Visa approves Coinbase as Principal Member - big step for mass adoption?

[DaveF]

Can't speak to the car rental for everyplace (I use a card that covers insurance) [dollar takes them see below] but for hotels the BitPay card works fine.
It also works fine for airline tickets.

Hmm. Not bad. I've destroyed enough American hire cars to know their system works rather differently from the European version. Many companies here base their business model off taking your credit card and stacking massive charges on it for damage that never existed weeks after you've given it back.

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to hire without a credit card in Europe. They take a monster deposit from it too and only release it when they've figured out what they're going to steal.

About [redacted because I'm old] years ago but lets just say Polaroids were a thing I was working retail and we had a visit from high up corporate people. Just a standard visit from high up in the company. After they were done one of them asked if there was a place nearby where he could get some Polaroid instant film. I mentioned that there was a 1hr photo place in the mall but they would have to go across to Sears to get Polaroid film and that there was a camera in back they he could use. Nope, they were leaving for the airport and corporate policy was that they took pictures of the rental car from every angle when it was returned WITH A PERSON from the rental company in EVERY shot to prove the condition of the car upon return.

So, yeah it happens here too.

Back to the Coinbase / Visa thing. The biggest opponents of it I think are going to be the lightning network people. Why use lightning when you can just swipe your Visa and get all the benefits of using the card.

-Dave

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[FanatMonet]

Here I believe that the best solution is to see what each side can get from this cooperation over time. Because for now, I see certain opportunities for each of the parties, but I do not fully understand the motivation of Visa in all these actions.

[JollyGood]

Well done, that gives you another avenue for spending but if you do not continuously purchase BTC eventually you will spend all your saved crypto and that is not a good thing for those wanting to hold but are tempted by the spending aspect.

I suppose we cannot win them all 

Already got one 

Coinbase VISA - I’m an early adopter, had it 3 weeks 

(Covering my name)

[Vishnu.Reang]

A few years back, payment processors such as Visa and Mastercard were the most vocal critics of cryptocurrency. They were banning anyone who is even remotely associated with BTC usage. It is happy to see that their attitude towards Bitcoin has changed now. Perhaps they no longer view Bitcoin as a rival. I don't know whether this is a good news or a bad news for us.

[Kakmakr]

People are already neck deep in credit and now people are getting exited about a Bitcoin exchange, partnering up with a large credit card company.    How many times do we have to emphasize that buying bitcoins with credit are not a good idea.

In 2017, when we had the big spike in the price, a lot of people jumped to use their credit cards to buy more bitcoins and they got burnt. The Bitcoin price dropped with +/- 80% and they were stuck with a large credit card balance that they had to re-pay and they were left with bitcoins that was only 20% of their value that they originally bought it at.  

                                    I guess people must go bankrupt, before they start to learn a lesson from the past.

[NotATether]

We have to get services to accept bitcoin directly. I mean, if we're willing to give our identity away (KYC) and pay high fees (comparing debit cards to crypto), then why use bitcoin in the first place? Personally, I don't see this helping bitcoin in any way.

I agree--there's no anonymity and I don't think there's any advantage to this service that Visa is offering.  It's basically just a way for Visa (and probably Coinbase as well) to extract fees from their customers.  Same old story that's been going on since the beginning of credit cards, right?

Nice to see bitcoin gaining wider adoption--or possibly doing so--but I'm not sure this is going to catch on.

And I also agree that it would be so much better if merchants took bitcoin directly, but there's an obvious volatility risk involved, and I can understand why they wouldn't want to do that.  Even payment processors only convert bitcoin to fiat, which is what the merchant receives.  If I'm not mistaken, there are a few businesses that take crypto directly.  Overstock, Veldt Gold, and Protonmail are three of those, though I'm not sure if any of them still receive crypto directly.

You have this debit card for bitcoin, as it's not technically possible to take bitcoin on credit, and to get it you have to give your government issued ID. What's the difference between that and traditional credit cards, or PayPal? Both of them are requiring you to submit them. The way I see it is - this coinbase card is for another currency, that's not dollars, and can't be refunded. The non-refundability alone of this card gives it a huge disadvantage to other cards.

Then you have the issue of accepting coinbase cards from merchants. A lot of them don't even take American Express or Discover cards and some only even take one of MasterCard or Visa cards too. How can we expect Coinbase to have a chance in this market?

If you are ordering something they know where you live anyway.

Yes but they don't need to know my signature, my date of birth, a picture of my face or my passport number (or whether I'm legally allowed to drive). This is practically what coinbase already has for us.

Coinbase cannot go mainstream because it's an exchange geared towards investors. It's not directed to bitcoin alone rather it features a whole bunch of cryptocurrencies that will mind-boggle an average person's head as finance-speak.

[nutella_11]

Well, as I can see, cryptocurrency cards are getting more and more popular nowadays. Personally, I'm happy about that, it's great to be able to pay with your crypto everywhere you want to. CoinDeal also has already launched their cryptocurrency debit cards, check it out:https://news.bitcoin.com/coindeal-launches-crypto-debit-card-with-great-benefits/

[avikz]

A few years back, payment processors such as Visa and Mastercard were the most vocal critics of cryptocurrency. They were banning anyone who is even remotely associated with BTC usage. It is happy to see that their attitude towards Bitcoin has changed now. Perhaps they no longer view Bitcoin as a rival. I don't know whether this is a good news or a bad news for us.

Are you sure? Visa and Mastercard are just payment settlement service providers. They don't have the power to ban anyone. These payment settlement providers are partnered with money exchangers and Banks. So banks have banned people from using banking service for being associated with bitcoin or other cryptos, but not these providers. Visa can suspend a bank but not an individual.

