I wanted to showcase Wirex for a couple different reasons.
The first being this card has been reviewed many times as a solid Bitcoin debit card, and the second reason is that it serves as a good benchmark to show just how far other projects have advanced the idea of crypto debit cards.
Wirex was launched in 2015 after raising $200,000 from crowdfunding through the BnktotheFuture platform.
This is a stark contrast compared to the amount being raised by the popular ICOs today.
This card connects with Visa and MasterCard and works with USD, Euro, Pound, and Bitcoin.
Even though Wirex works with USD, this card is not available to US residents.
To see the full list of available countries, don’t worry, there are many, check out the link that is posted down below.
If I’m understanding my research correctly, you cannot fund your Wirex account with fiat. Instead, you’ll have to fund this card with Bitcoin or a number of different alt coins- these you’ll be able to find by checking out the links down below. Conversely, I believe you can only spend in USD, Euro, Pound or BTC.
if you think your card is stolen or being used without your permission, you can instantly freeze your card without the need to submit a request to Wirex.
One major hangup that I have with this card is the fact that Wirex is not anonymous. At least they don’t pretend to be, It’s stated very plainly on its terms and conditions page that they will share your spending information to be monitored by AML. They’ll also share your identity and address to regulators without notifying you.
But if that doesn’t bother you and you’re still interested in this one, you’ll be happy to know that this card offers 24/7 support if you ever need help.
Tokencard-
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1887092.520
Tokencard on the other hand held it’s ICO two months ago that raised 12.7 million dollars in under an hour.
This shows the ICO craze now compared to the time of Wirex crowdfunding campaign.
Tokencard is not yet available to the public.
They are focusing on Ethereum and ERC20 tokens for the foreseeable future, this is because the users will hold their tokens in a smart contract wallet.
Their UI will be a contract wallet and you can use any Ethereum browser that you prefer.
They are not partnered with Visa as was previously advertised, instead they are teamed up with an Issuing Bank in Gibraltar
Because Tokencard uses smart contracts, this means you would be able to set up recurring payments and pre authorizations as long as you have enough funds to cover it.
They plan on releasing their minimum viable product within 120 days if their ICO, so in September of 2017.
This MVP will be made available to 500 of the early adopters of tokencard’s token, called… TKN, which I’m guessing is short for token.
The general public release 1.0 will be rolled out 240 days after their ICO, so we can expect to see this at the end of the year or the beginning of 2018 if all goes well.
Once again, Tokencard will not be available to residents in the US or India, this may change as time goes on.
Tokencard has some interesting ideas for taking advantage of the smart contract features provided by the Ethereum Network that will help this card differentiate itself from its competition.
These features will not be available on their MVP but will be for future releases include:
- Multiple asset spending- taking a bit from different assets during one transaction,
- Portfolio spending- keeping a specified allocation of your assets
Of course they are incentivizing the use of their token, TKN by removing the 1% licensing fee for purchases made using the TKN token.
They also will have a “cash and burn” option which I’ll be honest I haven’t quite been able to fully understand what the motivation behind this is besides limiting the supply of the TKN token so that others can benefit from a higher payout if they in turn decided to burn their TKN tokens for a share of the accrued licensing fees.
If this is something you’d like to learn more about you can certainly take a peek at TokenCard’s white paper where they spell out the mathmatical equations they use to accomplish this.
Additional Reading/Sources:
Wirex Website
Wirex Review by DarknetMarkets- Includes Countries and Alt coins Accepted
BitcoinTalk Review of Wirex
BnktotheFuture
TokenCard Website- Download Whitepaper Here
AMA with TokenCard
You have my full UV, you deserve it for the work you put into this. Just out of curiosity, is your text scripted? Would be impressed if it wasn't because it's articulated clearly and quickly!
Also just wondering if you create all the content yourself or do you have some partners who help in doing the research?
Thanks again for providing so much value! So many crypto bloggers here provide little to no value in their posts.
I prefer to write out what I want to say so I don't start rambling, that's what annoys me most with other crypto vloggers. There are a few that give great info but for me I like to be efficient and not waste time.
I haven't hired on any help yet... I tend to take a few days to do a lot of reading and making connections before being ready to make a video.
Thanks for your support! I really appreciate it :)
I feel exactly the same way. It took me several days to write this post in which I have a conversation with a 5 year old, explaining him what crypto is.
I think it's great that you script your text, it significantly improves the quality of your videos. You have a new follower.
agreed! Thanks for boiling it all down.
Couldn't agree more. I've always been taught the sign of a good writer is the person who can get their point across in the shortest amount of words. Glad to see another post from you.
That's the part about Steemit that I enjoy most- being able to flex my writing muscles a bit :)
Hi heidi, it is my first day at Steemit. I saw you on you tube and you inspire me to share with others about my travels, my passion. I don't know how to PM you so I come to your first trending post here. Come and visit my introductory article and upvote me if you like and let's follow each others travel treks. This is going to be fun. Rosa @rosatravels
@heiditravels always puts a SMILE on my Face and I am so glad that she shares so much Crypto knowledge with everyone. She is so Smart and Very Beautiful too.......................
Always enjoy your posts Heidi. I would like to get a cryptocurrency debit card, so many to choose from.
🤔
Great post. isn't same solution provided by other players as well (crytpo pay ,bitpay)? What I noticed is that for each area where block chain is applicable many projects are trying to solve it.This is huge competition and most of the time first mover is at a disadvantage. I have concern with steemit itself
https://steemit.com/steemit/@sanees/steem-vs-emerging-decentralized-social-media-platforms-must-read
Very helpful, Heidi! There are more and more cards appearing now, which make spending crypto easier and easier!
