Coinbase Debuts the First Bitcoin Debit Card in the US

wired.com

17 points·sankha93··7 comments

Recent discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10601154

Wired's headline is wrong. It is not Coinbase, but Shift who offers the card. Coinbase, Inc and Shift Financial, Inc are two different companies.

This seems like something that could be the først major step towards making Bitcoins usable for the public.

So far, it's been very hard to use Bitcoin for everyday stuff, so if this turns out to be fairly simple and cheap to use, it might become a global phenomenon. For now, it seems like the limitations in use based on locality is the biggest problem with the card.

> So far, it's been very hard to use Bitcoin for everyday stuff, ...

https://gyft.com/

https://www.egifter.com/

https://cryfter.com/

https://purse.io/

At the moment I doubt that holding bitcoin is cheaper than the credit used by typical credit card issuers. Meaning that I don't think Coinbase has an edge over other issuers when it comes to costs.

This card is probably appealing to people who have some other reason to deal with bitcoin, but I don't think it is going to get the general population to open a Coinbase account.

Here, I selected some quotes from the article for you:

> “You have to get licenses from each state,”

> The new debit card is available to anyone with a Coinbase account. To sign up, you must verify your identity and pay a $10 insurance fee.

"anyone with a Coinbase account" is a stretch. From the actual Shift card FAQ:

"At this time, only residents of the United States may apply for a Shift Card.

In order to spend bitcoin via Coinbase, cardholders must reside in one of the following U.S. states: AL, AZ, CA, DE, DC, GA, ID, IA, KS, ME, MS, NE, NV, NJ, NC, ND, OK, PA, PR, SD, TX, VT, WA, WV"

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