Topic: bitinstant paycard - page 7. (Read 26604 times)

This indeed doesn't sound normal. It more a 'device' for spending your earned bitcoins easily.
It will open more people to accepting bitcoins as a way to pay. Because they now, if they have a card like this, it will be easy to spend them (don't need to go to an exchange yourselve).

For me it means I can do my design work, get paid in bitcoins and use it the same day to have lunch. I do wonder if this will get more $ out of bitcoin and drive prices down. This will make spending easy but I don't see money flowing into the bitcoin economy with these kind of cards.

 -Timbo925

On second thought, I am not sure this is all that great for paying bills. I forgot to take into account exchange fees. Adding just 1% to the monthly bills is no problem considering the value of Bitcoin will likely go up more than 12% per year. But adding a few more percent just to convert $ to BTC then back to $ would likely not be worth it.

Actually I don't think that everybody is so excited because of the low fees but because everyone (me included) thought that using btc to fund a debit card was a new thing, while instead it was not.

I suppose that's why all sort of news are popping out speaking of this not yet available card while another card doing more or less the same thing is instead available since a while.

And maybe this happens because while bitpay is a great member of the bitcoin community, okpay is not.

So, okpay, I hope you'll learn the lesson 

req

If I read the OP correctly you will have the option to keep all funds in BTC and transfer to USD/EUR when you buy. Or transfer directly to USD/EUR when you deposit BTC to the card.


True but isn't the fee mutch higher? Personaly I feel like bitinstant has an better brandvalue as okpay so that may help. The fact that everyone seems to be exited about this, does point to a better succes comapred to the okpay card.

-Timbo925

You can already do this with the okpay card (already available and deployed since a while).

I don't understand that: how would this "little merchant" be notified in real time of the funding? He should wait for a notification from bitpay etc, while if the merchant would use one of the multiple android applications he would have the (0-times) confirmation in real time. He could then convert them to $ only when/if needed, being it a small merchant by hypothesis.

But apart from that, I didn't know that conversion from btc to usd was done on the time of transfer (at what stage? Waiting for how many confirmations?), I would have preferred it would be done only during the effective payment.
In this way I can put for example 100 btc on the card and convert them only when purchasing, i.e., potentially during a span of days/weeks/months.

Also, apart from the 0.99% fee, what quotation is used to do the conversion? 24h average of mtgox?

The QR code on the front is an nice extra. Also an 'small' merchant can just order one of these cards and use the QR code so he can accept bitcoin as a payment. Funds transfer straight to USD so it is a very cheap point-of-sails system. This can help non-bitcoiners to get familiar to the system. (Also has a very small fee for the owner)

I also see great value in the fact that I now can show friends that I can spend my bitcoin easily. I show them my android wallet, transfer some coins to the card and pay for drinks. Helps promote bitcoin more.

Am I wrong or this card is nothing new since OKPay has it since a bit of time?



With okpay you can found your card via bitcoins and a whole lot of other means.

Bitpay seems to have a much less fee though, but apart from that, what other differences?

I have always thought of Bitcoin as the ultimate offshore bank account because it is decentralized and therefore does not have to care about any legislation, regulation, etc. because it does not exist as an entity.

There are no FACTA requirements for US customers. This has tremendous implications for the tax and estate planning and asset protection industries; particularly for high net worth individuals.

But the real killer for the banking system from this disinter-meditation will be the lack of capital. Deposits are like oxygen for banks. As people start moving their capital into bitcoins this will be like pinching the carotid artery; 3 seconds and the banks will pass out. Particularly given the fractional reserve nature mismatch between long assets which are marked-to-myth and demand deposit liabilities. Every $100m of Bitcoin market cap easily equates into around at least $1-3B of loans. Talk about the potential for a massive bank run!

So you couple the wealth generation effects from having a more efficient payment transfer system with the wealth transfer effects from increasing demand for a sterile asset while decreasing demand for its competitors and boom! This is going to be huge.

The offshore bank in your pocket!

Seriously though, your points are what the ultimate goal of Bitcoin for people to realize its awesome utility as a payment infrastructure.

This author says it the best:
   

-Charlie

Will I be able to do a direct deposit of USDs to the card?  (Update: If not, since BitInstant already takes Dwolla I could use that to buy bitcoins and load them instead.)

I gotta think, who needs a bank account after this?  Store your wealth in bitcoins, spend in dollars using this card until bitcoins can be used for making payment at the point of sale. and until bitcoins are accepted by more of ecommerce merchants.

While prepaid debit cards loaded with bitcoins has been something we've been able to do for a while, this is the least expensive method (1.5% of funds loaded) versus the others.  And at the same time it is a very convenient method.

The Bitcoin ecosystem is making progress at disintermediating banks.  This will benefit today's "unbanked" and it will be an enabler for those who are voluntarily considering going without a bank account.

This reminds me of Peter Schiff (Euro Pacific International Bank)'s gold-denominated Mastercard debit card.  It works the same way, you can convert some of your gold holdings into USDs or EURs and minutes later user those funds for spending with a swipe of the card.
 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDi7FLcH7iY#t=330s

The difference though is that Schiff couldn't offer that to U.S. customers as the account is held offshore.   With BitInstant's paycard, that's not where I'm storing my bitcoins except what I have there for spending that I plan to make.  If I have an unexpected need for spending, I can load the BTC account for the card with more bitcoins at no charge and in minutes.  Bitcoin is becoming a better offshore bank than anything offered anywhere else.

Watching this way because the watch thing doesn't seem to work.
Also put my name on the list for one of these

-Timbo925

Of course, not even a doubt.

Anything your Visa/MS card can do, this can do. Its a regular debit card. Can do PIN and Signature transactions.

+1 on this question

Yankee?

I am salivating right now. This goes beyond just helping to get bitcoins out there. It is a very useful card as well.

The way I see it is this. Right now I have a weekly budget. I have my direct deposit go into one account, then it moves a week's worth of spending money to another checking account. My wife and I use the spending card for our day to day spending while the main account is used for bills.

Now, with this, I set up a Dwolla instant transfer every day I get paid. It goes to MtGox and gets converted to BTC. I then set up a weekly transfer to my BitInstant card for my weekly spending budget.

One question I have is...can I use this card to pay for bills online? Many of my bills accept a debit card for automatic payments.

If I could get all of my bills paid with this I could have all of my money converted to Bitcoins through my direct deposit of my paycheck. The only reason to have a bank account would be to send my direct deposit from work to Dwolla.

Every new thing helps, but this won't lead to high adoption except to teach them about the advantage of a highly liquid, deflationary, and fungible international currency. This will be the must have item for jetsetters. Oh, and I still would like an unbranded brainwallet version.

+1

This has vast potential for raising awareness amongst the masses.

This card is MEGA awesomeness. It's the ticket to mainstream Bitcoin use. Once this card becomes common among Bitcoin users (and it will), merchants will look at accepting Bitcoin directly with much more interest. Money talks and it will be cheaper for everyone to accept Bitcoin directly.

I just hope that this is true. That they can do it with the fees they propose. If they can, this is the biggest thing since Silk Road.

Signed myself up too. 

Then I guess my new name for the card is "Mark Forehead."