How many of you are aware of the site steem.cards?
This is a site that allows you to convert your STEEM or SBD into store cards such as Amazon or Dunkin Donuts. It is something that was around for a while yet they just made what I consider to be a big announcement.
Here is a picture of the site for those who are unaware:
This is a partial listing of the items they have to offer.
What is exciting is it was just announced that they now have a Visa Gift Card (Debit) that can be purchased using your STEEM and SBD. It is only available in the US and converts to USD. They can do it from $25-$2,000. There is a fee of $7.95 per card which is steep for the smaller amounts but not so bad for $500 or more (this compared to 10% on the store cards).
According to @steemgiftcards, this is a revision of an old idea. At present there are 20 items available with a goal of 100 by the end of next month.
Here is the post they sent put up:
To me this is huge news. By being able to put your STEEM or SBD on a Visa Debit card, it removes the question "what do I do once I get the STEEM". We know at present it is difficult to move money out from STEEM to USD. This is a way to streamline that process and, for a large amount, $7.95 is not a bad transaction rate.
More importantly, we are starting to see projects that people are putting together which will bring commerce to the STEEM blockchain. I felt this was an important move for 2018. The question is all cryptocurrency is what do I do once I get it?
Now when someone asks that about STEEM, the answer is wherever Visa is accept!!!!
This is an example of the power of a decentralized blockchain that I keep mentioning. The innovation can come from anywhere. Bringing commercial entities is of primary importance. This is how an ecosystem really can expand and grow. Here is an individual(s) who went out and put together a way for people to use their STEEM and SBDs (personally I prefer to power up 😁). It is one of what I expect to be many steps towards commercialization on this blockchain.
What is exciting is there are plans to grow steem.cards bigger and add more features.
We are onto something big with the STEEM blockchain. While others are trying to scale up and figure out what they are targeting, development on STEEM is only adding to what is already here. Day-by-day, this place is growing in so many different ways.
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NOW MY WIFE WILL FINALLY STOP CALLING IT FAKE MONEY!!!
That is the barometer.....
Half the population just bought into the idea of crypto.
Fun fact: One of the very first things you could buy with btc were alpaca socks.
I’ll tell you - my wife never takes her socks off for anything...ANYTHING. Because “he feet are cold” ...lol she’d have appreciated bitcoin then.
$7.95 is way cheaper than a bitcoin transaction fee. I wish it was cheaper but a move in the right direction. Thanks for the info.
I know what you mean. My wife doesn't call it fake money but she is anxious to see tangible profit.
I get the same thing!
You have to buy her something and say STEEM PAID FOR THIS, YOUR WELCOME!
you wont hear how its fake money again
lol, exactly.
Hahahaha!
So true @theessential
Oh my gosh- you guys are hilarious!! She was so mad at me For investing into crypto at first- and I’m talking like 30 dollars...
I eventually turned that into about 500, then more and so on. Still I reinvest so she never sees my profits. I promised her A 10,000 dollars deposit in our bank account in 6 months- we will see..
Ps. Pleasure seeing you here Mr. @spiritualmax
Sounds doable!
Dude, ikr? Finally!!
Only if you buy her something nice!
Haha that’s all I want to do- just give her the life she deserves.
It's so good to know that this innovation is happening at this point in time. There's no gainsaying the fact that steem is the golden egg which will soon be sought after by many. If steenitgiftcards can buy into the steem blockchain, I wonder how many more are going to follow suit. I can see innumerable. We really are onto something big here.
Sir, you are a blessing indeed. Since I followed you and started reading your blogs, my confidence has been beefed up and I know with certainty that I am in the right place.
It was so wonderful seeing you on my blog. I am sending you lots and lots of hugs xoxo
Wow This is an absolute game changer! I can see hundreds of retail stores wanting to except steam credit cards. The steam block chain is the most innovative ground shattering innovation in 100 years
This is great news. I hope they will soon expand their customer base to other countries as well. This is a huge step forward in the development of Steemit. Good luck to you.
Oh man this is excellent news. Thousands of steemians will be pouring in to buy these cards. The steem/sbd to fiat has in my opinion always been a hassle but to have this opinion is definitely a lot better. I am going to take this for a test run for sure. Thanks.
It is a great step in the right direction @mawit07. It will be interesting to see where it goes from here and what else they add.
Definitely an interesting development. There are other VISA/Crypto cards out there, but most were hit by Wavecrest being decredited/rejected, so I'm not sure where they are now in terms of coming to market.
