Hi, yesterday, I needed to have some of my BTC swapped for ETH. So I wondered what would be the fastest way to do that and I found changenow.io - a coin swap platform. Basically, without needing to create an account or anything, I just send my BTC to a wallet provided by this platform and it sends me back ETH to the wallet address provided by me.
So I was wondering how does that work. Do they use a centralized exchange like Binance or Coinbase and somehow swap on them in which case they're somewhat of a middleman or do they use some other methods that I'm not aware of?
I would never swap Bitcoin for centralized coins like ethereum, and using any website you always have a risk of them holding/freezing your coins, or they could ask you for kyc verification.
Best way is to use atomic swaps with wallets like AtomicDex, with extension wallet Liquality, or by using Bisq decentralized exchange.
I think that Changenow is just using other centralized exchanges and partners that provide liquidity for them, but that usually means you will have to pay higher fees.