Its good to see Amex getting involved, not that they have much choice, their competitors are already involved to some level.
I can however not see Amex making use of bitcoin even though they stated that they want to transact in the currencies their clients want. There is currently plenty of development going on with the blockchain technology where the banks have joined together and I think the chances of Amex getting involved on that side are more likely than them going 'full' bitcoin.
So my vote is for them going with the blockchain but no the bitcoin blockchain.
With that said, there is a possibility that they might end up being a player in the bitcoin ecosystem but I believe that this will be through a third party like for example Abra and not directly as Amex.
You may be right. However Amex has 3 types of cards the platinum and gold and green amex premier type cards which charge NO interest and have NO balance ahead, if you pay on time month to month (ie only pay the yearly fee is all I pay them) You pay in full balance each month OR you pay 29% in late fees if 6 weeks late if I remember correctly, and they have the 'option' to take those type of cards away at that point too boot (likely).
This is why they call those cards a 'rich man's credit card" if you have been with them for a bit (I have a Gold Card) you can plop 20k on them no issue..but there is no balance forward. You pay month to month no matter the amount. They traditionally for these cards charge the merchant 3% whereas a traditional credit card like Visa only charges the merchant 1.5% and makes the difference of 1.5% to 3% on top of that up by your balance carried forward at 18% w/fees or whatever.
I myself justify the 85 bucks a yearly fee to have this amex gold card in fees in that they include their equivalent of AAA auto club and other perks. And hell AAA auto club is 85 bucks a year so it was a wash for me to just keep this card. Amex also has gone the new card route with Optima and other Visa type cards..this does not apply...
but my point is the traditional 'high end cards above' is how this still works.
Thus imho Amex COULD offer Bitcoin sooner then others ..because if the merchant carries the fees and you just pay a yearly fee and also they have NO incentive for you NOT to pay
your bill promptly (balance forward) well..seems an easier feat to do then Visa say with its balance forward issues etc.
what would they care that it was in BTC/Yen/or whatever other currency they take ...assuming again they are working thru Arba etc it all would be blended in.
So possibly they would find it the easiest to implement this into their traditional high end cards ...indeed much easier then Visa with balance forward issues imho
Then again using Arba or Bitpay perhaps at that point in time if a cc company decided to take btc it would not matter ..it would be at the conversion process firm's end not amex or
the particular cc company.
Then again ...would be a pretty good 'coup' imho to be the first cc to offer btc on the traditional amex cards.
Again imho little risk to amex you don't pay the monthly in btc that month you are just as much toast as not paying in usd/yen or whatever..with no balance forward ..they should look at it as 'whatever expands the use internationally of their premium cards platinum/gold/green etc ..would be a heck of a PR coup imho.
then again I'm biased for them to take btc
anyway my 2 satoshi's worth on why this cc company MAY have less roadblocks to adoption should they go down that path (big if)
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