There's also Monaco card, which wasn't partnered with Wavecrest and not affected by the withdrawal of that service. I don't think there are any sign-up fees, but there may be a 1% transaction fee and the Monaco card will be available to more than just USD (7 fiat currencies, I think). However, I'm not sure, but I think you need to transact in MCO (Monaco Coins) on the card.
Still, I'm sure a catch-all, multicurrency, multi-crypto card must be on the horizon, as it'd have a massive take-up.
One of the things holding crypto back is that it's not easy to get into, or spend. Once these cards tale off, it could make crypto more accessible to the masses.
Without a doubt this is only a step. Far from the ultimate ideal but a move in the right direction.
It does remove one of the challenges with crypto....what to do with it, at least for US people.
There will be more advancements as the industry grows. We are still in the very early stages and a lot of products need to be developed before we see mainstream use.
This is a step that I really needed!
It might be a pipe dream, but I'm working towards making Steem my full time employment by August 2018. I'm working on an IT project in the mid-west, but I live in PNW... it's okay for now, but after this project ends my consulting company might put me on a project that won't let me work from home and I'll have to leave.... and to be honest, I'd love to spend my time developing this platform instead, I'm way more passionate about it.
The logistics of a full time wage off the Blockchain just got a whole lot easier now that I could potentially pay my mortgage through steem.cards. This is really exciting.
The crypto I've been trying to support SALT and BitBay are both trying to develop the infrastructure of financial freedom via crypto, and Steem.cards is another important step.
You will get there @aussieninja.
By August the price of this token will be enormous compared to now. That means the payouts, in terms of fiat, should grow. I expect the pace of token appreciation (due mostly to Wall Street) to outpace the growth of users which means we will still be in a sweet spot for the payouts in the reward pool.
I will have to check those two out to see what they entail. Thanks for the 411.
You, young @taskmaster4450 are very welcome!
My mortgage will be the only thing I'd use my Steem for after August... everything else I'd earn on this platform would be powered up. I'd probably also take a job in a local gym just to diversify and get me out and away from a computer, so that'd be my spending money.
It's so weird that we've all accidentally stumbled upon this token that could change our entire lives... I never went searching for Steem, it was totally random.
Yes I didnt go searching it out either but it found me.
That said, I am excited for the introduction of more tokens of this sort. I fully believe we are entering the tokenized world. I have 4 tokens coming in (well once manna starts distributing again) and am looking for more. There are going to be other projects which allow us to increase the number. It is going to be amazing.
Is that site totally legit?
So for people in America, they just buy a Visa card and they can spend that money on any store?
I believe +7$ price is quite high, but perhaps they manage to reduce it to -5$ eventually.
$7 is a steal because there aren’t many services that do this type of deal. Maybe perhaps to gain more steemians, they could lower the deal to 2/3$ if you put a certain amount of steem in your wallet.
Ok... this could be a potential game changer for me. I never knew this before (thanks for making this post).
I am utterly in awe... Amazon... Visa... WOW! This will definitely make my holiday shopping in 2018 so much easier.
I wasnt aware of it either under @wwf. brought it to my attention yesterday. It is just another feather in the STEEM cap.
It really does give the US people an option to convert their STEEM to fiat....something that was a hassle before.
If this is true... and I am saying a quiet prayer for it.. It would definitely bring more crytpocurrency lovers and investors aboard. Especially those like who are new to the world of BTC, etc.
Imagine people selling BTC to get more steem so they can have cash, or credit actually, on hand for "concrete" purchases?
I cant be certain but I think there are already some BTC Visa cards out there. But this applies to a ton of other tokens which presently have to go through the exchange process (most often using BTC, LTC, or ETH).
Since many Steemians have other tokens, it might make life a bit easier for them.
One more piece to the puzzle!
US only at the moment.
This is awesome! I can't imagine selling any STEEM at the moment but I understand some might need to and this is a great way to convert those STEEM to USD. Keep it up @taskmaster4450!
I agree @summertooth.
I cant imagine selling it either...in fact I am trying to power up more. But I can understand the need desire to cash out for some..and at least for US Steemians, there is an easy conversion from STEEM to USD which was tough before. I am sure we will see the ability to convert to other fiat down the road too.
Thanks for the comment.
There's only one problem with this... little red planktons won't have any money on there debit cards. LOL grow minnows grow.
Good point @tedgoodwin.
Everyone needs to keep posting, commenting, and upvoting...the account grows is one is persistent and consistent.
