I noticed some questions about exchanging Storj for fiat. Recently, I found myself in a situation where I wanted to move some financial resources from my zkSync Lite account. Below, I am presenting my way of doing it. I do not claim it is the best way, but I find it effective and convenient. It does not require KYC, and I think the fees are reasonable. It is also quite flexible.
I have a MetaMask wallet and an activated zkSync Lite account connected to it. I can check my zkSync Lite balance on zkSync Wallet | zkSync: secure, scalable crypto payments and also connect my MetaMask wallet there. Here is how it looks:
I exchanged Storj into USDC on https://trade.zigzag.exchange. Another option is to exchange into Ether. Fees are usually low. Although the spread recently widened, I still find it convenient.
I transferred USDC from zkSync Lite to zkSync Era using https://www.orbiter.finance. If I remember correctly, you need to click L2 Bridge, mark the V2 option, choose zkSync Lite as the originating network, Era as the destination, and select the relevant tokens. Due to some zkSync Era constraints, it will take about 24 hours for the funds to materialize in your zkSync Era account. After making the transfer note the transaction links (just in any case). Orbiter’s withholding fee is a fixed fee of 2 USD for USDC. You can follow the transfer using the links provided by Orbiter. You can check your zkSync Era balance in your wallet and on zkSync Portal | View balances, transfer and bridge tokens. (In case you do not have zkSync Era activated in you MetaMask wallet you can do it with those settings: Network name: zkSync Era Mainnet; Network URL: https://mainnet.era.zksync.io; Chain ID: 324; Currency symbol: ETH.)
If you decide to go with USDC and do not have any Ether in your zkSync Era, for the next step, you may need to swap some USDC into Ether. You can easily do this on Zyfi - Your portal and SDK to a gas abstracted experience on Zksync. The fees are relatively low, and you should be okay with about 0.3 USDC exchanged into Ether (double-check the required amount).
Finally, you may off-ramp USDC to 10 fiat currencies on https://www.mtpelerin.com. For EUR, the minimum amount is about 52, it is quite similar for USD. You do not need KYC if the daily amount does not exceed 1000 CHF, 15000 CHF per month, and 100000 per year. If I remember correctly, you may need to provide an email address and/or phone number and home address (but this as I understand is not a formal KYC). My SEPA transfer took 1 business day (double check if another 24h delay associated with zkSync Era will not be applied here - due to some reasons I cant comment on it now). The fee was very small. Additionally, what I like about this service is that an email contact address is provided on their website in case of any questions. Replies are very fast.
If you find this information useful, please consider using this referral link: You're invited to Mt Pelerin! for Mt Pelering operations.
I understand that in doing so, for a relatively short period (like a few months), each time you make a transaction on their website using this referral link and the phone number, I may receive 25% of your provision. As I understand, I will not have any info about those transactions. Should this be the case, I would be happy because I am saving for a small NVMe disk as an upgrade for my storage node.
I should probably add that I have no idea how this referral works. I have never done anything like that before. I should also clarify that this is not financial advice of any kind, I am not associated with any of those websites, and you are proceeding at your own risk.
I’d like to add that another option for moving funds from zkSync Lite may be to move them to Era network like in points 1 to 3 and later deposit them to the OKX exchange, also on their zkSync Era network address. In this case, as far as I know, you need Ether. I have not checked this option yet. Also, on the forum, I have read about crypto.com and www.txfusion.io, but I do not have any experience with either of them. As far as I know you may also use any other exchange zkSync Era address in you storage node settings.
Maybe you find it useful, I am also open for any comments.
EDIT:
Removed: “I estimate the fee was about 2% or 3%.” Added the correction after additional information provided by @Ambifacient: “Orbiter’s withholding fee is a fixed fee of 2 USD for USDC.”
Good overall approach, definitely move away from having payments on zkSync Lite as you’ll be relying on the only current liquidity provider on ZigZag to swap your STORJ for USDT/C so that you are able to use Orbiter.
Are you sure about this? Orbiter is quoting me a $2 USD witholding fee for Lite → Era.
Everything is just an approximation. Please double check on your own before each transaction.
