Visa, Coinbase Offer Real-Time Crypto Purchases Via Debit Cards

Visa customers with eligible debit cards will be able to deposit funds into their Coinbase accounts -- sometimes instantly -- via a partnership announced by the payments giant and crypto exchange. From a report: Coinbase already has millions of connections to customers' debit cards but this new development allows for the real-time flow of funds for customers in the US and European Union, according to the Tuesday statement.

Eligible Visa debit card holders can now "take advantage of trading opportunities day and night," said Yanilsa Gonzalez Ore, head of the Visa Direct business for North America. Visa, which powers the Coinbase debit card, said customers will also be able to buy cryptocurrencies on Coinbase with an eligible debit card and cash out their money from the platform to a bank account, also via the card.

Ugh, paywall

[DrMrLordX]

https://cointelegraph.com/news... [cointelegraph.com]

There, now you don' t have to use Bloomberg. Anyway, more on-ramp opportunities are potentially good, but it's a shame that it involves a CEX and a traditional payment platform (VISA). Part of the promise of blockchain - particularly high-throughput L2s on Ethereum - was to cut out traditional middlemen who charge significant amounts of money to process payments.

Meanwhile the crypto developers of the world (looking at you, Ethereum Foundation) that have had years to take the lead on providing an alternative to expensive credit card processing have done very little.

Re:

[snowshovelboy]

Unfortunately, the blockchain's per-transaction costs are still orders of magnitude higher than those of traditional payment platforms. You can easily verify this by dividing the amount paid to miners by the number of transactions, and then compare it to a typical processing fee charged by a traditional payment platform.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

That, and the transaction rates are several orders of magnitude lower (around 65,000 per second for Visa and 5000 per second for MasterCard versus around 5 per second for Bitcoin and 12 per second for Ethereum).

Re:

[DrMrLordX]

Not really true, even Ethereum can achieve much higher txn rates with L2s. Qubic will have insanely high txn rates if it doesn't already.

The technology is there, but nobody has tied it together into a package that's suitable for storefronts or shoppers.

Re:

[DrMrLordX]

Not really. It depends on the blockchain. L2s on Ethereum have made things pretty cheap, and there are dedicated blockchains that are even cheaper (but don't necessarily have smart contract or even stablecoin functionality).

If all you do is look at Ethereum L1 or Bitcoin transfers then yes it's very expensive.

It's a pyramid scheme, not a payment system.

[denzacar]

People on the pyramid keep pushing it hoping to cash out by dumping their debt onto a greater fool.

Re: Ugh, paywall

[anonymouscoward52236]

VISA would be more expensive if you got to claim the long legal stick they get to weild for free. (Well, by tax payer dollars...) Even the threat costs something, if you divided it out.

Re: Ugh, paywall

[reanjr]

Lightning Network (layer 2 protocol built on Bitcoin) mostly solves this. Basically it works a bit like how banks do a nightly clearing of all transactions throughout the day, except either party can choose to execute the clearing whenever they want. In the meantime, all the transactions get bundled into a single fee.

Re:

[ToasterMonkey]

https://cointelegraph.com/news... [cointelegraph.com]

There, now you don' t have to use Bloomberg. Anyway, more on-ramp opportunities are potentially good, but it's a shame that it involves a CEX and a traditional payment platform (VISA). Part of the promise of blockchain - particularly high-throughput L2s on Ethereum - was to cut out traditional middlemen who charge significant amounts of money to process payments.

Meanwhile the crypto developers of the world (looking at you, Ethereum Foundation) that have had years to take the lead on providing an alternative to expensive credit card processing have done very little.

I still don't get it, this is an opportunity to trade in virtual currencies, like forex, something a rational individual retail investor should steer clear from, with a vaporware promise of the payment system associated with it actually being useful someday.

That's it... ? If this magical deflationary Monopoly money is widely used for trade someday it will be worth a lot more because of its limited circulation, and you are holding it because you think it will be worth more later, and... so you just want some

Re:

[Darinbob]

That cryptocurrency idea that it is currency is dead. It died the moment they were all heavily marketed as risky investment instruments.

Great

[Comboman]

So now, idiots will be able to run up credit card debt to "invest" in crypto. Even casinos aren't that irresponsible.

Re:

[supremebob]

On the flip side, we usually know that we're approaching the peak of a market bubble when idiots start buying loads of whatever the investment flavor of the year is on margin.

Maybe this is the sign for smarter investors that it's time to think about selling before the inevitable crash happens?

Re: Great

[reanjr]

Tell me you know nothing about Bitcoin without telling me you know nothing about Bitcoin.

Now would be a TERRIBLE time to exit Bitcoin.

Re:

[Darinbob]

But it would be a GREAT time to not buy any and to continue eschewing cryptocurrency like the scams that they are.

Re:Great

[toddz]

It's a debit card so you need money in the bank account first. But in general I agree with the sentiment. This also gives criminals another path to empty your bank account into crypto.

