Understood.
From what I have seen, non EU citizens can use the virtual card.
So they are limited to online "shopping" only, but then again most of us who are online, do use online "shopping" as I like to call it.
As for the fees, they are not that hefty, unless getting cash from an ATM.
I think they got their act together and are meeting market demand and requirements.
Either way, definitely a great business to be using Steem and SBD, and we have exactly what they need:
PEOPLE!
Win/Win situation.
It is good to read that they had "rough patches" in their service, I guess most companies that dominate a market have them and as competition rises, the quality of service and fees tend to get "better".
On a personal note, good to hear from you, I see that you are still STEEMING ON as always, love it.
Cheers.
Why would anyone use a crypto-card online? We can just send the crypto directly for products on-chain as intended. Crypto has no weaknesses online, the weakness is brick-and-mortar shops remaining behind the times with credit cards.
Don't get me wrong, I'm an active user of Bitpay and I love that the service exists. However, I just don't get why people are fooled by these companies into thinking they need them for online payments. The whole point of crypto is that it is better than paypal and other online payment methods online.
Why would anyone use a crypto-card online? Great question I am glad you poised that question for us. Use a card online. Convenience, that would be my first guess because of the convenience it offers. Additional features is that I would not have to be connected to the internet to use a card also, using a physical card can open up more opportunities to use a card while travelling.
Maybe you asked the wrong question?
Maybe you missed the point behind a physical card to be held and used as a debit card online and in local shops.
The point of the card is to become a medium a bridge built between what exists now and what could be. People already are familiar with using a debit card and are content to add funds to them on a regular basis for the convenience that card offers. Crypto in general has a long road to travel before it is accepted in many places. However, a debit card does hold the same ability to be used in as many places as a credit card.
People can put their payment to the card in FIAT and it is automatically converted to their choice of crypto.
We bring more people to the crypto world by how we do things. Not just what we do.
Again I think you missed a point of crypto, The point of crypto is to remove the power held over us by those who control the production of finance. To create a greater equality on the distribution of wealth and prevent third parties profiting from the necessity of the need to transact exchanges of good for a value.
I feel, respectfully, that you did not make a solid argument in your response. I recognize the value of my Bitpay card in real life at a brick-and-mortar store, restaurant, coffee shop and places like that. I fully understand the value of those purposes.
The point I was making, the one I believe you did not understand I was making, because your response did not address my point, is about online payments. Online payments are risky with the potential for identity theft. Additionally, credit card fraud is a known booming black-hat industry.
If a certain online business only accepts fiat currencies and you MUST accept their services fine, do as you please. But the only way we'll achieve mass adoption is if we stop letting businesses get fiat currencies out of us, as their customers. We need to use on-chain transactions if we will ever have a chance at mass adoption. It simply makes no sense to not use cryptocurrencies for the very thing they do best.
And why can not a card be used on the chain?
It is merely code to relay a transaction to a record on chain.
How many people lost their finances from a Steem account?
How much safer is so called online?
Well, the cards out there are a means to introduce people to Crypto and for us crypto enthusiasts to use our crypto in the fiat world in ways that companies and people are accustomed to.
Basically, the customer gets what the customer wants and until things get to a stage where crypto is mainstream, this is a great service.
Cheers.
I get that, but I'm honestly concerned that we, crypto community, are becoming lulled into not demanding from businesses to accept our crypto as payment (at the very least online shops).
Step by step, all new technologies and ideas take time and a lot of patience and compromise before than what they get accepted and then later become mainstream.