Is $2 USD a fixed fee on Orbiter regardless of the amount? I was transferring about 100 USDC, so I recall it being either 2 or 3%, the highest fee along the entire route. I’d appreciate your confirmation on whether it’s a fixed fee. If it is, I will adjust the initial post accordingly.
By the way, are you aware of any other services that facilitate bridging funds between zkSync Lite and Era? Also, could you provide insight into what exactly www.txfusion.io does? I must admit I haven’t checked this site yet. Do you happen to have any knowledge about it?
It seems the scenario I’m describing may differ significantly from the one you’re discussing (Kraken). In this case, I deposited storj funds on zkSync Lite to a wallet with my own keys. While I haven’t used Kraken, my assumption is that the situation there is similar to other exchanges, where you’re required to use their address. If the exchange goes down (like FTX), you’re likely to lose your funds, at least temporarily.
KYC is not required at any point along the entire route. This aspect was quite appealing to me, primarily because it allows for swift transactions. Of course a huge question mark here for the zkSync Era 24 hours current delay. Nonetheless, KYC is not necessary, fees are reasonable and its pretty speedy.
Mt. Pelerin’s website provides an email address for communication. I’m not sure about Kraken, but some exchanges don’t offer such an option and rely solely on platforms like Discord. Personally, I prefer the email approach, which includes a ticket confirmation and human interaction on the other end (as I rarely use Discord).
As for the total fee breakdown (approximate): Zigzag charged 0.20 USDC, Orbiter charged 2 or 3 USDC (I don’t remember exactly), Zyfi imposed a negligible fee (around 0.3 USC) but I was changing also very small amount, and Mt. Pelerin charged about 1 USDC.
I’d like you to understand that I’m not proposing nor comparing different approaches. I believe the route I’ve presented could be useful for individuals with funds on zkSync Lite, seeking to retain control over their keys without undergoing KYC. Additionally, Mt. Pelerin seems to be a viable option if you change your storagenode payment option from zkSync Lite to ERA. For me, the current situation on zkSync Lite seems somewhat chaotic and unprofessional, as users may feel somewhat restricted (locked). Initially, there were two on-ramp options and one off-ramp option. Suddenly, these options vanished, and strangely, it appears that zkSync does not offer any native option to transition between zkSync Lite and Era, which I find peculiar (maybe I missed sth, but if not, isnt it strange). Moreover, if you only possess USDC, USDT, or storj, you may further limit yourself, as sometimes you require Ether to execute any transaction. Therefore, Zyfi becomes useful on my route, allowing the utilization of more tokens to cover gas fees. I hope this addresses your inquiries comprehensively.
In conclusion, adopting a YouTuber’s style, if you find this approach appealing, give it a thumbs up, and feel free to use this referral link for Mt. Pelerin: You're invited to Mt Pelerin!.
Again, hope maybe somebody finds it useful and of course I am open for constructive comments.
Yeah Orbiter’s withholding fee is a fixed fee of 2 USD for USDC, so 2% on 100 USD checks out.
The only other service I know that can do Lite → Era is Layerswap. Right now it seems they are charging about 2.15 USD fixed for bridging USDC from Lite to Era, and slightly more to other chains.
I myself don’t know too much about txFusion, but as far as I care they have implemented a paymaster that allows using STORJ tokens to pay for gas fees, powered by a custom STORJ price oracle.
I dont think it is that expensive and complicated if you move your node to zkSync Era. Then you are basicly interested in point 5, it is You're invited to Mt Pelerin!.
However, the whole route from zkSync Lite as described in my initial post is indeed a bit long - dont know why storj advised us to use zkSync if it turned out like this.
Yeah, initially I tried Layerswap, even before trying Orbiter. I dont remember exactly the reason (could be my initial lack of ether - I am not sure) but finally I decided to use Orbiter. Thanks for the clarification about Orbiter’s fee. I will make necessary adjustments soon.
We are not a support portal of zkSync, your question is a generic question for zkSync, and not related to Storj.
Please ask for support on their support portal.
But generic answer for any blockchain - the confirmed transaction is final and not reversible.
Thats why I also moved my funds from zksync lite. Mostly because of their discontinuation of off ramp and because of lack of activities and a huge spread on zigzag.
Well, I guess its a bit similar situation to the one related to discontinuation of storj free tier. I wouldnt say both being rotten but actually not that far away from it.
