Before you start, you need to get a crypto wallet and acquire some cryptocurrency. If you already have both, you are good to skip to the next section of the guide. —> Payment process.

Even if you never used crypto before, the whole process of setting up your wallet and getting the funds will take 1-2 hours at most. 

Basically you can set it up in two ways. 

• Custodial wallets 

This type of wallet is similar to a bank account. You own the funds, but they are actually stored by the bank. Getting such wallet would usually mean registering with some service provider like  https://localbitcoins.com/, Binance or some others. We highly recommend to refrain from using Coinbase platform as it is known to block users’ accounts for transactions.

The nice feature of such wallets is that they usually have fast and direct access to crypto exchanges and offer the ability to buy crypto with your credit card. We will need this at the next step. 

On the flip side, if something happens to the platform(i.e. it gets hacked), you are risking your funds. These platforms can also impose certain limitations on your wallet, like lock-up period, fees and commissions for transferring crypto. Some of them may have some weird ‘security’ measures, like being able to transfer crypto only after the receiving wallet has been in your address book for 24 hours. 

For the purpose of just paying for your order and not storing crypto, such a wallet should be okay, but, if possible, we recommend using non-custodial wallets.

• Non-custodial wallets 

This type is more like a physical wallet in your pocket or a safe deposit box. You are the sole owner of your funds and only you can access them. To get one you won’t need to register with any service. In most cases it is just a matter of installing software (Electrum for Windows, Exodus for iOS and Mac devices, Metamask for Ethereum, and other) and setting up your new wallet. Your only risk here is forgetting your password or losing access to your device. In this case you usually can use your recovery phrase to restore your wallet on a new device. This option is much safer and it’s perfect for long-term storage of your crypto. You are also spared from lengthy KYC procedures, withdrawal limits and fixed high fees. Another nice perk of such wallets is that you can set your own transfer fees to either save some money or make your transaction faster. 

For the purpose of paying for your order on CosmicNootropic both options are fine. In case of custodial wallets, just be sure to verify legitimacy of the company you are opening your wallet with. And, we, personally, use non-custodial wallets for payments for the reasons described above. 

Now we need to get the crypto into your wallet. You can easily do it with your credit or debit card through one of the crypto exchanges. The whole process takes about 10-25 minutes and varies a bit from exchange to exchange. 

Here are some common steps you will need to take: 

1. Visit the exchange of your choice and create an account
2. Complete the KYC procedures by verifying your account with the ID
3. Select the cryptocurrency and the amount you want to purchase
4. Enter your Bitcoin address for your wallet or use one provided by the exchange 
5. Pay for the purchase with the card as you do when shopping online

As of right now, these are top exchanges that allow you to buy bitcoin (or other cryptocurrency) with your card: 

• Coinmama 
• eToro 
• CEX.io 
• Binance
• LocalBitcoins 

99Bitcoins offer a description of a payment process for each of these in their article. 

Now, when you are all set up, you are ready to pay for your order at CosmicNootropic. Let’s go through the process of paying: 

1. Navigate to the checkout and select either ‘Automated Cryptocurrency Payment’ option with the BTCPAY icon or ‘Ethereum’ option.
   • ‘Automated Cryptocurrency Payment’ allows you to pay with Bitcoin or any crypto. We will mainly cover this option in the next steps as it requires some additional actions from you. 
   • ‘Etherium’ option, as the name suggests, allows you to pay only with Ethereum. You will be simply provided our wallet address where you will need to transfer the funds and the total in ETH. 
2. Make sure that your order and shipping info is correct and click the ‘Place an order’ button. Your order will be registered in our system with a 10% discount applied.
3. You will be redirected to the payment page and should see something like this:

At the top the remaining invoice life in minutes is displayed. After 20 hours the invoice and your order will be canceled.

You can choose which cryptocurrency you want to pay with by selecting it in the ‘Pay with’ section. Our processing natively supports BTC, DASH, DOGE and LTC. For others you can use SideShift conversion service that we will cover a bit later. 

