kennyasare

We take the risk as a service to the community, and the product is a cost center.

Speculating on currency prices is a business; it is *not however the business that digital currency infrastructure companies are in.

1. Infrastructure company pre funds an account with an issuing bank.

2. User sends digital currency to infrastructure company to add to their card.

3. Infrastructure company receives that currency, and alerts bank to debit their account for fiat.

4. Infrastructure company has to find an exchange to trade OTC as often as possible to protect against as much volatility as possible, while keeping in mind the minimum OTC trade size is generally $250k USD.

5. Infrastructure company has to wait 3 days for a wire to then add more funds to the pre funded account.

1. There are very few issuing banks for crypto <> fiat debit cards. Internationally there has been 1 WaveCrest; which as of a few months ago decided to discontinue support.

2. Even when a bank will sponsor a crypto <> fiat debit card into one of the payment networks, the company offering the card will face constant pressure from their own bankers.

3. This happening is from my perspective just a quick look behind the curtain of the Digital Currency infrastructure problem as it exists today. There is no good way in, or out of digital currency at the moment, and the ones that exist are tenuous at best. The base truth is that Traditional banks are not capable of supporting new methods of value transfer. That means that the companies that build and provide infrastructure for those methods are currently at the mercy of a partner who basically wont help them.

I always try and make the charitable assumption about the motives of others and my take on the banking <> digital currency relations is basically this: Banks have a business model that has worked well for generations; they do a little fractional reserve, they extract as many fees as they can invent, and they centralize the control of wealth. The promise of digital currency is that everyone will have the capability to do that for themselves. So, its not surprising to me that it is hard for them to work with those of us who are building bridges and on/off ramps between the two systems.

With all of that being said, I am sorry for all of the debit card users who are currently without an off ramp, and I can assure you that the folks at BitPay, Xapo, and all of the other companies that lost access to the EU are working as hard as possible to bring those programs back online.

"As Douglas Rushkoff says, we need a new operating system for startups. The current one will keep producing the same extractive and monopolistic empires we’ve gotten so far. No, what we need is a new crop of companies that are institutionally comfortable with leaving money on the table. Leaving growth on the table. Leaving some conveniences and some progress on the board, in order to lead the world into a better direction."

https://m.signalvnoise.com/exponential-growth-devours-and-co...

Edit: www.macleodasare.com

I think that image is just as important as tech, and those that can put the two together will have a much easier time finding users/customers, and partners.

The cost to have your brand built-out, by a creative agency actually worth paying is in the $15,000-$25,000 range. The math behind that is basically: good agencies work for about $200 per hour (per person) and typically a job like a brand buildout will require 3 people, for about a week. That is 120 hours of work @ $200 per hour, or about $25k. I can tell from experience that you can find deals - sometimes; but I would go into with my eyes wide open, and look into groups that work at that level/rate.

Edit: I did not answer your actual question. The answer is, as soon as you can put together the money to do it.

PDF Link to article ^^ it is worth reading.