U.S. Company Planning Cryptocurrency Debit Card
A U.S. company is planning a prepaid debit card that will enable users to spend cryptocurrency in the world. The crypto-debit card is one of several products planned by Miami Beach-based Centra Tech.
Centra Tech’s ambitious plans include a digital wallet, a financial-services network, a cryptocurrency exchange, and Centra Market in addition to the card, the company’s website indicates. The Centra Market is described as a cryptocurrency marketplace designed to capitalize on the e-commerce ecosystem.
Cryptocurrency MasterCard Planned by American Company
The Centra Card is supposed to be a MasterCard (NYSE: MA) product that will have some pretty impressive perks.
It should be noted that this is not certain, earlier Centra imagery showed a Visa card, which has apparently been changed. Currently, the website mentions MasterCard but does not show the MasterCard logo, which means that deal might not be final.
If all goes as planned the Centra Card will be able to convert Ethereum, DASH, Litecoin, Monero, Bitcoin, Ripple, Zcash, and the Centra token (CTR) into fiat currencies such as U.S. Dollars. Note: Centra’s website does not say what fiat currencies the card will convert altcoins into but it would presumably be the U.S. Dollar.
A Centra Black Card will feature a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week worldwide concierge, a $100,000 a day spending limit, free transaction fees, a $3,000 a day ATM withdrawal limit, a metal design upgrade, and Member Exclusive Rewards.
The Centra Gold Card is supposed to feature a $20,000 a day spending limit, a $1,000 a day ATM withdrawal limit, and free transactions. The Centra Blue Card is supposed to feature a $5,000 a day spending limit, a $1,000 a day ATM withdrawal limit, and free transaction fees. All the cards are supposed to come with security settings, EMV Chip technology, a mobile App, 24-hour a day, seven-day a week support, and security settings.
What is truly interesting is that you will have to purchase Centra’s cryptocurrency CTR in order to get a card. You will need to hold 100,000 CTR to get the Centra Black, 10,000 CTR to put the Centra Gold in your wallet, and 50 CTR to put the Centra Blue in your purse.
Another interesting feature is that rewards will be paid in CTR tokens. Centra Black users will receive 2% in token rewards, Centra Gold users will be rewarded with .5% in tokens, and Centra Blue users will receive .2% in rewards. The CTR token is an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency that can be purchased through the Binance, BTC, Livecoin.net, Cryptopia, Gate.io and EtherDelta exchanges.
The cards are not available yet, but Centra is taking preorders for them at its website. Card applicants should be careful because one of Centra’s competitors, TenX issued a similar Visa card earlier this year. That card was shut down everywhere outside of Europe in October 2017, because of a conflict with Visa. Therefore there’s no guarantee a Centra Card will ever appear in anybody’s mailbox.
The Centra Wallet and Cryptocurrency Marketplace
Centra is also offering an insured multi-blockchain digital wallet that it claims will save customers money by eliminating interbank transfer fees. One way that will be achieved is by using an open-source hyper speed DPoS Blockchain to speed transactions.
The blockchain wallet is designed to store and transmit a wide variety of digital assets. The current model enables users to store and convert Ripple, Litecoin, Zcash, Monero, DASH, Ethereum, and Bitcoin.
A long-range goal at Centra is the creation of a Worldwide Payment Platform which would allow users to make purchases with 0% spending and exchange fees. The platform is designed to convert a wide variety of altcoins by using a Currency Conversion Engine (CCE) Module. The CCE is a patent-pending multi-blockchain conversion engine protocol.
A long-term goal of the platform is to allow users to spend cryptocurrency assets instantly anywhere in the world. The CCE will also power the Centra Network which is supposed to be a Centralized and Decentralized Exchange designed to facilitate currency and digital asset trading.
A Cryptocurrency Marketplace that will allow users to buy and sell goods with altcoins is also planned. No details of the products or services for sale at the marketplace are available now. The Centra Whitepaper claims the Centra Market will be a superstore that will offer more than 100,000 items for sale when it is up and running. If that comes to pass it would rival Walmart.com in inventory.
A related goal to the Marketplace will be to establish Centra Merchant Services which is a payment processor for businesses. Note: I was not able to find or open a web address for Centra Merchant Services although one is listed at the company’s website.
Is the Centra Token a Good Investment?
The Centra Token (CTR) might be a good speculative investment because it is very cheap right now, but has a limited supply.
The CTR was trading at 42.31¢ on December 4, 2017, which gave it a 24-hour Market Volume of $938.154 meaning an investor can buy a lot of them. What’s truly interesting is that the future supply of CTR is very limited.
Total Supply of CTR is 98.273 million, yet 68 million of those coins are already on the market. That means only 30.273 million CTR will be released which artificially limit the supply.
There might some value in this altcoin if Centra can really bring out a cryptocurrency MasterCard Prepaid Card in the United States. If it can release the product worldwide it will make even more money.
Releasing such a card might be difficult because MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga is hostile to most altcoins. He even said, “non-government mandated currency is junk,” in an October 7 interview with The Economic Times. Visa pulled the plug on TenX cards with its brand outside of Europe in October.
That might explain why none of the cards pictured at the Centra Website have the MasterCard logo on them. The company is still struggling to get permission to release the cards. A smarter move for Centra might be to go with a lesser credit-card brand such as American Express (NYSE: AXP) which might be more open to innovation.
Centra is an interesting company to watch but investors should stay away until it actually starts shipping cards. Until there’s a Centra card that you can use at your local supermarket or gas station, this company is nothing but an interesting business plan. Stay away from it and CTR until there’s a card you can use at your neighborhood ATM or the corner bar.
For more information about Centra Tech visit its website: https://www.centra.tech/
