A company which issued many of the popular crypto debit cards has shut down. They were a bridge to financial inclusion for many remote freelancers, crypto users, and unbanked people around the world.
Wirecard, ePayments and others have proved the dangers of centralization
Many cryptocurrency users and freelancers in developing economies have just suffered a major blow to their ability to gain access to the global financial system after the UK’s regulatory agency, the FCA has taken enforcement measures against Wirecard Solutions (WCS), a subsidiary of Wirecard AG (based in Germany).
Also the users of a popular card in Latin América issued by ePayments Ltd. (London) have their funds frozen since February 11th by the same agency with little information provided.
Wirecard AG has been the focus of a law enforcement investigation for falsifying financial reports, while simultaneously being engaged in insolvency proceedings. WCS, was a Newcastle, UK based subsidiary which issued Visa debit cards for Wirecard. The UK’s regulatory authorities have suspended WCS’s ability to engage in any kind of regulated financial activity.
WCS’s customers were promised to be reimbursed for their deposits, however the fallout from the decision has caused a suspension of services for many of the most popular cryptocurrency reloadable debit cards and traditional reloadable debit cards.
Companies like Wirex, Crypto.com, Cryptopay, Payoneer, TenX and others, have had all prepaid debit cards suspended. This has caused a major inconvenience for many cryptocurrency users, freelancers, remote workers, and unbanked people all over the world, who rely on these reloadable debit cards to receive and spend their earnings.
They will likely come back and switch providers, yes, but it is a good time to assess the risks involved in these operations and what are the alternatives.
Bitcoin & Bitrefill fix this
The Wirecard saga has really highlighted the dangers of centralized single points of failure. It really drives home the importance of permissionless access, censorship resistance and ledger immutability to provide transparency.
At Bitrefill, our objective is to make it possible for people to live on crypto, and we have created a reliable way to use Bitcoin and selected altcoins directly for thousands of gift cards, digital vouchers and mobile refills available globally, and delivered instantly.
Our processes are designed to take the uncertainty out of spending your coins on real world goods and services with the minimal amount of hassles. Furthermore, we don’t request any personal or sensitive information which could become compromised. Remember that every time you use a credit/debit card you are giving away to the cashiers your username and password to spend it, and that is the least of the problems as hacked databases typically end up in the hands of multiple criminal organizations worldwide.
Multiple trusted third parties has been repeatedly been shown to be stacked points of failure, a security risk, and a good way to lose your coins and/or your privacy. This is why we have been believers in a circular economy around Bitcoin directly.
For this to be successful, we need services and businesses which allow you to earn and spend your Bitcoin without employing legacy banking intermediaries who store all your personal information and share part of it with every merchant.
Thank you for using Bitrefill!
If you found this article helpful or know of other ways that Bitcoiners who just lost access to their debit cards can overcome this loss of financial inclusivity, let us know on Twitter, on our Telegram, or in our subReddit, r/Bitrefill.