[panganib999]

A few years back, payment processors such as Visa and Mastercard were the most vocal critics of cryptocurrency. They were banning anyone who is even remotely associated with BTC usage. It is happy to see that their attitude towards Bitcoin has changed now. Perhaps they no longer view Bitcoin as a rival. I don't know whether this is a good news or a bad news for us.

Are you sure? Visa and Mastercard are just payment settlement service providers. They don't have the power to ban anyone. These payment settlement providers are partnered with money exchangers and Banks. So banks have banned people from using banking service for being associated with bitcoin or other cryptos, but not these providers. Visa can suspend a bank but not an individual.

This is absolutely fake. There is no way the could ban anyone just for using cryptocurrency coz cryptocurrency isn't illegal at the first place.

Visa and Mastercard influences a lot they have everything for Service providers, Government, Commercial Solution, Suppliers, Tech. Partners etc. so there is no way Visa and Mastercard will ignore this very big thing in front of them, In fact they could lessen their work cost just for using this kind of method. Mass adoption is real especially when recognized by the leading golbal payment processor, Visa.

[gentlemand]

This is absolutely fake. There is no way the could ban anyone just for using cryptocurrency coz cryptocurrency isn't illegal at the first place.

Plenty of banks have told their customers to go away and not come back because of crypto. It may not be illegal but it also isn't properly legislated for in many a place and many a legacy institution isn't going to want to dabble in a grey area.

The most significant case involving Visa is them shutting down Wavecrest's deal who issued cards for Xapo, Bitpay and many others. Wavecrest clearly weren't competent or carrying out their due diligence so the rug was pulled.

Coinbase sealed the deal because they must do enough to satisfy them.

[20kevin20]

This is one of the steps for mass adoption. This is just the beginning. Because if such a company (like visa) moves forward to adopt, others will have the courage to come forward and they will also adopt.  And if all the large companies accept it all over the world, then all governments will be forced to accept it.

It's been "the beginning" for so many years now. How long is this beginning?

There's plenty of history out there of companies adding cryptocurrencies as a payment method and then pulling back. Microsoft accepted Bitcoin as a method of payment years ago (IIRC, they removed it and it's not accepted anymore) and it didn't bring much of a change imo.

Bitcoin will probably never really become a true payment method, there's always going to be a third party we have to be linked to in order to pay with BTC, which is exactly the opposite of what BTC is meant to be..

[camito]

The leading cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, Coinbase, has been approved as the very first “pure-play” crypto-related company to become a Visa principal member. Supposedly, this would allow the exchange to further improve its customer experience.

I know Coinbase is a centralized crypto wallet provider and bla bla but here are some facts to consider:
1. Coinbase is the first ever crypto company to manage such approval.
2. Visa manages a market cap worth $466 billion
3. Visa is the largest payment settlement provider in the world based on volume

Do you think it is a great step towards mass adoption? Will it be a positive or a negative?

News ref: https://cryptopotato.com/visa-approves-us-cryptocurrency-exchange-coinbase-as-principal-member/

Cryptocurrency playing in Visa is good enough for the mass to know what these currency means and what it can do. Visa has been a part of every one as globalization takes place. People move from one place to another with knowledge and merch with them. If they are able to hear about crypto, they can bring it to other people and other places. But I think for mass adoption, it would take time. As other cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin for instance, will really take a lot of time to be able to be used truthfully for transactions especially for this type. If it became a success, surely Visa will continue its processes with crypto. But once it failed, I think it would be hard for crypto to stand up again unless promoted through testimonies and strong points by the government.

[Zicadis]

Plenty of companies already have cryptocurrency debit cards that are issued by Visa, I don't think that Coinbase becoming a principal member will do much for its position in the space.

Realistically, the Coinbase debit card will bring with it the high fees and strict KYC requirements that the Coinbase.com platform has, which will always leave it at a disadvantage against cheaper, more relaxed alternatives like the Revolut card and Crypto.com card.

Coinbase is for noobs, and few us here are complete noobs anymore.

[gentlemand]

Plenty of companies already have cryptocurrency debit cards that are issued by Visa, I don't think that Coinbase becoming a principal member will do much for its position in the space.

Realistically, the Coinbase debit card will bring with it the high fees and strict KYC requirements that the Coinbase.com platform has, which will always leave it at a disadvantage against cheaper, more relaxed alternatives like the Revolut card and Crypto.com card.

Coinbase is for noobs, and few us here are complete noobs anymore.

There are indeed other options but most of those companies are flaky and many don't seem to last very long. I fully expect the other crypto cards I have to vanish at any moment. I well remember the way the Xapo and Bitpay cards stopped immediately and there were people with thousands of dollars on them with no other form of spending stuck in far off countries.

With this announcement I'd be fully confident in starting to run a few more aspects of my life through a Coinbase card if that was my thing.

[Anonylz]

People are already neck deep in credit and now people are getting exited about a Bitcoin exchange, partnering up with a large credit card company.    How many times do we have to emphasize that buying bitcoins with credit are not a good idea.

In 2017, when we had the big spike in the price, a lot of people jumped to use their credit cards to buy more bitcoins and they got burnt. The Bitcoin price dropped with +/- 80% and they were stuck with a large credit card balance that they had to re-pay and they were left with bitcoins that was only 20% of their value that they originally bought it at.  

                                    I guess people must go bankrupt, before they start to learn a lesson from the past.

i don't think it matters much whatever you decided to buy btc with because eventually you are gonna buy it with or without using a credit card, besides what would you prefer is use to buy btc? raw cash and walk up to a seller and say give me btc worth of $8k in your pocket! i don't think that sound very secure,
and again, back in 2017, people who bought btc with their credit card did not get burnt because they bought using credit card, it was because they bought at peak and when the market dump they got caught in the middle, it was the same for those who bought without credit.

[nigelk]

Big step for the further centralization