Bitcoin Forum

Hey everyone,

We are developing an all in one payment card that replaces your entire physical wallet and allows you to spend your BTC just like cash at any merchant.

We are hoping to get some good feedback from users as we finish development of the system, would you use it? What features do you want to make sure we incorporate to make it useful?
 
You can also check us out at www.gobitstripe.com (http://www.gobitstripe.com)

Brief overview:
*1-The card itself is powered by a small microcontroller and has Bluetooth connectivity. It communicates with our app on your smartphone to dynamically update its magstripe to emulate whichever of your cards it needs to. We have security features in place that block attempts to add cards not assigned to you.

*2-Your BTC stay exactly where you have them now, basically when you want to add cash to your card the application gives you an address and once the BTC are received we automatically authorize the funds to be spent on your card. The timeframe for this is dependent on the BTC transaction confirmation time, otherwise it's essentially done in real time. This allows you to time your, say BTC-USD per the market s
Whenever you need cash.

*3-magnetic stripes are pretty low security and can be cloned with $10 of equipment if your wallet was ever lost or stolen. Going to a dynamic card actually greatly increases your security by requiring authenticating via either checking to see if your phone is near (and so are you hopefully) or by needing to enter a PIN on the card itself.

Of course we would use it, I've been waiting for something like this for along time..

It could be a good introduction for the merchants, seeing that they could skip the middle man if they wanted or just keep taking cash.

Only if the card can be bought and loaded anonymously.

Exactly. This first step is a painless way for merchants to start accepting BTC and for everyone to spread the word. Once they realize they can save on fees by accepting directly they will switch over.

Yes, this would be great and would be an excellent step to mainstream adoption. Would it work like a regular chip-and pin format with card reader, but obviously one that relayed with the blockchain?

Something like this? https://bitplastic.com (https://bitplastic.com)

Well yea I would use it but not many people still accept btc

Yes, but hopefully they will in the future, and a Bitcoin-like credit card would be a great way to gain mainstream acceptance.

We'd use it but there isn't any way it is going to happen. Bitinstant announced one a long time ago but the regulations make it impossible.

I suggest you give up.

Ultimately it will act as a complete end to end solution. However in the meantime as the market grows to accept bitcoin as a direct payment method our system will leverage the existing infrastructure installed by Visa/MC so that customers can use their BTC at any merchant that currently accepts credit cards. This will spread visibility in physical transactions.

a keychain would be cool.. i met a member on this forum who knows someone planning to make one of those.


seems like there is still a lot of hesitation of adopting BTC as a form of payment by a lot of companies. even with the senate hearings, it's still an undfined issue.

With our system the merchant is receiving whatever currency they're currently used to. There is absolutely no additional infrastructure required as all the transactions are processed on their end just as if it were a Visa / MC transaction.

I really hate ignorant people like this, NO, we will not support scammers like you.

I would never use or support a system that was built from anonymous just so idiots like this guy can easily rob people.

He might not be intending to rob any one, some people just like the idea of the anonymity of Bitcoin, and/or also don't want the government or whatever snooping in on their purchases.

We take privacy very, very seriously and are working hard to minimize the information, if any that is required for us to issue cards to our users.

Is the BTC converted instantly into USD at the time of purchase?

The only limitation for the transaction is the BTC verification time. You can make the conversion at any time, whether you convert enough for you to spend throughout the week or several times a day, you can effectively play the exchange rate as long as you can wait the few minutes for the verification to come through.

I'm not sure if this is what you had in mind, but a card that was connected to my btc wallet and I could then automatically convert it it's USD and spend it like a credit card, now that would be awesome.  If it's what I think it is though, wouldn't the merchant have to accept BTC?  and there aren't many who accept it.

My major issue is I can't convert BTC in fiat and then withdraw the fiat.  If I could spend it like cash then I wouldn't have to withdraw it, so I'd be more willing to hold onto BTC for a long time.

Yes, its as awesome as you think! Basically what is happening behind the scenes is our system is issuing a one time use Visa / MC for a specified amount to be spent at the merchant. In parallel, the system calculates the BTC required to fund the equivalent in say USD and gives you an address to send that amount of BTC to. Once the transfer is confirmed then the card is ready to go!

This means that you get to keep your wallet however you'd like, your funds stay in BTC until you need them, and the merchant doesn't need to accept BTC as he is accepting fiat for the transaction. Hope this makes sense?

I saw this on reddit, my only concern is that it may not work in canada. Plus the price :/ but yeah. I am new to bitcoins so I cannot really give input on the product

Does this work kind of like a debit card or is a special kind of card?

Yeah, seems to work like that:

Is the sending of btc automated? They should use coinbase for that. It would be extremely popular. I wouldn't mind setting it up for you guys. Also what's the price of the card and are there fees?

There is the option to make the transfer automatic. We know that some people value keeping the services separate so this is not mandatory.

As for fees, the dynamic card will likely be sold for around $50 and the load fees will be in the range of 1-2%

Great! You beat coin kite in pricing.

Thanks! We are trying to set some very competitive rates

Will this be available in the UK and will it work worldwide?

Our beta test will be US only but we will be rolling out world wide, yes

Beta still includes those pricing? I would love to test out your card!

Definitely! Sign up on our website and you will be receiving the first beta invites!

Looking forward to worldwide. I would've bought an Amazon gift card to buy electronics with BTC if it wasn't for my country's sockets that differ from both the US and UK standard. Once I can use BTC to shop in my own country, I'll be spending some for sure.

Wish luck, I honestly hope you can make this happen, will be a good step for a small business to take a bite before other large companies jump on it