Despite major breakthroughs, cryptocurrency has failed to gain transaction within the greater public. One project, Empire Card, led by female CEO Patricia Harrison, is trying the change that.
The global credit card industry is among the biggest in the world, generating billions of dollars worldwide every quarter. At the same time, the cryptocurrency world is worth billions itself with Bitcoin along having a market cap of well over $50 billion. This leaves many questioning why those two worlds still remain so far apart and so incompatible with one another.
Empire Card, and it’s ambitious CEO, believe they have the answer in a debit card that allows users to spend their digital currencies such as Ethereum, Bitcoin and Ripple directly from their debit card. While many other debit cards have come onto the scene marketing themselves as ‘crypto-cards’ in recent months, it’s often a gimmicky marketing ploy, with most not actually storing digital currency but simply converting your digital currency into cash when you upload it to the card. Those that do store digital currency usually charge opaque and extortionate exchange fees whenever a transaction is made (like using your debit card abroad in a different currency).
Coin ownership model
Like many projects on the blockchain, the revenue created by Empire Card will be completely decentralizes. This manifests for this project by equally dividing the revenue created by the project among all owners of Empire Coins under a ‘one coin, one share’ model. These coins will be distributed in the Empire Card ICO which begins on the 22nd on August.
The charges for using Empire Cards will vary based on the level of card (there will be a Black Card, Platinum Card and Gold Card at the beginning). The fees will be modest, and comparable to cheaper credit cards, with all of the funds raised entering a a liquidity pool and being split at the end of every month. This way there will be no corporate interest or greedy shareholders sucking revenue out of the system, but rather the entire democratic network will gain.
Credit card style perks
Empire Card’s CEO, Patricia Harrison, believes one of the things holding back crypto debit cards from breaking through into mainstream use and gaining the same kind of traction as existing cards is the lack of perks being offered. While the ability to enter airport lounges and gain air miles may seem trivial, she believes it’s these touches that many consumers look for when choosing a credit card. To this end the Empire Card project has spent months in negotiations with major airline groups, including Star Alliance, and with key airports in order to secure perks from day one. She reports the negotiations with Star Alliance in particular are advanced and a contract to allow for air mile collection is expected to be signed imminently.
Instantaneous transfer protocol
The question asked most often to the Empire Card team is how they’re able to process transfers instantly when users make a retail transaction using their digital currency. This is in light of the fact that a secure digital currency transaction takes up to a minute to get fully confirmed. The answer? Empire Card works similarly to a traditional banking model in that it authorizes a transaction and allows the retailer to hand over the goods before the transaction itself has completed. During the time in which the transaction is being confirmed, Empire Card locks the funds onto the card and holds it similarly to a credit card style hold. This system prevents fraud via double spending, a common fear in the crypto currency world.
Final word
By combining cryptographic breakthroughs with the traditional banking model that consumers are familiar with, Empire Card believes it has finally found a way to bring digital currency to the masses. Empire Card will begin it’s presale on the 15th August and it’s ICO on 21st August.
empirecard.network