Topic: bitinstant paycard - page 10. (Read 26596 times)

absolutely brilliant.

Good to see some competition!   we've been doing this for a bit  btc -> $$ mastercard   the debit card angle does bring a new face to it .  good luck!

edit: we'll be opening a whole new site very shortly also.

You can keep BTC on the card, the conversion will be instant when you use it. Someone confirm this?

Yes, this is nice (like tiny unnoticeable nice) for every merchant in the world, now you guys can more easily and cheaply spend your coins to them.

But it's really nice for small merchants who have been earning coins and unloading them in medium sized batches with somewhat large fees.

Also nice for Bitcoin savers who live on the edge of 0 fiat.

It will promote more agorist merchants within the BTC community. A quicker way of converting them to cash (at least in the USA) is needed, and this will fill the gap for now.

Good point, don't know what I was thinking. Back on track now 

Why would the issuer be defrauded?  They have your bitcoins, and they can claw back anything they pay to a vendor.  I'm surprised it took this long for someone to see that.

This seems silly to me.  As a credit card user, I absolutely love credit cards.  They are super convenient, and totally free (if you don't carry a balance and don't have an annual fee).  Having a credit (debit) card that converts from bitcoin on the fly is super awesome.

As a vendor, however, credit cards blow ass.  They have insane fees, they are slow, and they have chargebacks.

I'll be happy to pay bitcoin to any vendor that accepts bitcoin, but I'll be just as happy to use a credit card with any vendor that doesn't.  Their problems, not mine.

I suppose so. I retract my initial inquiry entirely. It seems as long as we can 'sneak it in" and people say "If I use bitcoins, I can't spend them!", this can always be that slap in the face they need. That said, I feel really sorry for -any- company trying to offer these services because it seems like they're only going to be defrauded. I hope I'm wrong.

I understand from a purist standpoint the bitinstant card isn't our ultimate goal. It's baby steps toward adoption and the adoption period may take a long long time.

As awesome as it is to be able to actually -buy- things with my bitcoins, the very concept of creating this alternative decentralized currency free of the issues of credit cards, merely to add those issues on for convenience again is mind-numbing. I'll take one, don't get me wrong, because I love spending bitcoins-- but isn't this like being a cop and doing coke that you confiscate? Shouldn't we feel like we're destroying Bitcoin by not making it work in -other- ways, or is this going to be the way that gets it working more? Thoughts anyone?

Think of this. You will have this card as cold storage for a deflationary currency that will grow in value and then spend some earnings anytime you want. This is perfect liquidity for our form of gold. I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't want one. From goldbugs to Overseas Foreign Workers, to business expense accountants that monitor fluctuating prices and everyone that wants to have a savings account that appreciates in value. This is a big deal.

Put this capability into the Bitcoincard. Since it won't need solar panels, the debit card can go on the back side. 

If I am comprehending this correctly, it would appear to mean if you have a BTC balance, it can convert from your BTCs when you make the charge.


So the only time there would be a delay in being able to use the card is if both your BTC balance and your USD (or whatever) balance for the card are insufficient.  So then you send BTCs and after 1 confirmation (for an under $1K USD charge) those BTCs can be used for credit card purchases.

I don't know how they found an issuer (bank) that was willing to work this way.  From what little I know about it, for a prepaid debit card the process of adding funds to the card account are not in real-time.  Perhaps there is some notification when a charge authorization comes in that an external party (BitInstant) can transfer funds immediately and thus the authorization would never fail, as long as there were sufficient BTCs available.

I thought this might actually be a credit card used like a debit card where you get approval for a credit limit, and then all transactions are settled on a per-transaction basis from your BTC funds, but that's not at all the way this is being described.

Who knows, maybe there is some innovation occurring that allows them to work the way Charlie is describing them.  Looking forward to getting one!

I can tell you that loading the card will not require 6 confirmations. It will likely be zero confs.

Have people yet realized that you do not need to wait for confirmations for transactions to occur? Seems like people are still stuck in that line of thinking, but it's been an outdated notion for a year Most Bitcoin services, long term, will require no confirmations.

I want one of these yesterday.
Is there a cost for the card itself?    Is there some kind of pre-order to get one of the first batch?

I'm sorry you seem to only have one way of looking at banking. If the banks didn't have so many problems there would not be a reason to develop Bitcoin. Things like stop payments, account seizing, etc. can be replaced by m-of-n escrows, insurance, and personal responsibility. I'm sure there will always be people willing to allow others to manage their financial affairs. That can still be done.


+1

Would like to add my voice to the question of: will this be a loadable card going the other way too, as in from USD/EUR/JPY->BTC?


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I must have missed the memo from the US Government where I'm supposed to scan the serial numbers on USD physical notes and check them with a central database of dirty money. You know to make sure no stolen money gets into the pure as snow US money supply.

Oh that's right, people would get mighty upset over a demand like that.

Maybe if everyone agreed not to accept stolen coins.

Security weaknesses seem to be found in Bitcoin services only after someone has broken in and committed theft, though. And since you cannot put a stop payment on BTC and can launder stolen coins through anonymous mixing wallets before someone finds out...

They make a pretty good profit on transaction fees and should be able to self-insure from hackers getting at a hot wallet. Bitcoin can be much more secure than any other bank anywhere.