E-Coin wants to make managing your personal finances easier with their debit card that allows you to pay for goods and services instantly by converting bitcoin into U.S. dollars, euros or British pounds.
Since 2014, E-Coin’s physical debit cards have allowed users to pay for goods and services in person wherever VISA cards are accepted. Today, E-Coin is announcing the release of a virtual debit cards. Now, anyone can create an account online and receive a virtual VISA card number that they can use to instantly spend bitcoin online at any merchant that accepts VISA. This announcement opens up thousands of new places that bitcoiners can shop online and pay with bitcoin through E-Coin. E-Coin virtual debit cards can also be used with other payment networks including PayPal and eventually ApplePay, according to the company.
E-Coin’s uses a multi-signature wallet to store each customer’s bitcoin. Every personal wallet is issued with three keys, generated and stored on different devices, providing increased security and fraud protection.
The London-based startup has already reached 25,000 customers and is available in 173 countries. The company plans to expand its reach to more countries and will soon be accepting more currencies.
E-coin representative Dmitry Lazarichev told Bitcoin Magazine that promoting bitcoin means that using bitcoin has to become more user-friendly than it is now:
“E-coin is dedicated to the widespread adoption of bitcoin and wants to make things as easy as possible for potential users. Ultimately, we believe that the blockchain and the current financial infrastructure should be merged.”
Users can load up to USD$20,000 onto their E-Card and withdraw up to USD$3,000 in cash daily. The company uses BitGo’s multi-signature security and is insured by XL Group.
E-Coin’s app is coming to iTunes and Google Play soon and will enable contactless payments on certain mobile devices, according to the company.