Electronic payments have grown to become staple transactions in modern societies, but the global architecture has failed to keep up. While development around mobile payments continues to gain ground, plastic is quietly strengthening in power.
It may look like merely a debit card, but with Shift Payments, there is more than meets the magnet. The California-based startup is currently running a beta release of its hybrid currency debit card, allowing 100 trial consumers to pay with bitcoin and ripple. In the future, the company plans to add regular USD currency to the mix, as well as loyalty program point integration.
In the land of digital “what if’s,” social media and messaging services like Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp are firmly entrenched monoliths, and daunting obstacles to potential competitors. The digital payment domain is relatively uncharted in comparison, presenting tremendous potential. “Micro-payments are a huge thing that bitcoin enables,” Meg Nakamura, co-founder of Shift, said, The ability to transact in real-time without having to trust a third-party – all that stuff was really interesting to us, so we dove right in.”
Despite this, there has been resistance to the program initially from banks, and one banking partner actually withdrew its affiliation. Nakamura remains optimistic, however. “We learned very quickly that no bank here in the U.S. is willing to take that leap and actually support something like this,” she said, “They were just too nervous and no one was willing to take that reputational risk.” Nonetheless, U.S. companies are eyeing the Shift pilot card results closely.
“We continue to see the convergence of loyalty, customer experience and payments at the point of sale,” Mark Johnson, CEO of Loyalty360, said, “Consumers yearn for products, services and brands that enable simplicity, yet create the opportunity for immersive engagement. Many brands struggle to rise above the cacophony of products that come to market on a weekly basis, and struggle to execute on the promise they have laid out. Products such as Shift card have the potential to address the call of the market, and meet customer needs head on.”
It may take some time before consumers can walk down the road and swap a batch of bitcoins for a burger, but Shift is leading the way in digital debit payments and integrated currency systems.