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Card Review: Shakepay Bitcoin Debit
The ShakePay card is one of the first among the growing offer of debit cards with Dash support. This is an optimized, simple map that works surprisingly well in its simple form.
Shakepay is an easy-to-use debit card with a more traditional approach. In addition to Ethereum support, it allows users to use Bitcoins and DASH. Card users can send crypto coins to their account, where they can be converted into national currency. This review is divided into categories: functionality and types, with a conclusion at the end.
Getting started
The card is a plain, simple black card without any information about the issuer. The only distinguishing point is the word “prepaid”, written on the card. The card works well through a magnetic stripe and through a chip. Compared to other cards with which I had problems with various merchants, I have never had any problems with ShakePay.
What you can hold
ShakePay allows users to spend their cryptocurrency in almost 200 countries, which allows users to spend more than 42 million points in online and offline mode. Users can then convert cryptocurrencies to fiat money, making the card ideal for avid cryptocurrency travelers. The card also offers its users a reward for purchases of up to 2% cashback. A special application that can be synchronized with the map allows the user to activate and deactivate it.
Trading with ShakePay
The ordering process was too simple and a bit confusing. The final score was about $ 36 expressed in Dash, while the amount to be replenished was $ 20. After replenishing the card, the user receives a confirmation message.
The ShakePay card can be used wherever VISA is accepted, however the card is available only to US residents. The conversion fee is not charged, and the maintenance fee is $1.5 per month. The fee for withdrawing an ATM in Europe is $2.5, in other regions – $3.5.
Pros and Cons of ShakePay
The biggest advantages of this card are in a good interface and in the presence of a mobile application. The web application is simple and optimized. It provides a clear interface with the necessary information and nothing more. Basic account settings and card information are clearly displayed along with limits and fees. The main options are: topping up and creating maps, as well as upgrading to AML / KYC verification level. The mobile application, in turn, is too simple. It is so simple that when I first downloaded it, I thought that I had the wrong application. It contains mostly transaction history and the ability to recharge. Simplicity, of course, will require some getting used to, and an ordinary client, in the first place, will not hasten to trust her.
Transaction fees
Making a card costs $ 15, and the monthly maintenance fee is $ 1. Bitcoin replenishment fee is 1%, and for replenishment of Dash and Ethereum – 3%. It seems a bit expensive for Dash, but if we compare it with the use of ShapeShift for exchanging for Bitcoins and the presence of all these commissions and delays, we end up with a 3% commission justified.
What are ERC-20 tokens?
Understanding how Bitcoin works is not easy for most people, and Ethereum is much more difficult. Even if you are with technologies on “you”, it will take a lot of time to understand how this system works. So, Ethereum is a decentralized platform on which smart contracts written in the Solidity programming language can work. It can also run hundreds of decentralized applications.
For any new application that uses blockchain or smart contracts, a new Ethereum token can be created – several standards have been developed for such tokens, and tokens of different standards are suitable for different types of applications. Standards facilitate the interaction between tokens and smart contracts, and therefore Ethereum is a popular platform for developing decentralized applications. Ethereum can be likened to iOS or Android operating systems for decentralized applications – it simplifies their creation and supports operation.
Ethereum ERC-20 Token This is the current industry standard that is used by thousands of different cryptocurrency projects. The ERC-20 token standard has six required parameters for each smart contract and three additional (but recommended!) Options. For example, the permissible number of decimal places is additional. For comparison, Bitcoin supports eight decimal places, a symbol (usually a 3-4-digit code) and a name. The six required parameters determine the number and transfer of tokens.
Advantages and features of the standard
The main advantages of the ERC20 standard tokens include the following:
Free entry to the market
Most cryptocurrency exchanges have long been working with the standard ERC20. They do not have to make changes to their program code to accept new tokens.
