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Topic: Meanwhile in lower Manhattan..... (Read 11780 times)

legendary
Activity: 2126
Merit: 1001
October 11, 2012, 05:05:10 AM
#84
FWIW, launching a card product is complex and experiences many unforseen, unavoidable delays. Even if you have hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank, the wheels of big corporate bureaucracies seem to move painfully slow from the perspective of those used to moving at internet Bitcoin speed. There's so many different entities involved, each with critical paths and potential disruption points; at a bare minimum you have: BIN sponsor, issuer-processor, card network, card bureau (manufacturer), and program manager. Shocked

Plus, card networks have all these strange "blackout" periods throughout the year where nothing is allowed to get done. If you slip a milestone and some important component falls into one of those windows, your whole project timeline stretches out like salt water taffy on a hot summer day. Even once you have everything approved and locked-and-loaded, you can miss a manufacturing window and get delayed additional months, etc...

Having personally project managed a card product from beginning to end, I can sympathise with the lack of being able to provide a firm date.  Cry

Thank you for those insights!
Yes, we surely are used to some pace here.. ;-)

Ente
newbie
Activity: 47
Merit: 0
October 11, 2012, 05:01:16 AM
#83
FWIW, launching a card product is complex and experiences many unforseen, unavoidable delays. Even if you have hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank, the wheels of big corporate bureaucracies seem to move painfully slow from the perspective of those used to moving at internet Bitcoin speed. There's so many different entities involved, each with critical paths and potential disruption points; at a bare minimum you have: BIN sponsor, issuer-processor, card network, card bureau (manufacturer), and program manager. Shocked

Plus, card networks have all these strange "blackout" periods throughout the year where nothing is allowed to get done. If you slip a milestone and some important component falls into one of those windows, your whole project timeline stretches out like salt water taffy on a hot summer day. Even once you have everything approved and locked-and-loaded, you can miss a manufacturing window and get delayed additional months, etc...

Having personally project managed a card product from beginning to end, I can sympathise with the lack of being able to provide a firm date.  Cry
hero member
Activity: 756
Merit: 501
There is more to Bitcoin than bitcoins.
October 08, 2012, 03:11:30 PM
#82
What card? I haven't seen any cards yet.
full member
Activity: 238
Merit: 100
October 08, 2012, 06:23:29 AM
#81
The card will be associated to a single, static address?
If someone finds out my card address, s/he will be able to know how much I've put and will put in the card?

I hope you implement a way of generating disposable addresses to fund the card. The static printed address might be practical in some situations, but its use should be avoided - you should also explain why to your clients.

Despite that, congratulations for your development! You're already a valuable resource to this community, and it gets better by the day.

Yeah, the card's purpose is not at all anonyminity or even safety.  It is designed to do two things, which it will do very very well:  first, to allow people to instantly sell btc for fiat and be able to access that fiat instantly (yeah yeah, we'd all like to use bitcoin to buy things, but in the meantime, this is a good solution); and second, it is a great conversation starter for introducing people to bitcoin.  Now they know about bitcoin, and they also know it's as easy to spend as "real" money.  Now they might get interested... (And hopefully, they'll learn enough to wish they didn't have to use a card to convert back to fiat!)

That card is a great thing for bitcoin, anonymity and security be damned!

Exactly.
legendary
Activity: 1106
Merit: 1004
October 08, 2012, 05:33:51 AM
#80
That card is a great thing for bitcoin, anonymity and security be damned!

Quoting for posterity.
Such rationale might explain many things that happen around here.
legendary
Activity: 1106
Merit: 1004
October 08, 2012, 05:32:11 AM
#79
The card will be associated to a single, static address?
If someone finds out my card address, s/he will be able to know how much I've put and will put in the card?

I hope you implement a way of generating disposable addresses to fund the card. The static printed address might be practical in some situations, but its use should be avoided - you should also explain why to your clients.

I see that as a mute issue, I'd rather protect my actual CC number than my public bitcoin address....  With the CC number they could spend money, with the bitcoin public address they could look up money on just that address.... who cares?  It's easy enough to find someones public bitcoin address,

That's the point, it's not that difficult to find someone's public address. It's not the fact that it's physically displayed in the card the problem, since as you say, the CC number is also there. It's the fact that only one funding address exist. Even people to whom I'd never show my CC could eventually discover my funding address.

Why not also provide a page where you can dynamically generate a new address to fund your card, every time you want to do so?

PS: I'm supposing there will only be one funding address per card. Perhaps that's not the case. One of the points of my original post was to confirm that. Wink
hero member
Activity: 793
Merit: 1026
October 08, 2012, 04:24:31 AM
#78
The card will be associated to a single, static address?
If someone finds out my card address, s/he will be able to know how much I've put and will put in the card?

