Product Updates

4 Ways For App Developers To Use Uphold

  • 10 Jan, 2018

  • 3 Min read

Robin O'Connell photo
Written by

Uphold is a digital money platform that offers a unique ecosystem of financial services to a global market. With payment connectivity and integrated cryptocurrency support, Uphold offers an easy to navigate open API that enables inspired entrepreneurs and developers to easily build on top of the Uphold platform. Working with Uphold's API, gives developers the ability to create secure, compliant, state-of-the-art financial applications without the financial burden associated with launching a financial services company including compliance, licensing and regulatory coverage along with access to Uphold’s growing user base or members in 174+ countries!

“We would not have been able to launch this app without access to the Uphold platform, which takes care of all the compliance and security issues associated with moving across digital currencies to enable perfectly executed trades,” said Pace Ellsworth, Heleum CEO.

There are a number of inspired, ‘partner apps’ that are powered by Uphold which provide valuable services to both consumers and businesses around the world. Let’s look at some examples of apps that have used Uphold to build their own app:

Heleum: Automated Savings

The developers behind Heleum built a multi-currency trading program that runs on the Uphold platform using its open API. Here’s how it works: Uphold members sign up for a Heleum account, the app then automatically checks exchange rates across the nine most traded national currencies and four top cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and DASH) and then moves funds instantly to take advantage of the opportunity for gains.

Each member’s Heleum balance is held within their Uphold wallet while invested in portions referred to as ‘balloons.’ Heleum uses these balloons to buy and sell currencies when there are opportunities for gain. Each transaction is triggered by Heleum’s algorithm, which scans all available currencies for advantageous trading opportunities. The balloon keeps transferring between currencies before eventually ‘popping’ and returning the members initial investment plus gains to their Uphold account.

In just a little over 3 months since launching, Heleum has popped a total of 5,559 balloons for an average gain per member of 24.6% per popped balloon.

Tradeview: Take Trading To The Next Level

Tradeview is a top of the line online trading brokerage organization. With three trading platforms to choose from, traders can make instant, transparent and affordable deposits and trading of currencies and commodities. Partnering with Uphold, Tradeview’s customers can now deposit and convert funds for free from anywhere outside of the U.S. and Canada. Plus, with Tradeview you have even more access to forex trading and a broker you can trust. Even China Union Pay customers can make deposits.

Tradeview was Uphold’s first industry integration, and paved the way for partnerships since and yet to come.

BitWage: Crypto-Denominated Direct Deposit

Bitwage wanted to help workers avoid the trouble of using a digital currency exchange to convert their compensation into crypto every time they get paid. Bitwage tackled this problem by partnering with Uphold to give workers the opportunity to enter the field of decentralized autonomous currencies via their paycheck. Using Bitwage, a contractor will be able to invoice his/her employer, and the payment will come through a regular bank transfer that is automatically converted into ether or bitcoin and deposited in the individual’s account on Uphold.

Ausecure: Uphold Goes Gold

Ausecure, an online gold e-commerce service, has developed a partnership and app integration with Uphold, allowing Uphold members to redeem stores of value in their Uphold Wallet with physical Gold coins or bars in any weight or denomination. This lets you diversify or cash out your assets with ease.

Ausecure has integrated with Uphold’s open API to provide users the tools they need to buy a variety of Gold bullion in an easy, quick, and affordable way.

Your Turn!

These cutting-edge apps are far from exhaustive when it comes to the vast potential of the Uphold API. Digital currency users will always have pain points that need to be addressed by savvy developers. We’re sure that 2018 will see countless innovations around the world of virtual payments and blockchain technologies. It’s your turn to get inspired!

To get started, check out the Sandbox tool for building and testing applications that use the Uphold API. Your Sandbox account isn’t tied to your real Uphold account, and it doesn’t use real currency, so you have the freedom to build and hack your own virtual payments solutions without worry. The “faucet” testnet lets you automatically add fake bitcoin to your account for the purpose of testing your app’s sending, exchanging, and spending functions. And in addition to testing the API, you get access to an innovative and passionate developer community and blog resource.

Interested in building an app or learning more about the Uphold integration process? Contact us at [email protected] for more information!

Robin O'Connell photo
Written by
  • CEO, Enterprise

Share article

Robin O'Connell photo
Written by
  • CEO, Enterprise

Share article