Kim Dotcom wants to create a Bitcoin credit card, would you want a Megacard?

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http://www.tweaktown.com/news/28881/kim-dotcom-wants-to-create-a-bitcoin-credit-card-would-you-want-a-megacard-/index.html

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[ingrownpocket]

Bitcoin going mainstream.

[vdragon]

If this man doesnt help it, no one will

[Bit_Happy]

needs more details

[Endgame]

Creating a credit card is no easy task, especially a bitcoin credit card. I'll believe it when I see it.

[grondilu]

Creating a credit card is no easy task, especially a bitcoin credit card. I'll believe it when I see it.

Yep.  The amount of ass wiping and kneeling in front of international bankers is probably enormous.

[BitcoinINV]

Thats not true I talked to a few card issuers, as I deal in credit card transactions all the time. The real problem is, you need at least 100k to just print the cards... Most company's will print a card for anyone if you buy all of the cards up front. The lowest I found was 50 cards @ 30 dollars a piece min 1900$ dollars all the cards are blank no design. 
The biggest problem would be to convert BTC>USD to cover the purchase.
Lets say you went to the grocery store and bought a bag chips for 3 dollars, the card would have to call to a program to convert BTC at the current USD rate.
The software I use allows for POS and Credit card integration, its banking software. I am going to ask my programmer to write a script that will reflect the  BTC balance into the USD account at the current exchange rate and see if I can get a working solution.
The problem I see with this is price fluxes you may or may not have enough to cover the purchase.

[Richy_T]

Thats not true I talked to a few card issuers, as I deal in credit card transactions all the time. The real problem is, you need at least 100k to just print the cards... Most company's will print a card for anyone if you buy all of the cards up front. The lowest I found was 50 cards @ 30 dollars a piece min 1900$ dollars all the cards are blank no design. 
The biggest problem would be to convert BTC>USD to cover the purchase.
Lets say you went to the grocery store and bought a bag chips for 3 dollars, the card would have to call to a program to convert BTC at the current USD rate.
The software I use allows for POS and Credit card integration, its banking software. I am going to ask my programmer to write a script that will reflect the  BTC balance into the USD account at the current exchange rate and see if I can get a working solution.
The problem I see with this is price fluxes you may or may not have enough to cover the purchase.

I seem to recall the company I worked for ordered up a bunch of printed cards back in the late 90s. Front and back design, whatever you wanted on the stripe & front. I want to say we got 100 (I had to generate the file with the stripe & emboss data) at about £2.50 a pop (they were promotional). I wouldn't be surprised if you could get them cheaper these days. Either way, $1900 would be nothing for a venture like this.

Though it's not really clear how it works. Is it purely bitcoin or does it involve a native currency to bitcoin conversion? If there's conversion involved, I don't really think it adds much in value to the bitcoin ecosystem, native cards are not hard to come by.

[BitcoinINV]

Thats not true I talked to a few card issuers, as I deal in credit card transactions all the time. The real problem is, you need at least 100k to just print the cards... Most company's will print a card for anyone if you buy all of the cards up front. The lowest I found was 50 cards @ 30 dollars a piece min 1900$ dollars all the cards are blank no design. 
The biggest problem would be to convert BTC>USD to cover the purchase.
Lets say you went to the grocery store and bought a bag chips for 3 dollars, the card would have to call to a program to convert BTC at the current USD rate.
The software I use allows for POS and Credit card integration, its banking software. I am going to ask my programmer to write a script that will reflect the  BTC balance into the USD account at the current exchange rate and see if I can get a working solution.
The problem I see with this is price fluxes you may or may not have enough to cover the purchase.

I seem to recall the company I worked for ordered up a bunch of printed cards back in the late 90s. Front and back design, whatever you wanted on the stripe & front. I want to say we got 100 (I had to generate the file with the stripe & emboss data) at about £2.50 a pop (they were promotional). I wouldn't be surprised if you could get them cheaper these days. Either way, $1900 would be nothing for a venture like this.

Though it's not really clear how it works. Is it purely bitcoin or does it involve a native currency to bitcoin conversion? If there's conversion involved, I don't really think it adds much in value to the bitcoin ecosystem, native cards are not hard to come by.

I don't think at this point millions of retailers would be willing to take bitcoin directly, or I could have bitcoin credit cards in one month. I think the ISO is a step in the right direction to do that. Maybe give the merchants a choice to keep coins or auto convert?

[Richy_T]

I don't think at this point millions of retailers would be willing to take bitcoin directly, or I could have bitcoin credit cards in one month. I think the ISO is a step in the right direction to do that. Maybe give the merchants a choice to keep coins or auto convert?