I hope you implement a way of generating disposable addresses to fund the card. The static printed address might be practical in some situations, but its use should be avoided - you should also explain why to your clients.

Despite that, congratulations for your development! You're already a valuable resource to this community, and it gets better by the day.

Yeah, the card's purpose is not at all anonyminity or even safety.  It is designed to do two things, which it will do very very well:  first, to allow people to instantly sell btc for fiat and be able to access that fiat instantly (yeah yeah, we'd all like to use bitcoin to buy things, but in the meantime, this is a good solution); and second, it is a great conversation starter for introducing people to bitcoin.  Now they know about bitcoin, and they also know it's as easy to spend as "real" money.  Now they might get interested... (And hopefully, they'll learn enough to wish they didn't have to use a card to convert back to fiat!)

That card is a great thing for bitcoin, anonymity and security be damned!
sr. member
Activity: 342
Merit: 250
member
Activity: 69
Merit: 10
October 06, 2012, 02:32:37 PM
#76
I see that as a mute issue,
The word you're looking for is "moot".

Hey now, let's not bring 4chan into this!    Grin
legendary
Activity: 1400
Merit: 1013
October 06, 2012, 11:13:26 AM
#75
I see that as a mute issue,
The word you're looking for is "moot".
full member
Activity: 168
Merit: 100
October 05, 2012, 10:55:04 PM
#74
The card will be associated to a single, static address?
If someone finds out my card address, s/he will be able to know how much I've put and will put in the card?

I hope you implement a way of generating disposable addresses to fund the card. The static printed address might be practical in some situations, but its use should be avoided - you should also explain why to your clients.

Despite that, congratulations for your development! You're already a valuable resource to this community, and it gets better by the day.

I see that as a mute issue, I'd rather protect my actual CC number than my public bitcoin address....  With the CC number they could spend money, with the bitcoin public address they could look up money on just that address.... who cares?  It's easy enough to find someones public bitcoin address, the thing you want to protect is your CC number.  If you don't trust whoever see's the card with your public bitcoin address then you sure as hell shouldn't trust them with your CC number right?
newbie
Activity: 47
Merit: 0
October 05, 2012, 08:20:40 PM
#73
Btw, what's the point to use Bitcoin-based debit cards? To convert bitcoins into dollars? Nonsense. Bitcoiners would better focus on encouraging others to accept bitcoins.

Acquiring millions of merchants while convincing them to accept a new currency, a new method of accepting payment, and a new process for financial settlement is a major undertaking. It took VISA several decades before they ever realized a small profit.

Think of it like a revolutionary new type of engine--does it make sense to spend millions of Bitcoin to lay thousands of miles of brand new "rails" all over the world for your new engine to run on? A more sensible approach is to use your new engine on the existing "rails" that are already established in a massive network all over the world. Once you have a substantial volume of traffic, switching merchants to alternative rails becomes a viable option.


full member
Activity: 126
Merit: 100
October 05, 2012, 07:42:24 PM
#72
Can't wait for mine, I hope it becomes a reality! This is what BTC really needs to start bringing in more people... instant access to their money.

Bitinstant is the man of the year if he pulls this of.
legendary
Activity: 2142
Merit: 1009
Newbie
October 05, 2012, 05:47:38 PM
#71
expired 12/11 ?

Seems to me the card emittent wasn't sure if they would be able to provide support of the card the whole December. Who knows what will happen after the 21th of December...
full member
Activity: 151
Merit: 100
October 05, 2012, 03:33:14 PM
#70
expired 12/11 ?
legendary
Activity: 2534
Merit: 2245
1RichyTrEwPYjZSeAYxeiFBNnKC9UjC5k
October 04, 2012, 02:17:35 PM
#69
It's not a real account number.  56789012345 Smiley


But it is the number I use on my luggage.
member
Activity: 88
Merit: 12
Max Kaye
October 04, 2012, 02:06:34 PM
#68
That's a too good posting, you must be a sockpuppet! :-)

Cheers!

Ente

Haha, well thank you (I think?)

I'm just trying to be rational about it; sometimes it seems people forget this step.
member
Activity: 111
Merit: 10
October 04, 2012, 12:52:49 PM
#67
Looks very cool...
legendary
Activity: 2142
Merit: 1009
Newbie
October 04, 2012, 12:45:25 PM
#66

Hm...

Quote
At the office, Charlie is half embarrassed at his IRC


Charlie in the Spotlight

Is it he or she? I'm confused.
legendary
Activity: 2030
Merit: 1000
My money; Our Bitcoin.
October 04, 2012, 12:33:02 PM
#65
I might have missed it in what has already been posted but a few quick questions if you don't mind.

Will you be able to load it up with MtGox USD? And if so what is the fee?

Will you then be able to withdraw that at an ATM? And if so what is that fee, including conversion to CAD at a Canadian ATM?

Thanks
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