You can use Steem to pay for pretty much anything worldwide - but nobody does!
Bitwala accepts Steem...
About 3 weeks ago, we announced that we started to accept Steem for our service at Bitwala. With a little help from our partner @shapeshiftio, it is now possible to pay any bank account in the world or use a debit card funded directly through Steem. In other words: Bitwala offers the first and only Debit card that's funded with Steem!
... but nobody is using it!
While our announcement resonated well within the Steemit community, we have only seen marginal usage so far. This might well be a chicken-egg-problem, so we decided not to give up on Steemit, but maybe explain a little more in detail how the whole process works.
So here we go. You first need to signup at Bitwala and then proceed to order a Debit card:
After you have received and activated your card, using Steem to top it up is pretty straightforward. Simply click on top up, choose an amount and send us some Steem:
And you're done. You can now use your debit card wherever Visa cards are accepted.
Your feedback is welcome!
What are you experiences with using Bitwala and the Bitwala Debit card? What can we do to improve our service? What would you like to see? Let us know in the comments, shoot us an email or follow us on corporate controlled social media like Twitter or Facebook. Or, naturally, on Steemit.
Nobody should be holding Steem for purposes like this. It exists purely as an intermediary between Steem Power and other tokens. You might get some traction with Steem Dollars (the stable token), but even then it will probably take some time.
Thank you for your insight! Maybe time will tell if people actually use Steem or SBD to pay for services.
You can perfectly pay with steem tokens for certain products. The inflation rate of steem token will eventually be just 0.19 percent, and the transaction fee is minimal. Maybe products with high money velocity.
0.19% per day (above 0.5% per day today).
yes. Today its higher, but its gradually declining.
I would consider using this if you supported Steem Dollars instead of Steem.
As others have pointed out it doesn't make sense to hold Steem in liquid form. You either trade it, power it up or convert it to Steem Dollars.
And fairly distribute interest rate to holders. This is very necessary and can attract SBD users. This is pretty weird that exchanges don't do that.
Werd 😎🤙
STEEM is dump only coin for a dozen of whales. Only Steem Dollars make sense for payments.
SBD is pretty easy to change into Steem, is this actually what's holding you back?
I see no reason to buy STEEM. I am not a writer and can't afford much money to invest into volatile tokens in early stage when price is not determined yet. I have no experience with bitwala yet, but if it can act as a wallet, I suggest to allow Steem Dollars and proportionally distribute interest rate to holders.
We're not acting as a wallet, but sort of as a gateway to offer an easy solution to cash out on your Steem.
The spread on SBD and Steem on exchanges, especially the internal exchange, is typically very high. I've seen it as high as 17% !! If you want to do it quickly, having to change to Steem adds a huge cost to the process. Using the 'convert to steem' option takes a week.
Edit: For example now on the internal exchange the spread is 1.35%. The order books at those prices are also incredibly thin, so slippage is involved for even small amounts.
That's actually quite some spread, or quite a long wait. Thanks for explaining, wasn't aware.
The large spread is the only way that market makers can make money providing liquidity, given that Steem is a highly inflationary coin and they're taking on the dilution risk, and it is not intended as a coin for commerce, so regular market participants don't contribute to the liquidity as they would in Bitcoin or similar.
Most people have Steem Dollars, I hope you can add it soon and I am sure you will see more users loading SBD debit cards.
Nice but I already have a Bitpay Visa (https://bitpay.com/visa)
Do they allow top up with Steem as well?
Not yet but it takes next to no time to convert Steem to BTC and top up....and I really don't want to pay for another card just to save a few minutes.
Thanks for the input!
You know, I'm going to consider this more seriously now. Others have already pointed out that nobody holds their Steem (it loses value quickly due to inflation).. BUT I think I'd like one just to show people in my daily life that YES this can work just like real money.
Most people are still pretty uneducated about digital currency (myself included - I bought $10 worth of Bitcoin in January, for example), and in my sharing of the Steemit concept (I have personally referred 6 people so far) I find people are extremely skeptical. We all know the first thing people ask is "but is it real money? can you spend it?" Being able to break the card out and say "Yes" would go a long way towards giving the platform itself credibility and creating interest. I might've just talked myself into it...
Great to hear! Let us know if you need any help along the way! :D
Thanks!
You're welcome!
hello please does bitwala include ghana?
Here's a list of supported countries for the Bitwala debit card. While we can't ship the card to Ghana, you should still be able to use it in Ghana. And for paying your bills internationally, you can use our service from any country in the world.
Oh nice, thanks for hinting at it once more guys. Been using your service with BTC so far, that's great news!
I really hope they add SBD soon. I seldomly hold liquid Steem
Thank you! Keep using, and let us know what we can do to improve our service. :D We'll make sure to stress the issue with SBD vs. Steem once more.
thanks lol