.
Is 1000€ limitation for single transaction or for all transactions?

That is what can confuse potential customers, and I think you need to make correction for this, but on main page you are also announcing upcoming feature of USD bank accounts.
I understand you want to add off-ramp to fiat in future, but this can't work without kyc verification.

The company "Archway Finance" JSC is registered in Bulgaria: https://portal.registryagency.bg/CR/en/Reports/ActiveConditionTabResult?uic=207778041
It is also registered at the "National Revenue Agency Public Register of Providers Engaged in Exchange Services between Virtual Currencies and Fiat Currencies and Custodian Wallet Providers". In simple terms, an EU license to operate with and exchange cryptocurrencies.

Thank you so much for taking the time to check the FAQ and reporting here. It definitely needs a new pass, will fix asap.

I don't plan to use your service, but the idea behind of your service is rather cool and practical. I also briefly read the FAQ, but it seems to be unfinished. For example,

1. These FAQ contain link which leads to "404 Page not found"



2. Another FAQ mention you're registered on EU, but there's no additional detail. I tried searching your company using https://e-justice.europa.eu/489/EN/business_registers__search_for_a_company_in_the_eu with keyword "Archday" on "Company name" column and selecting all country, but there are 184 results.

In general invoicing and payment is done after work has been provided, so on our side we just assume if the client decided to pay it means they are happy with whatever was done. Most of the invoices we see on the platform happen end of month, for the past month of work.
Maybe the issues you describe could happen when the invoicing is done for something ongoing and the freelancer does not fulfill something agreed beforehand. To be honest we never had the case. I can't speak for the compliance team, but intuitively I think if the fiat payment to us was reversed (for a good reason) we would most likely blacklist the freelancer.

Generally both the freelancer and the client just want to work together and are cooperative.

Well I mean in the case where the freelancer messes up with his/her own service and the client tries to contact you guys for a refund, so what would happen now that the payment has already been converted to crypto. Do you blacklist the user from your system and prevent them from creating new invoices? Or do you do something else?

I will admit that I am not familiar with the process of getting a refund from a wire, but I know for example if you do a card transaction or a Paypal transaction and you're not happy with the product you can get a refund.

Once a freelancer has generated an invoice on Archway, they have to send it on their own to the company - usually they are in touch with whoever they work with anyway. The company then may or may not pay it. These steps are independent from us.
If the invoice is never paid, nothing happens. In fact we often see new users generating test invoices for fun, which are never sent or paid.

But if the invoice happens to get paid, aka the fiat transfer arrives on Archway's bank account, we immediately match it by reference and pay the corresponding crypto to the freelancer.
So I'm not sure at which point a refund would come into play? Maybe I misunderstand the question.

Totally, it's an added benefit for the payee to have these documents generated by Archway. It acts as a source of funds for the crypto received.

Being "underbanked" is not just something intrinsic to an individual. It's more about the relationship between payer and payee, or the lack thereoff. When it's complicated for the payer to pay with reasonable fees and timing the bank account of the payee because (usually) they are in different countries or continents. A huge example of such a market is all contractors (software devs, designers...) working from SE asia, Africa or South America for EU or UK companies.

We do not need to open any account for them, we are not a bank ourselves. There is a light touch KYC above 1000€, but not comparable to banks. I suppose that's where the use of crypto make things easier. As an example we are currently seeing an uptick of freelancers from Pakistan which we have no problem registering on the platform.

Yeah the service is definitely not useful to you if you can easily receive fiat for whoever you invoice and also are comfortable converting yourself.
Target audience is everyone who would struggle to get paid in fiat (usually because they live in a country far away from the clients they invoice / want to work for). In that case Archway makes it as easy as if everyone would be "local" in the same country/banking system. Plus it provides invoices that support clean accounting on both sides, notably for the payee it supports a source of funds of their crypto if ever needed.

Anyway thanks for having a look and the feedback!

Correct, you register on the platform with your email and phone number. There is no KYC up to 1000€, and it's light touch above that.

Ok that is wrong, our FAQ is currently confusing sorry about that! EUR or USD accounts are potential new features we may offer in certain countries in the future but that is unrelated to the basic invoicing service.
You do NOT need to have any bank account (and we don't offer this) if you just want to create invoices and get paid in crypto

EDIT: I think the confusion comes from this "We provide you with a EURO bank account." in the FAQ section "How does it work". It's very poorly phrased, what we mean is that it's Archway's bank account that is automatically added on the invoices. Will clarify this part!