This is exactly what I've said needs to happen for crypto in general as one of the steps towards mainstream adoption. The average person doesn't want to be bothered with private keys, wallet addresses, and questionable exchanges. This sweeps that away and makes using SBD easy enough for anyone.
Game changer.
It is definitely a step in the right direction...it is hard to for most to deal with the system as it is.
STEEM is actually one of the easier currencies to interact in since it is all basically on this platform.
We will see moves like this help mainstream adoption.
Hey taskmaster4450, thanks for the blog. Yep, it was just a matter of time before the big boys like Visa, iTunes, Amazon, Adidas, etc., got on board. They know a good thing when they see it. I just hope they don't pollute it. Let's keep this platform "For the people!" Dig? All the best to you and yours in 2018!
Danny Zale ~ @factcheck
Get on board with what?
I believe that if people are aware of the new things always coming to be here on Steemit we can take this to the moon. Thank you for always giving us such pertinent information.
This is going to make the process of getting fiat much easier. Currently the process is pretty convoluted and has too many steps. That problem is now solved.
I will probably do a small transaction in a few days just so I can show my wife some real money that came from Steem. It will make her fee better about all the time I spend on here. I probably won't do another for a while though as I'm trying to vest everything I can or put it into the tloes project.
This is great news!
Thanks for the post.
Keep Steeming!
OMG. This is great news, now I can show people that you can spend your rewards gained while enjoying this Steemit platform. Most Visa gift cards cost $4.95 at CVS so $7.95 isn't bad at all. Great post task and great news indeed! 💳
@taskmaster4450
REALLY?
The credit houses are weighing in, seeing the Crypto Writing on the preverbal wall? Oh the Value this is going to add...as your title most perfectly states..
Big Deal! Hell yeah... heaven yeah, and all points in between!
Excellent heads up info.
L
That really is exciting. My interest in crypto is their eventual usefulness beyond speculative investment. Not that I want to take any money out of steemit, but to see increased utility can only be a good thing. I can imagine that some will want to cash in on their rewards for excellent posts, and this is a great step in that direction. Thanks for sharing.
There are constantly positive news coming out for STEEM, I think after the hard fork this thing goes to the moon in a heartbeat.
This is excellent news!!!
That a great news you have spotted there. Is definitely beneficial to the whole community as well as steem currency.
As I believe many of us has read a lot of articles out there. Business like online game "steam" initially choose to opt-in bitcoin, but yet withdraw in the end due to the volatile nature of crypto currency.
At least this is a good sign of the stability that is expecting of the steem ecosystem. Thumb up, and thanks for the big news :)
Now I only need a Steem to Fiat debit card in order to be happy.
lol.
THat would be the golden goose here in Europe.
That’s very exciting news! Steem is going to blow up this year, it could be $100 by the end of 2018 :)
That... is... AWESOME!!!
Resteemed to spread the word.
Finally a direct way to go from Steem to USD without the hassle of converting to BTC or LTC. This will completely change the game up.
I hope it spreads to many countries especially Africa....as the numbers are increasing in Africa.
I am currently promoting Steemit in Uganda and get asked a lot that question of transfer!
wow amazing , this make the steem more powerful
thanks for information on steem visa card helpful information 😊😊
Really amazing, upvoted with resteemed.
Thanks for information @taskmaster4450
Oh awesome. Thanks for this info! Steemit has a bright future. Especially with users who post informative articles like you :)
@taskmaster4450 don't you just Love everything that Crypto can be for Humanity in a Positive Way ?
This will certainly be an eyeopener for those that see cryptocurrency nothing more than thin air Exciting to know it is available when I get enough steem.
brilliant voted and re steemed good blog
. @taskmaster4450
This again proves that slowly but steadily crypto currencies are going to change our financial world.
Exellent news.- Thank you
Hi Follow Me :D
Amazing news.Thanks for sharing it
thanks for info @taskmaster4450
It is very exciting news.Thanks for sharing it
Wow! I'll have to share this one later.
good work. Thanks for sharing ♥ following you ♥
steem visa card yes nice idea that is
carry on your activity
this is good idea of commercial age
best wish to you
wow ...i want to buy
This is a great development by steem
Good information. Good idia
what a photography. i like this post
Thanks so much for the info and I’m re-posting it now!
That is pretty exciting. Once I can power up a bit more and build my crypto portfolio a bit, I will send my family a gift card!
At least, people who need to access the money from Steemit, this is a good way.