For your European readers I can recommend the VISA card from http://cryptopay.me. The nice thing is that you can also use it to buy crypto. You just send Euros to cryptopay.me, convert it to bitcoin, and then send it to a safe wallet or to exchanges to buy other coins.
If you want to spend Bitcoins in your daily life, you just send it back to your cryptopay.me account, convert it to EUR/USD or GBP and put it on the card. It's all super easy within the account.
I have a referral link if anyone wants a discount on the card: https://cryptopay.me/join/d69653c2
Also I'm very interested in the new TenX card (https://www.tenx.tech/). I think it's only available on android phones so far, but as far as I understand it's a multi-currency wallet/card and it converts those currencies to fiat in real time a the moment of spending it. This sounds better than any other card to me, to be honest.
And then there is also the new https://mona.co/ card, which also claims to be the best card ever, but I haven't checked it out yet :)
Lots of offspring on the originals! :)
Nice compilation @connectedeconomy, thanks, I am looking for a new card. For Spanish speakers that want support in their language I would add Bitnovo, I have heard friends giving good reports on it.
Thanks for your post. You are a very beautiful and intelligent woman
good post.
follow me @lomidze
We bitcoin still a little, how the way is it?
Resteemed to keep this avaible for more study.. thanks for posting upvoted
Excellent post @heiditravels, I agree with what you write, it's very interesting, great video, I would appreciate it if you give me a look at my last post and give me your opinion, greetings and success in everything! :)
Good point on TokenCard.
Very interesting.
The rewards are allocated so that 75% of the payout goes to the author of the post/comment, and 25% goes to the curator.
Of the 25% that goes to the curator, that portion will be split between the author and the curator if the curator votes within the first 30 minutes. The split of the 25% between the author and curator during the first 30 minutes is calculated linearly based on the time the vote is cast.
• If a post is upvoted the moment of posting, 100% of the curation reward goes to the author.
• At 3 minutes, 90% goes to the author and 10% to the curator.
• At 15 minutes, it's a 50/50 split.
• At 27 minutes, 10% goes to the author and 90% to the curator.
• If a post is upvoted 30 min after posting, 100% of the curation reward goes to the curator.
This is important info. I do not think a lot of people are aware.
Thanks, and please upvote
Nice
In the near future I will order one... but for the moment I will wait to see which card is better.
Big hug
STeemitri The Mannequin
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Great stuff Heidi, that is why I shared this all over social media today.
Frankly I miss most of your posts for months that is why you do not hear more from me LOL
So much travelling and time zoning changes I guess hahaha!! (by you, not me)
Us in the U.S. only have access to the Bitpay card, which is good, but you can only transfer bitcoin to it. I've been trying to find an altcoin debit card that is available to U.S. citizens (Sadly the uquid debit card doesn't 😕) Looks like I'll have to follow Jeff Berwick's advice and relocate. Anyway, great share Heidi. Thanks! #InCryptosWeTrust
The Shift card is available to US citizens
whats with monaco? i think they are better
I created a Wirex account a few weeks account. Apparently, to load your card, you need to transfer at least the equivalent of 50 euros. Same problem when you want to withdraw money on an ATM...
However, TokenCard could be an interesting alternative, especially if it's based on Ethereum...
always enjoy your videos and posts, been watching for few months. Keep up the good works.
Awesome well written post. Upvoted and followed... PS you're hot AF!
Hey there Heidi! I absolutely love your content! I have subbed on youtube as well! I will be keeping up with your content and taking notes from you for sure! :D Keep up the amazing work!
Thank you for the words of encouragement! I'm glad you are enjoying the content :)
I was not aware that Wirex shares your information like that. Thank you for telling us. I've had my eye on TenX and Tokencard but I was upset when I found that neither of them are available for US customers. I just want to not own fiat anymore and only have cryptocurrency, it that too hard to ask?
Also, I mentioned you @heiditravels in a recent blog post of mine debating pros and cons of using a username vs. a real name on Steemit. Would love it if you checked it out!
Love your posts. My husband and I are travelers too. We are currently living in Panama (from the US). You are someone I will follow!
Hi; Wirex community manager here!
Great review; I just wanted to recommend using your affiliate link; so that you can earn money for your beautiful review!
Here's a video on how you can find your affiliate link:
https://www.facebook.com/wirexapp/videos/619419768228527/
We are working on a card provider and are hoping to get it online as soon as possible available worldwide:
https://wirexapp.com/introducing-new-contactless-wirex-payment-cards/
Unlike all these new comers, we've been around since 2013, we have an inhouse dev team (our biggest overhead) who've created an amazing blockchain that links banking to Bitcoin; ensuring the lowest possible rates: (https://themerkle.com/what-is-w-pay/)
We are also one of the first to offer a SegWit enabled Bitcoin Wallet with a mobile app; that would allow you to convert your Bitcoin (or 45 other Crypto's) into $,£ or Euros instantly.
We also have an in-house support team that can help out when you get into difficult situations (~~~ embed:Bitcoin/comments/70npq3/someone_stole_61_from_my_wirex_account_help/) reddit metadata:fEJpdGNvaW58aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucmVkZGl0LmNvbS9yL0JpdGNvaW4vY29tbWVudHMvNzBucHEzL3NvbWVvbmVfc3RvbGVfNjFfZnJvbV9teV93aXJleF9hY2NvdW50X2hlbHAvKXw= ~~~
Try us; promote us using an affiliate link and make a dividend on every transaction that your your affiliate link leads to!
We hope to see you try our platform:
https://www.wirexapp.com
Raphael
Wirex Community Manager