The world of cryptocurrency debit cards has been growing a lot more competitive lately. Several companies held ICOs over the past year to raise money for such projects. Three main debit cards are on a lot of people’s radars right now, although it remains to be seen whether any of them will make an impact. These cards all have promise if their teams can deliver, though. It is great to see support for Ethereum generated by these cards, as that is pretty unusual.
3. Monaco
Although this card has nothing to do with the European microstate, the Monaco debit card will offer support for popular coins gradually. Analyzing all promising contenders and slowly rolling out support sounds like a solid idea, but it may be more difficult to achieve than originally anticipated. For the time being, the card will focus on both Bitcoin and Ethereum, although that list could grow pretty quickly. Being currency-agnostic when it comes to debit card certainly has its advantages, assuming it works as advertised.
The Monaco ICO did not sell out quickly, which is both a good and a bad thing. Its announcement happened one month prior to its crowdsale. According to the latest information, the Monaco mobile app and card pre-orders should become available August 31st. A lot of people will be watching, including some of the company’s competitors in this space. There will also be a discount program for participating retailers, although the specifics are being kept under wraps for the time being.
2. Token Card
Most cryptocurrency enthusiasts will have heard of the Token Card, which is a debit card for Ethereum and anything running on top of this blockchain. In theory, it should be possible to use any and all ERC20 tokens with this card as well, although that has not been confirmed yet. Token Card partnered with some of the big players in the market, including Bancor, Melon Port, and Digix.
Token Card also has a cash & burn policy, which means small amounts of every purchase are pooled together. Token holders can sacrifice tokens to collect a portion of the pool’s money upon request. For the time being, it is unclear when Token Cards will become available to customers, as the ICO only concluded recently. The latest blog post indicates there is still a lot of work to be done on the back end, and new members were added to the team not too long ago. It is a very ambitious project, but one worth keeping an eye on.
1. TenX
TenX has the potential to be a very successful project in this space. This app is already on the market, which means it beats the two aforementioned projects in this regard. Its ICO sold out fairly quickly, which is great for the people who managed to buy some tokens. However, it seems the value of each PAYX token is somewhat stuck around the US$4 mark , which is pretty unusual for something that is readily available. Then again, they do have a rather large supply of tokens; thus the US$4 price seems more than fair at this point.
Card holders will receive 0.01% cash back in the form of TenX tokens for every purchase. That is a very interesting way of keeping customers within this particular ecosystem. There are also no transaction fees whatsoever, which is something a lot of users will appreciate. The end goal is to support other currencies in the future as well. Token holders will also receive an Ether-based reward for every transaction made. TenX is an interesting concept with a lot of potential.
