Visa Investing In Startup Deserve, After BlockFi Success

Back in July 2021, leading global payment service Visa teamed up with BlockFi to create credit cards that utilized the power of crypto currencies. BlockFi credit cards are powered by Visa’s networks and offer bitcoin for every transaction. The first ever crypto rewards credit card, will Visa be driving the future of digital payments and mainstream use of crypto currencies?

Users get 3.5% back in bitcoin for their first three months and 2% back for transactions over £50,000 thereafter. BlockFi boasts that cardholders receive a minimum of 1.5% back for every purchase. The days of cashback are seemingly over, is the future one of digital payments and crypto rewards?

The success of BlockFi was evident—with cardholders predicted to spend more than 50% above what the average credit card user spends a year. 

Deserve

Since its inception in 2017, Deserve has been backed by Goldman Sachs and Mastercard. Visa is now recognizing the genius of affiliating crypto currencies with mainstream ways of paying.

The system works by offering crypto rewards and points for all purchases. Deserve offers extra concessions and rewards to students, perhaps hoping to drive crypto currency usage in young people. The Deserve card is placed in a digital wallet, compatible with Apple and Android, and transactions work much the same as with any debit or credit card. 

However, upon completion of the transaction, cardholders will receive “crypto-back”. Working along the same lines as cashback, crypto-back aims to encourage users to acquire crypto coins like bitcoin and circulate them into everyday transactions, like retail spending.

Deserve boast how quick and easy it is to set up your crypto credit card. Using a mix of AI, machine learning algorithms, employment data and FICO scores, Deserve aims to fasten the credit card application process to make it all the easier for citizens to join the crypto market. You can set up your digital wallet within minutes. 

What Does This Mean?

This means that it’s about to get a lot easier to begin exchanging crypto currencies. While there are other rewards cards that offer you bitcoin, such as Coinbase and Fold, the BlockFi Rewards Visa is the first of its kind to offer cryptocurrencies rather than points.

With each transaction you make on your Visa card in your digital wallet, you earn points that are automatically converted into bitcoin. Your transactions remain in dollars. The bitcoin is only earned as a reward, and deposited into your Interest Account, not your transaction account. 

For each point, you earn one cent worth of bitcoins. A figure based on the bitcoin market place when the reward transaction takes place. If bitcoins are low, you will receive more, if the price of bitcoins is high, you will receive less. 

Within your account with BlockFi of Deserve, your cryptocurrency, like bitcoin, will sit there as a crypto fund. It will earn interest, you can withdraw it, or trade with it. Your bitcoin account will earn interest in bitcoin. You can withdraw bitcoins to an external crypto wallet or to a bank account via transfer. 

While you won’t earn crypto on your own terms, you will make your way into the crypto exchange market without risking any real funds—the simplest way to earn bitcoin. 

If you use your card regularly and earn rewards each month, you will be passively buying bitcoins every month, regardless of their value. This results in dollar-cost averaging, which is an investment strategy where you don’t try to predict the market. Use of this card might result in increased passive investment by everyday citizens. 

Available across the US, Visa’s partnering with Deserve and BlockFi could see an increased surge in crypto currency value as it enters the mainstream market. However, this card is not yet authorized within the state of New York.

Unlike regular credit card cash back schemes that offer rewards in airline miles, cash back or points, the idea is that bitcoin rewards will appreciate rather than depreciate with time. There is, of course, the risk that bitcoin will hit a bear run. However, that risk comes with any kind of reward scheme—that your rewards will lose their worth over time. 

Unfortunately, Visa and Deserve only offer crypto rewards in bitcoin. While it is the most well-known of the crypto currencies, for some users, it might be a downside. Other popular altcoins, like Ethereum, Cardano, and Dogecoin are not available. Other payment services looking to compete with Visa are promising other crypto currencies as rewards. 

Visa is not the only payment service backing the integration of cryptocurrencies into mainstream transactions. Mastercard, similarly, is partnering with crypto services to offer bitcoin rewards. Cathedral Payments specializes in finding payment solutions for businesses, and enables crypto currencies with eCommerce platforms. 

Crypto Processing - The Future Is Digital Payments And It's Happening Now!

Cathedral Payments enables merchants to instantly accept crypto payments by matching a stable coin pegged to the US dollar. Customers can seamlessly pay for goods and services with digital currencies and the merchant receives payment in US dollars the next day.

Did You Know?

There are currently over 215 million crypto wallet users; in 2020, $5 billion was spent in commercial payments.

How It Works… 

Payments are settled in the merchants preferred local currency, directly into their bank account. Besides, Crypto payments are instantly confirmed, without the need for blockchain confirmation. Regulated by MAS, Singapore’s Central Bank, and FinCen, the US Department of the Treasury, Cathedral provides a safe and secure solution for businesses that wish to increase their revenue through crypto payments.

Cathedral removes volatility risk as settlement is done in local currency and directly transferred to a merchants bank account. Add this new payment method within minutes with our APIs or e-commerce platform plugins. Crypto payments in e-commerce are simple and as intuitive as any other payment method. Integrate with platforms like woocommerce, shopify, opencart plugins in just a few clicks.

Merchants can upgrade retail stores with crypto technology and become the most innovative shop around. Settlement is done in local currency to remove volatility risk and automatically transferred to your bank account. We build merchants' crypto solutions based on their retail needs adapting to existing technology. Merchant and customer payment experience is easy and intuitive as any other payment method. It takes just 4 simple steps to accept cryptocurrency in a retail store.

Capture payments from a whole new type of customer. There are currently 150 million crypto users worldwide. Track orders and payments, streamline accounts reconciliation, facilitate customer refunds. Crypto payments remove all risk of charge-backs, because payments are permanent.

We Can Help!

Cathedral Payments makes accepting Digital Currencies and settling in USD same day simple through our whitelabel checkout solution. Call, Text, or Email Cathedral Payments to access the billions in crypto that is being spent every year!