Getting Started: Open an Uphold Account

Let's look at setting up an ILP-enabled digital wallet.

You have the content. You opened a Coil membership. In order to link your content to Coil and set up micropayments, you need an ILP-enabled digital wallet and payment pointer. These three pieces, Coil + wallet + payment pointer, work together. They allow digital content creators to connect Web Monetization membership to their content and receive streaming payments. 

Let’s go over setting up an ILP-enabled digital wallet. Once you have an ILP-enabled digital wallet, you will be able access your Interledger payment pointer. You need the payment pointer to set up your streaming payments from Coil. 

Currently, your options for the ILP-enabled digital wallet are Uphold and GateHub. In order to receive your payments in fiat currency, that is, not in cryptocurrency, you should select Uphold. 

Let’s look at getting an Uphold account in detail. 

You can sign up for Uphold at www.uphold.com. Click Sign Up to get started. 

You’ll be taken to the sign up page, where you select to sign up as an Individual or as a Business. 

To sign up as an individual, you’ll need to supply an email address, account password, your country of residence, state of residence (if in the U.S.) and citizenship. 

You’ll add your full legal name, legal address, date of birth, and SSN/TIN. You will verify your email address and submit a W9. You will verify your identity with Veriff, an app that allows you to upload photos of your government identification and a photo of yourself.  

If this seems like a lot of personal information, remember that Uphold is a regulated financial platform. It needs certain information to be able to verify who its customers are as part of Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations that prevent money laundering and other financial crimes. 

Once your account is verified, you can visit your dashboard. Uphold is a platform for trading as well as a digital wallet, so on your dashboard you will see a lot of options for trading cryptocurrency. We’re using Uphold only as a digital wallet, so you can ignore the Trading card on the far left of the dashboard. 

To sign up for a Business account at Uphold wallet requires more documentation. 

You will need to fill out an application and will be asked to include the following documents:

• Legal Entity Name/DBA

• Legal Entity Type. Is your business a sole proprietorship, partnership, nonprofit, S corp?

• Legal Entity Registration Number. TIN or EIN for your organization. Please note that if you use a fiscal sponsor, your sponsor may not approve use of their EIN for this purpose. 

• Registered Address/Mailing Address. PO Boxes are not accepted.

• Website. If applicable. 

• Source of Funds/Source of Wealth. Where did the funds for this organization originate? 

• Business Activity

• Account Holder Information/Authorized Signer Information/Trustee Information

In addition, you may be asked to submit further documentation including articles of incorporation, articles of organization, and bylaws. Registered nonprofits may be required to submit their latest 990 and a beneficial ownership form listing all board members. 

A full list of the documents required can be found here. 

Applying for a business account takes some time. Make sure you have your documents ready and expect to spend about fifteen to twenty minutes on the application. You will hear from Uphold within a matter of days. 

With your Uphold wallet established, you can link your bank account. Linking a bank account will allow you to withdraw your funds. Click the green My Banks button on the Transact card.

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Web Monetization for the Arts is a course on streaming payments designed for classical musicians and small performing arts groups. The project is funded by Grant for the Web.