This makes life much easier for ICO developers. They simply take the ERC20 code on GitHub, create their own tokens based on it, and after bidding submit an application for adding a coin to the listings of the required exchanges. If the cryptocurrency meets the requirements of the exchange, it is added in a few days.
Technical simplicity
ERC20 is such a simple standard that even a novice programmer can create tokens based on it. All technical information is freely available on GitHub, and ERC20 token generation tutorials can be found even on YouTube.
Multifunctionality
Most tokens perform one given function. For example, they confirm ownership of certain assets (as in the case of the purchase of tokens during the ICO), act as a cryptocurrency asset or stock.
The disadvantages and risks of the standard
The main problem with the ERC20 is the lack of transaction processing tools. They start automatically, even if they should not be started in principle. Consider a clear example.
Suppose an investor who wants to accept an asset in ICO sends funds to the specified address. But developers only accept BTC, and the investor wants to send them ETH. In this case, he will not be able to start a transaction – it will be rejected by the system.
But if he sends the ERC20 standard tokens to the same ICO, the transaction will be accepted. Funds from his balance will be debited and sent to the recipient’s address. But in our case, the address accepts only BTC. He does not know what to do with ERC20 tokens, and he cannot accept the transaction. As a result, the coins are simply “lost” somewhere in the blockchain. Moreover, it will be impossible to return them.
Summary
The ERC20 is a universal standard that most modern ICOs use. Its advantages are the simplicity and convenience of working with smart contracts. To verify the execution of a smart contract and move funds, the nodes do not need to contact the database and follow protocols. It is enough to check whether the conditions of the contract are fulfilled correctly.
However, simplicity was also a disadvantage of the ERC20. The ease of creating your own tokens attracts scammers who organize scam-ico and disappear with collected funds.
What are products?
Bitcoin is likely to become a new, independent asset class, so gold or stocks that will be sent for regulation, said Leo Melamed, honorary chairman of CME Group, this week in an interview with Reuters. According to Melamed, launch in the sale will be possible only in the near future. He pointed out the parallel between cryptocurrency and currency trading in the international currency market, launched in 1972: “The world in the 1970s was not considered currency trading with a full financial level. I, too, have come a long way from disbelief (in Bitcoin) to the desire to learn more.”
So what is it?
The answers will be positive for geeks who participate in the development of cryptocurrencies and use them for transactions. It will be negative for people because their price has recently risen, and we hope to sell when it becomes even bigger, as well as for those who buy cryptocurrency for a radical defense against inflation.
The rest should understand which forecast seems more plausible to them: either cryptocurrency will support the development of the non-traditional business sector, and this will lead to a blurring of the boundaries between investors, employees, and customers; or blockchain technologies will be used by a traditional business that receives funding through the placement of shares and bonds. Again, the question is not what you think about the probability of success of cryptocurrency and related technologies, but whether you think that their value (if it is, of course) will attract traditional companies or holders of crypto active assets. You don’t have to know for sure. If you believe that there is a significant likelihood that in the future a significant part of the economy will be represented by crypto active assets, it makes sense for you to think about how this will be reflected in your investment portfolio.
The second reason
The second reason for having asset classes is that it is difficult to compare different types of assets, for example, shares with bonds. Once you have selected an asset class, you can explore all the assets in it and select the combination that best suits your strategy. If the only thing that interests you in cryptocurrency is price dynamics, then this asset should be attributed to the class of shares. If you plan to read official documents, talk with developers, test the code and calculate future profitability, then you should allocate them into a separate asset class, since these studies differ from stocks or bonds research.
There remains one more group of investors – they are interested in the fundamental indicators of cryptocurrency, but they would like to entrust the research either to active fund managers or to the market itself – that is, to invest in an index fund. Here you should choose how you plan to evaluate the investment. If you are going to use traditional indicators, such as alpha and Sharpe ratio, then these investments should be equated to equity investments. You will use these assets to improve the risk-return ratio in your portfolio.