The problem is that while conversions apply, people will think of bitcoin in terms of whatever it's worth in their native currency. That's fine but what Bitcoin really needs is its own ecosystem which floats somewhat against native currencies so that when something is one bitcoin today and it's one bitcoin tomorrow, that's mentally taken as stable.

Not that it should be a forced thing, just that "here's an easier way to convert" doesn't really go very far in the scheme of things.

[BBQKorv]

Well, if I could send bitcoins to some address and that would add money (USD/EUR/GBP etc) to my creditcard that would be awesome. We just need some sort of a bank issuing those creditcards. Maybe some day MtGox, BitStamp or such services get this thing established. Definately looking forward to it, this would make Bitcoin payments mainstream  immediately.

[BitcoinINV]

I could handle that, BBQKorv it would just take lots of capital to get it done.
The way my system works now is you can hold BTC, LTC or USD.
I could do this by adding a USD account that only allows withdraws. The credit limit of the USD account would be tied to the bitcoin average X coins = spend limit. So if you had 1 coin your card limit at the time would be the AVG.
What sucks about that is dips and and hikes could kill you while waiting in line

[FreedomCoin]

Should be interesting how the bank owned media portrays it.

[nwbitcoin]

I love this idea, but I would only use the term credit card for marketing purposes.

I am currently working on a business plan that would do something similar, but I'm using telecom prepayment cards as my incentive.

The main advantage is that bitcoin is not a currency and so you don't have to follow financial rules for how you sell bitcoins and to who.

[Mike Christ]

Should be interesting how the bank owned media portrays it.

"And this just in: a credit card for terrorists, pedophiles and drug abusers?  It's more likely than you think."

[MysteryMiner]

Creating a credit card is no easy task, especially a bitcoin credit card. I'll believe it when I see it.

Yep.  The amount of ass wiping and kneeling in front of international bankers is probably enormous.

Or go to Iran and research possibility to use Shetab network as a carrier.

P.S. I could not get Shetab bank card, no one have the card or dump of magnetic tracks. Could someone donate expired Shetab card to me via mail or give specific format of the data on the card?

[Raoul Duke]

I just have to bump this to bump the exchange rate!

Kim is playing you guys... lol

[Fuzzy]

I just have to bump this to bump the exchange rate!

Kim is playing you guys... lol

Kim pumps, then he dumps. Done it before with fiat, now he's doing it with the anonymity of bitcoin!

[cbeast]

Should be interesting how the bank owned media portrays it.

"And this just in: a credit card for terrorists, pedophiles and drug abusers?  It's more likely than you think."

Perfect for HSBC and other big banks like them.

[BIGMERVE]

I just have to bump this to bump the exchange rate!

Kim is playing you guys... lol

Kim pumps, then he dumps. Done it before with fiat, now he's doing it with the anonymity of bitcoin!

Maybe he'll try LTC next.

[fcmatt]

Isnt it more likely kim is a media whore who is using bitcoin to keep his name in the nerd press?
He prob has ppl working fir him to do just that.

[Richy_T]

P.S. I could not get Shetab bank card, no one have the card or dump of magnetic tracks. Could someone donate expired Shetab card to me via mail or give specific format of the data on the card?

Presumably you want the actual data value from the cards? The format should be standard.

[lucb1e]

If this man doesnt help it, no one will

I wouldn't think that. He says a lot, but delivering... Some things, yes, but some are just too far fetched even for him to pull off. Paymium (bitcoin-central) was also doing this, no? They are a registered PSP, I would have more trust in them than Dotcom.

[MysteryMiner]

P.S. I could not get Shetab bank card, no one have the card or dump of magnetic tracks. Could someone donate expired Shetab card to me via mail or give specific format of the data on the card?

Presumably you want the actual data value from the cards? The format should be standard.

I can only guess that the Shetab is clone of Cirrus network and the data on card is similar to other banking cards. But not sure until I see it with my own eyes. If so, then Shetab is no more advantageous than any other existing network.

[Richy_T]

P.S. I could not get Shetab bank card, no one have the card or dump of magnetic tracks. Could someone donate expired Shetab card to me via mail or give specific format of the data on the card?

Presumably you want the actual data value from the cards? The format should be standard.

I can only guess that the Shetab is clone of Cirrus network and the data on card is similar to other banking cards. But not sure until I see it with my own eyes. If so, then Shetab is no more advantageous than any other existing network.

I have no idea why this Shetab card is supposed to be any different but if you haven't run across it already, this is a useful document http://www.phrack.org/issues.html?issue=37&id=6


Looking at the Shetab page on Wikipedia, it seems like it's more about an inter-bank network for accessing funds and probably doesn't affect the cards themselves. So I'm guessing they more than likely adhere to the standard but I wouldn't be willing to bet real money on it.