Next, your invoice displays how much cryptocurrency you need to pay and the exchange rate that has been used for conversion from the USD. We use the exchange rate from the CoinGecko service. 

Already Paid and Due sections will display the amount that we have received and the amount that still needs to be transferred. 

The QR code below can be used by your wallet app to get all the info about the transaction to the app at instant. Scanning the QR code will open a transfer with the amount and our wallet address already filled in. You just need to confirm the transaction. ‘Open in wallet’ button works exactly the same. This will only work if you are using an app on your phone or computer. See below, if you are using a web wallet or want to paste our wallet address manually. 

Recommended fee below is a fee that you can set in your wallet app. The provided amount will ensure that we will receive the transaction within the invoice lifetime. In theory, you can set it even lower, but the transaction will be slow. 

If you navigate to the ‘Copy’ tab, you can manually copy the amount and the address to make a transaction.

!IMPORTANT!: We generate a new wallet address for each invoice. If you are paying for multiple orders, make sure that you are transferring funds to the wallet address provided with the invoice. 

4. After getting all this info, navigate to your crypto app or the wallet webpage and initiate a transaction with the provided wallet address and total. The transfer process may be a bit different for each wallet. If you are not sure how to do it, check out the help file or the help webpage. 
5. As soon as the full amount arrives to our wallet, you will see a green checkmark on your invoice and an option to navigate back to the store. Congratulations! Your order is paid! 

As you can see, the payment process is rather straightforward and is not much harder than paying with your credit or debit card. After paying this way once, you will do the next one in a couple of minutes. 

The steps described above cover only the natively supported cryptocurrencies. But what if you have some other crypto like, let’s say, ADA, SOL, XRP, or SHIB? You can either convert them yourself via some exchange and transfer the supported coin. Or you can use the SideShift Conversion service that is integrated into our payment processing. 

It is a no-sign-up crypto exchange with relatively low fees, which allows fast exchange of 30+ cryptocurrencies. You can learn more about it in their very detailed help files. 

Now let’s see how it is done. 

1. On the invoice page, select Altcoins (SideShift) tab

2. Upon clicking Pay with SideShift, a pop-up will open
3. Select the cryptocurrency you want to convert by clicking the ‘You Send’ image
4. The pop-up will display with exchange rate and how much you will pay

5. Click ‘Shift’. A new pop-up will appear with all needed information

As with the regular transfer, you get the wallet address, the amount to transfer, and the QR Code containing this information. 

6. By making a transfer to the given address you transfer money to SideShift and they, in turn, will transfer BTC to our account (which we already provided to them). You’ve paid for your order! 

Here are some additional notes on the payment process: 

1. Always validate the address you are sending funds to. Each invoice has its own wallet address assigned to it. If you will use some other wallet address, for example from your previous order, your order will not be automatically marked as paid. We will need to search for your transaction manually. 
2. The same goes for the transfer amount in cryptocurrency. While our payment gateway accounts for some small deviation from the Order Amount given to you, if you overpay or underpay significantly we will have to search for your transaction manually after you have contacted us about the issue.
3. Use only reputable crypto exchanges. Unfortunately, scams are still present in the crypto world. And, due to the nature of cryptocurrency, it is almost impossible to return funds that you lost due to scam. 
4. If possible, stick to the cryptos natively supported by us. This will make life easier for you when paying as there will be no middleman between you and us. Our gateway currently supports BTC, LTC, DASH, DOGE. 
5. Invoices have a limited lifespan due to cryptocurrency prices fluctuating. Sure, it will be great to have infinite invoices, but, as prices fluctuate, we have to recalculate the exchange rate from time to time, thus canceling the invoice and the order. 
6. When using SideShift write down your order ID. It is displayed in the upper-right corner of the SideShift pop-up. It may be helpful if there are issues with the transfer. For direct transfer to us, you don’t need it.