Your native fiat gateway solution made easy.

Mercuryo’s ultimate goal is to provide every business with a well-fitting payment solution empowering them to go global. We tend to describe ourselves as a cryptopowered toolbox available through sole integration. But what does it actually mean?

For users, words like API are almost meaningless – most of us usually have no idea what is happening under the hood of the apps we use. Companies, in turn, typically focus on keeping their common workflow and integrating new services as smoothly as possible without redirecting their customers to any other websites. At least, when it comes to frontend.

We decided to lift the veil and explain how API integrations work and what you get when you equip your financial service with Mercuryo’s solutions.

The Basics

Initially, Mercuryo only offered Widget for the clients looking for fiat on and off-ramps. After a while, a few existing and potential partners asked if we could provide them with an API as they wanted their user experience to be smoother. Although easily installed, Widget cannot boast a seamless integration as it redirects the user to the Mercuryo website. And that’s when we decided to build our own API.

A standard API is similar to the software’s graphic interface but in its code version. API allows a server to communicate with another service by deploying a set of various methods. It can be public, meaning that external services can access your server or private when they can’t. Nevertheless, a product cannot work without an API of some sort, as the internal architecture requires a set of methods to activate functions.

Now, let’s say you have a server, and your backend developers have already written a code enabling some essential functions and actions. A special set of methods allows the external server to communicate with your product.

Depending on the case, public API methods can vary and sometimes, internal methods can even become public. For example, a method shares information about the list of transactions. In the context of Mercuryo’s Crypto as a Service, we’re sharing our wallets’ including their balances, transactions lists, rates.

The Essentials

As a service provider, we need to determine how the product will work on the merchant’s side. For instance, a company has built a financial app that works with fiat and can send funds using their own bank accounts.

They want to integrate Crypto as a Service and agree on specific money flow arrangements and limits. Whenever the number of transactions reaches the limit, we stop processing operations for the merchant until the merchant calls Mercuryo and requests to increase the limit. As for the technical part, we need to make sure all the methods that comply with these scenarios – money flow, matching, crypto deposits and withdrawals – are ready.

A set of these methods, or a public API, is the end product we present to the market. If a merchant finds it a good fit in terms of both business and technical input, they will start the integration based on the documentation.

During the integration process, merchant’s developers, system analytics, and designers will work on the task, putting together all the necessary inquiries for our API. Each partner has a partner ID for a smoother communication process. Typically, we communicate directly with backend developers and provide them with all the information such as accounts, limits, rates and whatever they need to complete the case successfully. As a result, their customers will be able to buy crypto.

Fun fact: our Mercuryo wallet app is also an API client. When a user wants to make a transaction, a request for rates, limits, and other user data is being sent. API shares it, and if everything’s in order, the frontend allows the user to take further steps like adding the card and finalising the transaction.

When it comes to integration’s timing, each case is different. Generally, the entire process takes from 2 to 4 weeks depending on the merchant’s capabilities.

Mercuryo API: The Current State

Currently, BaaS (Banking as a Service) is available for API integration. With BaaS, merchants acquire a possibility to open bank accounts for their users and also provide them with on and off-ramp functionality. it enables fiat accounts for DeFi and crypto-related apps dedicated to buying and selling crypto. In the future, we may add other products or functions, depending on our partners’ popular needs and business models.

Final Thoughts

API is a perfect solution for bigger businesses needing a native fiat gateway solution. It is not an easy fix as integration takes time and requires the joint efforts of developers and designers. However, if you are willing to make an effort, the results won’t disappoint.