Danish cryptocurrency exchange CCEDK has announced a MasterCard Bitcoin debit card product, building a bridge between bitcoin users and MasterCard-enabled merchants all over the world, while adhering to strong compliance standards in accordance with E.U. financial regulators.
The Bitcoin Debit NanoCard MasterCard will enable withdrawals from their multi cryptocurrency exchange to ATMs and MasterCard-enabled merchants worldwide.
Unlike other Bitcoin debit cards including BitPlastic, CCEDK claims this card “is regulated by The European Union (EU) MasterCard rules” and as such it is covered under their fraud protection programs.
As such, CCEDK and any financial movements of its customers are strictly regulated under European anti-money laudering (AML), know-your-customer (KYC) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) guidelines, as explained on their website.
While this will alarm privacy buffs and does not provide anonymity or privacy like that advertised by BitPlastic, it nevertheless should provide fraud protection under the MasterCard umbrella.
Verified users can expect service as if they were using a regular MasterCard, up to unlimited withdrawal limits, depending on your level of verification with CCEDK and their banking partners.
“At first, the Bitcoin Debit NanoCard MasterCard will only support bitcoin, but CCEDK plans to implement further cryptocurrencies as there is demand – including NuBits, BitUSD, NXT and LTC. In the meantime, other coins can of course be exchanged for bitcoin on the exchange, to be used to fund the NanoCard,” said a CCEDK spokesperson in a written statement.
The NanoCard will start shipping mid-June. Those who cannot wait that long can get it with CCEDK’s partner at Bit-X.
Is it really anonymous?
The card is also advertised as anonymous, but true anonymity is very difficult, particularly when interacting with the banking system. For example, while you may indeed be able to create an account with CCEDK using fake information and a VPN and order a NanoCard with no verified information, the withdraw limits are much lower than with a verified account.
For cash withdrawals from ATMs, nonverified or “Level 1” users can withdraw 100 euros a year. For point-of-sale purchases, Level 1 users can spend 250 euros per year. This is presumably per card. Here are the costs of getting a card and transaction fees.
- Embossed name on card – 0.10 BTC
- Card activation – 0.05 BTC
- Card delivery via airmail – 0.05 BTC
- Card delivery via DHL – 0.30 BTC
- Monthly fee – FREE for the first 10,000 users
- Monthly fee (no activity*) – 0.05 BTC
- Cash withdrawal at ATM – 0.02 BTC (plus 3 percent MasterCard commission)
- Payments (POS) – 0.005 BTC (plus 1 percent MasterCard commission)
Like any other MasterCard, all debit card and credit card transactions are recorded and transmitted as per standard operations. This means that the privacy concerns associated with using any credit card that can be tied to a series of transactions also apply to the NanoCard.
