A British startup called Bluenio has revealed what it claims is the world’s first Bitcoin payment smartcard – or at least it will be if no others have popped up by the time it ships in March.
Bluenio is already in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign for the nio Card, which was initially pitched as a security chain for helping to cut down on the loss of smartphones and wallets. It still does that – it does a few things, actually — but on Friday the company said it would also function as a Bitcoin wallet-slash-payment-card that can transfer money “in a single tap” using near-field communication (NFC) technology.
Easier Bitcoin payments
“It’s a cool way to provide secure Bitcoin payments in a way you currently can’t do,” Bluenio co-founder Ben Hounsell told me. “The way of making a Bitcoin payment right now can be a little bit convoluted, or certainly not as easy as making a traditional chip-and-PIN payment or a tap. You have to scan a QR code, read it in, validate the payment, enter private keys… it can be quite irritating.”
nioCard_bitcoin“Having a card where you tap to make a payment securely bring s [Bitcoin] in line with more conventional ways of making payments.”
You can already get Bitcoin wallet apps for Android devices that allow funds to be paid and received via NFC. However, nio Card allows owners of iOS devices, which unlike most modern Android phones do not have built-in NFC technology, to enjoy the same convenience.
Ultimately, Bluenio would like the nio Card to be able to replace traditional payment cards, Coin-style, but the company hasn’t struck the necessary deals with the banks yet. Europe largely uses chip-and-PIN cards, which are more advanced and secure than the magnetic-strip norm over the U.S., but that means you can’t simply swipe in any old card and have the device replace it, as you can with Coin.
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