That's a cool idea. However I want to know how you guys handle refunds. Or are all invoices non-refundable?

One thing that would be very significant though, would be if the invoice letters generated by Archway could be used as an (official) source of funds, as the money is coming from legitimate sources. That would be super-useful in case anyone at the bank had questions, but I will admit that the conversion to crypto slightly complicates things.

Or you could receive a direct transfer to your own bank, and no questions would be asked that way. I think this would be the better route for anyone trying to cash out.

Great initiative, but to be honest I'm having trouble seeing the upside for the freelancer.  Being "underbanked" isn't really a thing anymore with the digitalization of fiat.  Most of us do our banking online, and hardly ever visit a brick and mortar bank unless we have to.  And if they're underbanked for some other reason, that's likely going to affect whether or not you can be their bank (or open an account on their behalf, as the case may be.)

If I was to invoice someone who couldn't pay me in bitcoin, and therefor had to accept fiat but wanted bitcoin, I would just accept the fiat and convert it myself.  I understand that the middle man doesn't want to be left out, but in previous such circumstances I've been doing that all along and I don't see what benefit the middle man can provide me.  Unless there's something else that I'm not picking up on, like tax evasion or some such thing, but there's going to be a banking trail regardless and that would provide risk for you, and not prevent the client from facing the same risk they would incur if that were to be their motivating factor.

If I understand correctly I would have to register and verify account on Archway to be able to use services that are offered?
I am reading FAQ page and there is a part saying that you are creating bank account for customers in EURO or USD.
I don't want to do this if I only want to create Invoices, that can be done for free and without fees with different services.

[ reserved for future announcements ]

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About a year ago I founded Archway with a couple of friends. The idea is simple: a lot of freelancers and contractors want to get paid in crypto when they send invoices (by choice, or because they're underbanked). However it can be difficult to convince payers to actually settle invoices in crypto. The fact is that dealing with crypto is still complicated for most companies (accounting, value fluctuation, added tax burden, exposure to bank arbitrarily freezing funds or closing accounts, etc.). Hence, it's unlikely that companies which are not already working in the cryptospace will bother paying their contractors in anything else than fiat.

Archway solves this problem by acting as a nearly stealth, instant intermediary.

  1. A freelancer (let's call her Alice) generates an invoice for her work for company CO. A simple invoice editor on Archway's website makes it dead easy to generate a nice PDF.
      Alice also specifies on the website, to which address she wants to receive her crypto payment once the invoice will be paid by company CO.
  2. Alice sends the PDF invoice to company CO. The trick is that Archway has added its own bank account credentials on the invoice.
  3. CO pays the invoice, and the fiat is received by Archway. Bank transfers are usually same day in EU and UK.
  4. When Archway receives the fiat payment on its bank account, it will instantly transfer to Alice the equivalent amount in crypto, to the address of her choosing.

This way, the paying company does not need to touch crypto at all. In fact it may not even be aware that crypto is involved whatsoever, which is awesome because any contractor can get paid in crypto without the need to convince anyone or even discuss it! In general, any individual or business sending invoices around for their work can get paid in crypto without asking anyone's permission.


Nowadays we are seeing a nice increase in monthly volume of invoices processed by Archway.
In particular it is amazing to witness individuals and businesses trying the platform just once, then sticking to using it month after month, often for their entire payroll.   

Currently supported:

• Geographical areas for payers: EU & UK. Soon US.
• Geographical areas for payees: Anywhere in the world 
• Fiat currencies to pay invoices: EUR, GBP. Soon USD.
• Crypto currencies to get paid: BTC BTC, USDT, USDC.

We are currently expanding operations and adding more fiat currencies, notably USD. We are also considering additional cryptocurrencies. If you are an existing Archway user and would like an additional cryptocurrency on the platform, do tell us, we welcome any feedback and always put users first. We also have more features in the pipe and will enrich services on both sides of the invoicing process. And as for all services I've built in the past, we always have the best support in town 
This post will be updated as more features are added to the platform.

Happy to receive feedback and answer any question in this thread, you can also reach out to me personally if preferred. Cheers!