Re:

[Zocalo]

Yeah, very specific there. Under EU and UK financial rules (not sure about the elsewhere, but I assume it'll be similar in most sensible economies), *credit* card providers are fully liable for any purchases made in good faith with bad actors, whereas with debit cards it's much more caveat emptor, which basically translates as the wild west in cryptoland. Don't expect all that much support, and certainly not much (if any) of your money back, if you get scammed.

Visa and Coinbase will, of course, still g

Re:

[gweihir]

It is debit cards. Visa is not _that_ stupid.

Re:

[Darinbob]

And "debit card" should be a warning sign to most consumers. Except that it really isn't because the general public isn't that educated about finances, and they see the word "Visa" and think "credit card".

Re:

[Darinbob]

It's not even investing that is the problem. BTC and coinbase are heavily used as the backbone of many scams. The way to get the victim's money away from law enforcement eyes and into other countries. Sort of piggybacking upon the common use of cryptocurrency for money laundering. No scammer wants to be paid with a check that can be traced or a credit card transaction that can be canceled the moment the victim gets cold feet. Sure, the BTC can also be traced but as long as you're not stealing millions

And we as a country have learned nothing.

[nightflameauto]

We use debt to purchase non-existent bullshit, it crashes the entire economy. We throw taxpayer money at the investors and the business sector to prop them up through the mess they made. We wait a while, then we use debt to buy up non-existent bullshit, it cashes the entire economy. We throw taxpayer money at the investors and the business sector to prop them up through the mess they made. We wait a while, then we use debt to buy up non-existent bullshit, it cashes the entire economy.

2008 doesn't seem all t

Re:

[gweihir]

Well, if Trump gets elected, it will be interesting to see whether he even gets through 4 years without a major economic crash...

Meanwhile, in Norway and Sweden...

[denzacar]

Governments are realizing that the whole "cashless economy" thing may not work in a world where hostile actors can attack and destroy the underlying infrastructure. [theguardian.com]

If your "money" depends on such fragile systems as electricity, internet and software running on top of them - all stacked up, inverted-pyramid-like, on top of each other - that is not a functional medium of exchange.
That is a balancing act waiting to crash.

Re:

[nightflameauto]

Governments are realizing that the whole "cashless economy" thing may not work in a world where hostile actors can attack and destroy the underlying infrastructure. [theguardian.com]

If your "money" depends on such fragile systems as electricity, internet and software running on top of them - all stacked up, inverted-pyramid-like, on top of each other - that is not a functional medium of exchange. That is a balancing act waiting to crash.

We need a good big Carrington event to reset expectations. This "everything is digital" world is starting to feel extremely flimsy even at the best of times. And we can't expect the best of times to last forever.

Re:

[Darinbob]

It was less than a month ago that I went into a store and they had signs up that it was "cash only". Because their wifi was down and their point of sale machines weren't able to accept cards. Also any instacarrt, ubereats, and all that other hipster stuff wouldn't work either. Of course it was up again later in the day I assume. It's not even the first time I've seem that happen. I always have some cash but I've been places where they couldn't efficiently accept cash because most of the tellers were unf

Cue the attacks

[gweihir]

I wonder how long it will take until this gets used in attacks.

No they don't

[rsilvergun]

We have been through this before and the way blockchains work they are too slow to do anything in real time. Inevitably there's some scheme going on in the background and it inevitably falls apart because cryptocurrency prices are too volatile so by the time the actual transaction is settled the actual value of the currency could be who knows what.

Visa has done this a few times when the value of Bitcoin has been trending up and they think they can get away with it for a little while but they inevitably

Re: No they don't

[reanjr]

Lightning Network (layer 2 protocol built on top of Bitcoin) mostly solves this. Essentially, there's a secondary ledger that can be added to very quickly, and either party can close out the ledger and write a bundled transaction to the underlying Blockchain whenever they want. For any repeating financial relationship (such as between Visa and Coinbase), it's essentially just as quick as processing a credit card. The slow part that writes the bundled transaction is similar to how your credit card company or

tulips

[groobly]

I have a great deal on tulips for you.

"Eligible debit cards"

[93 Escort Wagon]

So Coinbase has its own Visa-branded debit card. Just say that - stop with this typically shady "let's pretend this is some broad mainstream initiative" crap like we always see from the coin bros.

*eyeroll*

[reqteridae]

...this couldn't ever go horribly sideways, what could possibly go wrong?

The most important thing about crypto

[GeekWithAKnife]

...is to take your money and give you *potential* While you fork over your stable value fiat currency you get to speculate on a non-dividend yield "asset". When the time comes to buy crypto, you won't want to. ...but anyhow did you know you can now used your debit card to go mediately turn your actual money into potential?! Or at worst turn it to dust.

Coinbase is shady

[RegistrationIsDumb83]

They sell your info to the government, and you can never fully delete your account. They're very careful in the wording, but your data is never fully deleted when you request it.