CoinJar, the Australian startup making bitcoin accessible for everyone, today began trialling CoinJar Swipe, the first Eftpos card that allows bitcoin holders to spend their digital currency anywhere they like.
Using the CoinJar Swipe card, customers taking part in the trial will be able to withdraw from their bitcoin account, converted to Australian dollars, at any ATM, or purchase items at any retail outlet.
CoinJar Swipe is the first product in Australia to bridge the gap between the digital currency bitcoin and traditional payment methods.
CoinJar teamed up with E-merchants, a prepaid payments solution provider in Australia, to develop Coinjar Swipe.
Asher Tan, co-founder and CEO of CoinJar, said the Swipe trial was an important leap in taking bitcoin into the mainstream Australian economy.
“We created Swipe because we simply wanted to make it easier for our customers to spend their bitcoin.
“Swipe demystifies bitcoin and makes it accessible to everyone through a secure platform. Our team is really excited about Swipe, and we look forward to receiving feedback from our customers.”
As part of the trial, 100 cards are being distributed to pre-registered CoinJar DNA members, who were asked on social media, “What would you do with your CoinJar Swipe?”
CoinJar received answers ranging from “Pay my bitcoin business bills” to “buy a sausage roll, sauce, and an iced coffee for lunch”.
In line with CoinJar’s belief that bitcoin is a democratising force in finance, the cards will be allocated evenly between early adopters, everyday consumers, and a wide variety of demographic characteristics. Customers will receive their cards from next week.
Bitcoins are being used by an estimated 500,000 Australians already, and that figure is rapidly growing. CoinJar alone has processed more than $50 million worth of bitcoin transactions in the past 12 months for more than 30,000 individual and business customers.
The next step will be a wider rollout of the technology in the near future.
Customers can pre-register for further releases of the card at https://www.coinjar.com/dna.
