Bitcoin Forum

I’m just curious how many people live in places where there are bitcoin gift cards in shops hanging with all the other gift cards? Or maybe know of a local place selling them as a specialty item ?

Here in the United States there are none anywhere. However I know there are places over seas that have these in some stores. France/Spain for instance have Bitnovo cards in some of their stores.

Any others out there to report ?  

closest I have seen is a bitcoin ATM at a store down the street from my work and I dont think I have ever seen BTC giftcards anywhere stateside.

Given the fluctuating value of BTC, I’m not sure of the value proposition of these. Unless redeeming a $25 gift card triggered the $25 purchase of BTC at the POS? Which even then I’m not sure would make much sense or work as it’s already not guaranteed that a sale price rings up at the register let alone a price changing by the minute. Would be a great arbitrage opportunity, possibly?

Edit: unless you just mean like a plastic wallet with no BTC value, in which case I’d rather have Ballet metal wallets all day every day but of course these aren’t in stores.

You know you’re a lot sharper than everyone always says! :P

This is exactly right. Bitnovo if I’m not mistaken adds the bitcoin after purchase somehow. People would pay a nice premium for these, helping offset any fluctuations (most of the time). I know there are others out there. Not sure if any are pre-funded however. ( This is also my guess why Satori never came back ).

Edit- I do mean funded but would love to hear of any DIYs in stores too.

Haha thanks, I try not to always be a fool  ;D

I believe this exact business model would be similar to Stockpile which functions as a brokerage so in theory you would want a reputable exchange to sell these gift cards to guarantee settlement for the bitcoin. However, I did find that Stockpile allows you to purchase GBTC which is Grayscale's Bitcoin Trust so in theory you can buy Bitcoin via gift card this method.

In closing, if I see you with a sig campaign for Kraken, Coinbase, or Binance gift cards. I expect a thank you cut  ;)

those type of cards exists both in European & Asian markets. As rxalts correctly says, those cards do not contain BTC sats, but can be redeemed for sats on request. (there is a scratch code, where you can redeem for sats, through a centralized procedure...). You pay a hefty premium for the service, and the exchange rate is usually not optimal.

Here is an example from austrian-bitcoin.at

https://www.austrian-bitcoin.at/assets/img/cards/gutscheinkarte-15.png

I would think that you should be able to buy btc at the value it is when you are currently buying the gift card and have it loaded to a card - the cards could be premade with a secured private key under a scratch off or behind a hologram and  a public address visible so that the seller could load whatever amount you are wanting - the person you give the card to would then redeem it by revealing the private key

but if thats the case that is already what ballet and coldkey offer essentially - though to your original question concerning stores selling them - that is not done for either company to the best of my knowledge.  But it should be possible to buy bulk cards from either ballet or coldkey and then put them in a storefront.

"In closing" ..writing a term paper here?  :D  

I'm curious why exchanges don't have these in gas stations or grocery stores.  They could easily put a card funding section up on their website.  I know plenty of people have no clue how to buy bitcoin... They find these cards with instructions how to load them and at minimum these exchanges make a few bucks with the potential for a new customer on the exchange itself. I would think they have the proper money transacting license needed for this that FinCen requries already (for U.S. anyhow).   ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(I've seen Coinbase cards before too)
https://i.imgur.com/ICa0GVu.jpg?1

ok so there are some laws/rules which make this more complicated then, I take it?



this is kind of what I meant but I guess the difference here is the store is only selling the card and not loading actual funds to it, right? the buyer would have to still go to an actual exchange to get the funds loaded to it?

I think this also is what minerjones was getting at - the issue of being the one that converts/loads the cards having to be a "money-transmitter"?

but from what you said earlier there is a requirement around "signing up to be a money transmitter"?

I plead ignorance on the subject - but does that make it harder for someone to sell the gift cards? 

in my head i see this no different than any other gift card - except you use your local currency to load btc on it vs that currency

Here's some good reading on the subject from the first to have to deal w/this https://www.wired.com/2013/12/casascius/

I know that at least for Canada, there's this company: https://www.risewallet.com

Found them out due to a collaboration with coincards, another CA-based site. I have actually seen quite a number of bitcoin ATM's around, so there's another benefit to my location (oh no, self-dox!) :)

Anyone try mybitcards dot com or GiveBitcoin dot io?

If you have a prepaid gift card and you want to buy BTC, checkout cardcoins dot co

and Every exchange needs to be selling fiat gift cards to their platforms.  Go to walgreens and get a coinbase, bitfinex card etc.

You’ve seen them in stores too? (I won’t tell anyone if you don’t tell anyone I’m from Chicago).

Was hoping to uncover some collectibles here. Does anyone know if Bit-Cards ever sold in Euro stores (Germany based).  Also - if someone could sell me a funded Bit-card, that would be swell. I’ve only been asking for 3 years now  :)