What I mean is that in both cases its a bit funny. With lite, first they tell you to move funds to their network because you will have a better experience and lower rates than on L1. Later they are telling you that they are happy that you moved your funds there but now you have to move to L1 and pay a fee.
Yeah, its really funny in both cases: discontinuation of zksync lite and discontinuation of storj free tier.
Well thats how it is, things evolve and move forward. Storj is still a new/young company/product, things needs to be tested and if not suitable changed. It is also frustrating some times for me, but i’d rather see progress (and failures sometimes) than nothing happens at all.
Well, I must kind of disagree with you, in a sense that I share your opinion that things have to move forward, however why not just to say to your early adopters thank you and to treat them with respect?
I just cant see it in both cases discussed here. In the first case it was a surprise that a new network was created and your funds kind of locked up. Similarly in the second case, not even an email and your data being kind of locked up as well.
P.S. I would also like to add that I do not see storj as a new / young company / product. They are on the market for several years, I guess as long if not longer then a typical venture capital investment cycle. Sorry for the harsh words, however, this is how I see both of those things.
Well i guess its next level of Hardness to create something this new, AND with a market condition where people are distracted to the max from every angle, especially if You are skilled programmer. its NOT easy if You are relatively small team, not easy at all.
Well, yes and no, I mean, I do agree and disagree with you at the same time. My point here wrt to storj and to your post is that they made a relatively simple thing over-complicated at various levels. I would even risk to say: over-complicated to the point that they lost the traction of key success factors by themselves. Nevertheless, my previous post was about the way service providers are treating early adopters and potential customers and the whole thread is about payment methods.
I have to say, I have become very frustrated right now. I have spent 4 hours and some euros buying ETH trying to move Storj to some exchange without transfer over L1, which should be the point of zkSync Era, but I was not succesfull.
Only possible way I see right now is to bridge to L1 and make L1 transaction to some exchange, which means I need to do more L1 transfers to fund L1 wallet with enough of ETH. Am I overlooking something?
On Lite, I was at least able to swap Storj over zigzag to eth and then bridge, but I did not find any other way than syncswap, which does not have enough liquidity if I understand correctly. I would spend my Storj as liquidity there, but 24h volume is 1,3 dollars and I do not understand pool rules well so…
So as of now there aren’t any CEX that accepts STORJ deposits via zkSync Era. Some CEX I believe Bybit and OKX support ETH deposits via zkSync Era. When depositing make sure you select the right network and double check the contract address.
As someone that just wants to swap STORJ for ETH, you don’t need to interface with that liquidity pool. That’s only for people that want to deposit ETH or STORJ to provide liquidity to people like you, while earning some fees in exchange for incurring risk.
So if you are with a CEX that supports ETH deposits via zkSync Era, just use SyncSwap or an aggregator like 1inch to swap your STORJ for ETH and then send that to your CEX. Because of the low liquidity on these pools, the price impact is quite high.
If you have a large number of STORJ, you may be better off using txSync bridge to bridge it to L1 for a few cents, then paying the L1 claim fee which is a few bucks.
Otherwise you can use something like Bitrefill that accepts L2 deposits by doing swaps to USDC.
All in all if you were planning to always send to CEX, just stay on L1 and set the CEX address to be your payout address.
The volume of this syncswap pool is usually not very high. Most trade volume is concentrated at the beginning of the month when payouts happen. Currently liquidity is not too bad (still could be much better) at around 1000$. “Not enough liquidity” is quite relative, it is enough for smaller trades (a 25$ trade loses about 1$ to price impact), but might not be the best idea for larger ones.
The more liquidity the better it is for everyone, I hope that it is kind of a snowball effect, where the more liquidity there is, the more people use it, the more liquidity gets added .
Yes, I have considered to add the liquidity to the pool, but I don`t have ETH to balance Storj and was too frustrated to trying to understand how SyncSwap pools works at that point.
I have 500+ storj to swap, closest way I have found is to bridge to exhange L1 address using https://portal.zksync.io/
I don`t understand the claim process there, nor I found good info about it any other than this and this, but I am learning as I go with bridging 1 Storj
If anybody wants to add ETH liquidity to the SyncSwap pool, please PM me, I will balance that with my Storj, seems that is possible.
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