Past ICO Review: TenX Puts Crypto on Debit Card, Hodlers Beware

TenX is making crypto more of a tangible payment system by creating actual debit cards that are linked to a TenX wallet.

The company has a forthcoming banking license in the works and intends on taking its everyday payment system mainstream. With technology like this, it is surprising that the company did not raise more in its ICO; it raised $80 mln, which is still a substantial amount of capital, but for the innovative service it is offering, it is surprising that it was not able to garner more support.

The token started out strong, entering the market at $0.83. The TenX token has been on a steady decline since its release with an all-time high of $5.26 during the 2017 December rally down to $1.01 as May 2018 closes out.

The token price might not go to the moon, but the debit card might end up in a few wallets.

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Who is using it?

While it is a step in the right direction to get crypto to become more of a mainstream and daily use commodity, there are still the Hodlers out there, who are seemingly never going to spend their crypto. This technology would not appeal to them.

However, for the people who do want to spend crypto TenX provides that service via a debit card and an app. TenX’s motto is: “At TenX we work on making any Blockchain asset spendable instantly.”

TenX works with credit card providers to connect the COMIT transaction network to a payment card, allowing you to quickly and safely convert cryptocurrency funds into card transactions.

Currently, TenX supports Bitcoin, Dash and Ether, but the system is capable of supporting most Blockchain assets and the company plans to expand offerings in the future.

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Conversions, fees, the general cost of doing payments

While the idea of using crypto is novel and exciting for many, there are a variety of fees that, to many consumers, would be off-putting.

When you can use your debit or credit card to do the same thing for free, why would you want to pay the fees and have crypto conversions to another crypto and then into fiat? Therein, lies the biggest problem.

There are too many conversions and too many associated fees and costs. While the site states that there are zero percent conversion fees, there are surely costs, but they are being absorbed by the company.

TenX does offer an incentive, similar to what the credit card companies do, but users get a different incentive than cash back or points.

TenX distributes tokens in the amount of 0.1 percent of purchases. Additionally, a reserve of 0.5 percent of the payment volume on the network is periodically distributed to holders of PAY tokens in proportion to their holdings. TenX plans to distribute this incentive monthly at first, with hopes of increasing distribution frequency in the future.

Looking into it further, there is discussion on Reddit on who is using the card, and it seems many people are using it in Australia successfully. There appears to be no public information on how many users TenX has.

We can only assume some pilot programs are running around the world with limited numbers of people signed up.

Building base, gearing up

While the company has some innovative ideas on how to spend almost any crypto via debit card and app, there will be competition from the likes of Bitpay and mainstays such as Visa and Mastercard, if they get into the crypto payments game.

There could be a lot at stake, but without risk, there is no reward.

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