Long gone are the days when Government literally tried to ban the cryptocurrencies and it seemed like we are going to hit the rock bottom.
But now , in 2020 we are seeing what seems like the race to dominate the debit card industry in terms of cryptocurrencies.
With the announcement of first crypto debit card being launched till now , where we are evaluating the risks of having a Crypto card for all the transactions this is the future of the society that Government sooner or later has to accept *the fact that crypto market is going to take over the world*
73 views|Aug 10, 2020,08:47am EDT
A Race To Dominate Crypto Debit Cards Has Begun
Luke FitzpatrickContributor
Crypto & Blockchain
I cover blockchain trends and cryptocurrencies.
In this photo illustration a Visa credit card and Mastercard...
POLAND – 2020/01/03: In this photo illustration a
SOPA IMAGES/LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES
Halfway through this year, the Wirecard scandal shocked the world. What was once a tech darling, soon became a subject of controversy within financial circles. Before the news came to light, it appeared Wirecard could emerge as a dominant player in the crypto debit card space, but now, as Wirecard’s preliminary insolvency proceedings take place, the race to dominate the crypto card market has begun.
The dark past of crypto debit cards
In June, Wirecard filed for insolvency admitting 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion) absent from its accounts was non-existent. Former CEO Markus Braun was arrested and suspected of market manipulation. Wirecard was not the first, and it is unlikely to be the last to face regulatory scrutiny of its business practices in the crypto debit card space.
In 2018, WaveCrest, a worldwide digital payment solutions provider, was ordered by Visa V to close all Visa prepaid cards immediately they had issued. Visa’s demand led to the suspension of many customer’s prepaid cryptocurrency cards in Europe. Visa stated WaveCrest had not been following Visa’s membership regulations but did not offer specifics regarding non-compliance.
During the ICO craze of 2017, Central Tech promised the development of Centra Card, which allegedly could be used at Visa and Mastercard MA terminals to make payments tapping into the customer’s cryptocurrency holdings. The company employed celebrities such as boxer Floyd Mayweather and DJ Khaled to promote its ICO. Experiencing delays, Robert Farkas, co-founder of Centra Tech, pled guilty during this year for securities and wire fraud.
Enterprise lend credibility
In July 2020, Visa posted a blog titled, Advancing our approach to digital currency, in which the company described its vision for digital currency. With plans to partner with many blockchain companies, Visa intends to provide customers with a broad array of technologies:
Work with licensed and regulated digital currency platforms such as Coinbase and Fold.
Create a bridge between Visa’s network of 61 million global merchants and cryptocurrencies.
In an expansion of its current cryptocurrency program, Mastercard is making it easier for companies in the digital currency space to issue branded payment cards as seen recently in a deal with Wirex.
Allows digital currency companies to issue cards on Mastercard’s network.
Wirex became the first native cryptocurrency platform to gain principal membership.
PayPal PYPL has also entered the cryptocurrency market and partnered with Venmo. Soon, PayPal’s 265 million users will be able to buy bitcoin via the Venmo mobile payment app. According to Coindesk, PayPal could begin rolling out bitcoin payments within the next 3 months.
The cryptocurrency industry has also been making progress in the issuance of cards as well. For example, Binance announced recently that its payment card, Binance card, will be coming to Europe in the next year.
On the Europe front, Nike NKE has shown a developing interest in blockchain rewards. Last last year Nike patented CryptoKicks—tokenized shoes on the ethereum blockchain—and partnered with Plutus to offer cryptocurrency rewards on Nike product purchases.
Bitcoin leaving exchanges on record numbers
In the last 2 months, a record number of bitcoins was removed from exchanges. Some investors transferred to cold wallets, others to DeFi, as a means of funding peer-to-peer loans (P2Ps), and earn interest on crypto—much higher than bank interest. However, some exchanges are receiving an uptick in deposits. This could be due to a combination of:
Security concerns: Over the years, several well-known crypto exchanges have been hacked (Mt Gox, Bitfinex, Upbit, etc). This means that there is an inherent risk of storing bitcoins on exchanges—many investors opting to store their bitcoins on cold wallets.
Government intervention: The risk of governments initiating bans and confiscating bitcoins due to global economic uncertainty.
The rise of DeFi: In the first part of 2020, the value of locked-up DeFi protocols increased from $1 billion to $4 billion, and a new concept known as yield farming was primarily responsible.
There already have been some negative reviews but with the Europe Users getting their first card is it worth the investment ?
What we are seeing right now is the integration of the cryptocurrencies in the mere essential like *debit cards*, do you think we will be able to make a statement with this step? Or is the negative past of the company going to stop the users from taking a step forward. ?
I do think it a leap that we see , sooner or later crypto market might normalize and be used everywhere.