Bitcoin Forum

Hypothetically what would stop something like the following being a real possibility in making the acceptance of Bitcoin a bit easier for Merchants

Having a Bitcoin "Credit Card" embedded with a static public address.. magnetically coded into the card like we have now
Having an organisation that works like an Exchange and can hold your Bitcoins on that address but also work as a type of "backup" if your payment doesn't go through

You could pay with 0 confirmations and the company would take the risk if for whatever reason the transaction doesn't go through..but charge an extra small fee for each transaction to cover the costs if they can't recoup them from the user

Of course there would be all the security concern on signup but it wouldn't be any different for signing up for a normal credit card

Magnetic readers are a dime a dozen it wouldn't be hard to set one up to transfer to a specific account with a displayed read out etc..

What's everyone's opinion?

Credit cards are a broken payment system which are susceptible to fraud.  I am not sure why topics like this come up from time to time as the user does not care if their credit card transactions settle in EUR, USD, JPY, Bitcoin or what ever. 

Bitcoin is a superior electronic payment system to credit cards, it is completely stupid to cripple it with a marriage to the credit card system.

I agree with security guy.  We need to stop apply old fiat models to bitcoin.  If you like the CC model, then just use a CC.

Thanks for the feedback...

Maybe you could clarify your post a bit further

Are you saying that the system of a credit card is broken because it is susceptible to fraud?
Is this really a problem of the credit card or is this a problem of human nature? I understand that you can mitigate the risk but no matter what system we employ there will also be someone that wants to take advantage of it

My suggestion would be to increase the user base of Bitcoin by allowing transactions with devices people are already familiar with.... like a stepping stone

I don't understand your second point either.. Fiat currency credit cards are also electronic.. and I think its a far cry from being completely stupid..

*Edit*
To clarify my thought train a little better here would be a real world example

I want to go to the local shops that now accepts Bitcoins and pay for my groceries .. great..
I've preloaded my credit card before I leave and when I go to pay I swipe my card.. and as soon as the network sees my transaction i'm good to go..

As oppose to having to get an Android enabled phone.. download the Bitcoin app.. stand there with the QR reader.. and wait for 2+ confirmations while my transaction goes through

The process is the same yet in the first scenario I swipe and card and the next person in the line is ready to go..

why need to have a plastic card with a public key on it.

as this involves merchants having to adopt a payment system that:
reads and processes a public keys instead of credit card number
then communicates with an exchange and not a card provider.

this usually entails a second computer, card reader etc.

instead how about a retailer having a QR code and customers simply scan it with their phone app wallet and simply pay the person, simple, job done.

bitcoin is suppose to get away from the credit(debt) scheme where people are playing with funds that dont exist. bitcoin is suppose to get away from leveraging and all the other methods of fake money creation. and instead use proper possession of value as the only means of trade.

the rules of the last centuries (pre 1900) if you dont have value to trade, you simply dont trade.

bitcoin should not go down the road of people pretending they have value to buy goods, with promises to repay later.

also to note. i have found it easy in some tests i done to fool exchanges into fake ID and as such i think that lending or having credit is a flawed business plan as its easy to run up alot of credit, and simply run off. due to the international and pseudonymity of bitcoin, the credit company wont be able to claw back any funds.

please stick with debit card system. if funds are available then trade can occur. credit is purely making funds appear out of thin are, i thought the world learnt that was a flawed method, especially now looking at the crappy position FIAT is now in due to it

1. Because it's more accessible for more people than an Android..

2. That's not hard at all and it would be directly transferring the coins into the retailers account whereever that may be
The secondary company charges a small fee to provide a "backup" if the transfer doesn't go through and they coins cant be recovered from the purchaser
If an android phone can do it then a POS system could also do the same thing

3. Sorry to clarify it's not a credit card in that sense.. It's just a card with Bitcoins that you have.. no a card you can use and then pay back the Bitcoins with interest etc

I think that may cause an issue so I will change the topic to debit card.. my bad

 ??? Why not a unique credit card allowing fiat and cryptocoin?

That would require involvement of a Bank and as you may know the majority of Banks have not been very welcoming to Bitcoin

It threatens their very industry so why should they..

