In an effort to bring Bitcoin Payments to the Ecommerce mainstream, BTC Cold Storage wallet developer Xapo has announced it will soon release a prepaid debit which will attach itself to its Bitcoin wallet.
Xapo is headed by former Lemon Wallet CEO and founder Wences Casares, and is the result of BTC related security breaches, such as those which brought down the once largest Bitcoin exchange MtGox.
The card service will cost users $15 on top of the already free service. Once in the form of a widely accepted method of payment like a MasterCard or Visa debit card, Xapo users can pay in the cryptocurrency literally anywhere.
“Most of our customers keep 90% of their bitcoin in our vault and 10% in their wallet. The addition of card access to these wallets will allow that 10 percent to be instantly transferred to cash,” said Wences Casares.
The card service will work in conjunction with the Bitstamp exchange service. Once the card is swiped Xapo will verify the exchange rate with Bitstamp and exchange the BTCs in favor of a FIAT currency, resulting in real world funds to be made available on the card. Vendors will continue to pay standard credit and debit card fees.
“If you have to spend dollars instead of bitcoins, you might want to sometimes sell your bitcoins for dollars, but when you can spend bitcoins anywhere you can use your credit card the mental math is very different. This solution and the ones that come after it are huge news,” Wences added.
It was planned and rumored for MasterCard to support the physical card aspect of the new venture. Reps from the card giant have stated they are not currently entering an agreement with the Bitcoin wallet service. Other limitations and bank regulations are also creating a damper on the release of the service. However Wences is positive the service will be up and running later this year.
