Alternatives to Shapeshift for Instant Coin Swaps

We just learned today that Shapeshift – the most commonly used service for quick and easy “coin swaps” is imposing a registration (and accompanied KYC process) which was immediately met with criticism and opposition among the crypto-twitterverse.

In short, ShapeShift’s CEO Erik Voorhees admits, that the compulsory registration is a painful but measure, dictated by the unclear regulatory landscape. He explains how this goes in hand with user requests for more information about their activity while giving them “benefits” for loyalty.

With these news came the need for this article and I offer you a few alternatives here. I listed the few I have used and I found some new ones. A common issue amongst users seems to be the fees they pay. Each of these services is run by a company and they will all have fees so frankly, that is not something you can avoid when working with a coin swap service. It’s the ease of use they provide and they will charge you for it. The fees are usually included in the price tag so when you are making a transaction, you don’t have add-on fees. Make sure that you are happy with the amounts you see on your screen and double check everything before making a transaction, that’s a must. Otherwise the way to use them is intuitive and simple. Watch my video below to see what I mean.

LIST OF COIN-SWAP SERVICES WITHOUT THE NEED TO REGISTER:

Changelly

This Prague-based crypto exchange is possibly the most trusted and established competitor to Shapeshift. It offers dozens of alt coins including Ethereum, Litecoin, Bcash, Ripple, Doge, Dash, Monero and Neo.  Its services are being utilized by Coinomi Wallet and others.
An email address is required to use the service, but for those who desire their privacy, encrypted email providers like Protonmail are always an option.
Overall feedback is okay, it’s the biggest number of reviews from the list below and the main issue of most customers are the fees as expected. From my experience the fees are pretty much the industry standard. The other services aren’t any cheaper. The fee depends on the coin you exchange and it’s included in the total price. Despite not having the best rating, it sits on the first place in my list as I’ve used it the most.

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Changenow

A more recent addition to the coin-swap industry is Changenow. Somewhat similar to Changelly, but it seems to be asking less questions, and has been operating smoothly since late last year. A wide range of popular alts is covered, as well as a handful of less popular and even obscure ones. Generally there is no need to register to use the platform or to supply an email address. However there are some exceptions when larger amounts are being detected : Changenow “uses an automated risk management system to check all transactions. Each case will be considered individually. According to European AML directives, KYC regulations and platform requirements, we will ask you to provide you a scan of your ID document valid in your country and additional information of the funds origin.” Customer feedback is mixed, again the most complaints are about fees.

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Coinswitch

With over 300 cryptocurrencies covered, Coinswitch makes a great first impression. However, the service uses existing platforms including Changelly, Shapeshift, Kucoin and Hitbtc. Not enough information regarding the developers yet and their twitter seems to be weak (only about 2000 followers as of Sep.18) so it’s still in need of marketing and growing a customer base but on the plus side, their YouTube channel offers quick & simple tutorials to ease the user’s experience. Overall feedback is excellent but not too many reviews (yet). One of the services it uses is Changer which brings me to my next listing.

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Changer

With over 10 different deposit options, a decent coin selection and third party services like AdvCash, Payeer and Perfect Money, this service is seems to offer something rather versatile. Users can pay with their money from these online banks without the need of using a credit or debit card and the switch between currencies is also easy. However, there are some scam claims from customers and their overall feedback isn’t great. They boast about being in service for 9 years (they added crpyto in the last year) and by the look of it, they do it the old-fashioned way – no twitter, facebook or telegram (what is telegram? lol), just a good old-fashioned website with an email helpdesk…

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Flyp.me

A brand new service that offers 26 cryptocurrencies including BTC, Dash, and LTC, as well as a handful of extremely obscure altcoins. Right now there is no registration needed, not even an email address. Nor does it use web trackers or third-party analytics which is good. However, as young as this service is, there is zero feedback (as of Sep.18) on its performance. Their twitter seems to be doing well (over 3K followers as of Sep.18).

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SimpleSwap

Another completely new service that has little presence on social media and has yet to find its audience. There’s no information about their dev team on their website and their Reddit is vague, no comments there, a tiny following on facebook (125 likes to date) and twitter… however, their feedback seems very positive… perhaps too positive in fact. Well, I am not so sure about this one, if you have experience, please share it.

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Godex

And lastly I will mention this obscure service provider. By obscure I mean, there are no details as who is behind the service, how it’s operating or where it is based even. Their “about us” section is about the service, not the team and point of contact is an email. Yet again there’s excellent feedback this time coming from just 33 people (to date). Perhaps their fanclub? I would not recommend it at this point but do share any experiences if you can.