The faster we get more users involved.. it increases the value of a Merchant getting involved.

When a merchant gets involved.. the it increase the value of a supplier getting involved.. and so on

It all starts with us :)

saying its not a credit card, yet in the same post saying this:


insinuates that the customer does not have to have funds. thus a second company is needed to insure the customer for funds they dont have.

i think you need to re read what bitcoin is.. there is no such thing as transfer failing.. if the customer has funds, the transfer WILL get confirmed.

there is no need for insurance(second company backup) to recover funds from a customer. the merchant simply see's a transaction and knows the coin belongs to him.

I'm sorry I should have been clearer initially it's a debit card and not a credit card..

To be able to accept a payment with 0 confirmations does have some risk that could be mitigated by a backing company
Including but not limited to things such as double spend attacks that could invalidate the purchase

The goal here is to make it simple and fast for everyone to use within a secure environment that offers insurance for any issues

Why would we need a debit card. You can just use a paper wallet as your own debit card or something like it.

A blockchain.info account works just like a debit account. You can just send the money after scanning the merchants QR code, but debit style cards have been made by people already based on Paper Wallets / QR codes. I'd prefer just to use blockchain.info though.

exactly

There's this: https://coincashcard.com/

Only for US citizens though. I haven't tried it myself.

Bitcoin is something totally different than FIAT money and exactly we shouldn't apply anything to bitcoin from FIAT money. Just like said we could use paper wallet. No need credit, debit or other cards for bitcoin i think.

What would be the purpose? Only to be able to spend bitcoin (albeit indirectly) literally anywhere Visa is accepted. Sure, this is an interim measure, but hugely useful as we wait for the world to catch up to us in bitcoin adoption. The significance of this is large. Sorta like a BitPay/Coinbase type conversion solution that we get to drive from the buying end of the sale, rather than waiting for the seller to adopt.

I'd not before been aware of coincashcard. If legit, I'd sign up immediately. Kind of expensive, but that will likely change as competitors enter the market. The site is largely devoid of concrete info though. Has anyone here used their services? Who is behind it?

Anyone know anything about Bitplastic? I see posts saying it's a scam, but the owner supposedly runs a number of other Bitcoin businesses.

Man how I wish there was a reliable BTC to debit card provider!

i think virtex provide those debit card.

I'm sure you could buy prepaid debit cards with bitcoins, but what would be the point? It'd be much easier to just pay with a phone or have someone scan your qr code and you put your pin in like you do on a regular chip and pin or something.

I see a lot of people asking "what is the point of having a card"

User adoption would be the point of having a card..

People now that have no idea what Bitcoin is most likely use some form of card to pay for their items.

If you told them hey look here is this great new currency etc etc.. and all you need to do is load it onto a card and you're go to go
What's the likelihood of someone that's never been involved coming on board if you told them that instead of..

Well you could just print out a piece of paper or you could download an app with a QR code reader etc etc..
And they say well why I have a card I can just swipe now why should I go to all this extra effort?

coinkite also has debit cards for bitcoin

Couple weeks ago Hong Kong company Cryptex Card announced bitcoin debit card in near future.

Credit Cards and Debit Cards are very different.   Are we trying to come up with ideas for a credit card or debit card?

You're not getting it yet. With a Visa-branded card funded with bitcoin, you can spend your money literally everywhere that takes Visa. (What's Visa's tag line? Oh yeah. Visa - everywhere you want to be). The seller doesn't need to display a QR code. They already take Visa.

really using BTC on credit cards requires you to deposit them to another company, which converts to government money immediately to pay for retailers.
What's the point?

Hmmm... Does anyone sell a pos swipe system that connects to the blockchain?

I believe there is something like that in the works. I remember reading about it a few weeks back. I haven't used the Blockchain merchant app yet, but from what I have seen, it looks like a POS system could be integrated if you know what you are doing.

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I think if the bitcoin is used by everyone, and it is accepted by the world, credit card will come true.

there is actually a company that is starting to create a debit card that u can us ebitcoin to purchase anything anywhere and it automaticly changes bitcoin to cash. and so on.

should be coming by end of june and pre order urs now