On the other hand, if you think that the manager’s task is not to make profits in dollars, but to increase the growth of your cryptocurrency portfolio, measured in cryptocurrencies, you need to consider them as a separate asset class. Do you plan to sell your cryptocurrency portfolio after retirement for cash to spend it alone? Or are you going to earn on cryptocurrencies and thus replenish the retirement account?
This decision has nothing to do with correlations, trading volume, market capitalization, expected returns, corporate governance or regulation. It’s about how you plan for the future. If you consider cryptocurrency as a potential way to increase your wealth, invested in traditional assets, they should be attributed to traditional asset classes. If you believe that they will open the way to a new type of wealth, you need to allocate them into a separate class.
What Determines The Bitcoin Price?
Many are closely watching the price of Bitcoin, but few know how it is determined. Bitcoin is very different from traditional assets, such as stocks and commodities, so the calculation of its quotes is associated with some features. We will tell about them in more detail.
What does Bitcoin price really mean?
Speaking about the value on a particular exchange, usually, imply the price of the last transaction made on this exchange. For example, the fact that Bitcoin at Bitstamp costs $ 10,000 means that the last transaction made on this exchange was held at this price. When a new deal takes place, the price will change accordingly.
Pricing
The process of determining the price is that buyers and sellers are found on a cryptocurrency exchange (or another platform) and, by experience, find the value that suits both parties. Buyers want to buy bitcoins as cheap as possible, sellers tend to sell them as expensive as possible. To make a deal, both parties must come to a compromise. As mentioned earlier, the current value of Bitcoin on any exchange is the latest price that sellers and buyers agreed to. Let’s take a closer look at how the parties come to a compromise on the cryptocurrency exchange.
In order to answer this question, you need to understand what bitcoin is and understand the bitcoin mining process. Let’s start with the first question: What is bitcoin? Bitcoin is the value of any unique information. In fact, you can call this value even bitcoin, even blablabla, the meaning does not change. What is unique information? This is information on the network that is not yet freely available and therefore has some value. What is mining? Mining is the process of extracting blocks of unique information, the cost of which is expressed in bitcoins, programmatically. There is a written content about the mining of various articles and reviews, both for “dummies” and for people who are technically savvy, therefore, we will not dwell on this article. So what does the cost of bitcoins (bitcoin)? To be more precise, the question from the mouth of people with an economic education or associated with the exchanges (currency, stock – no difference), what provided Bitcoin? The answer to this question first plunges into a stupor. Nothing. That is, it is not provided with gold, as it was almost until the end of the last century with ordinary national currencies, it does not depend on the GDP of a particular country, it is not regulated by any particular state within its own monetary policy, Bitcoin cannot be printed on paper and declared the cost of this paper.
Makers and Takers
Changing Bitcoin quotes is usually attributed to the presence of a larger number of buyers or sellers on the market. However, this is completely wrong. In each transaction, there are two sides, so the number of buyers and sellers, taking into account volumes, is always the same. In fact, high activity of one of the parties, ready to pay the spread, leads to a change in quotations. Spread is the difference between the highest bidder’s price and the lowest seller’s price. Suppose an investor is willing to pay $ 9,350 for bitcoin, and the seller wants to get at least $ 9,400 for it. In this case, the spread is $ 50 (9400−9350).
How do takers affect prices
Suppose that buyers are convinced that in a few days the cost of Bitcoin will grow to $ 10,000. In this case, they act as takers and are willing to pay the spread, buying up the entire volume of cryptocurrency offered at $ 9,400. If Bitcoin goes up to $ 10,000, they will get a $ 600 profit. When buyers swallow up all the coins offered for $ 9400, they will go to the level of $ 9450, then to $ 9500, and so on. If buyers show excessive activity, sellers will soon understand this and begin to raise the bid price. The process will continue until the pressure of customers is exhausted and then change direction. Over time, such impulses lead to a rise or fall in quotes.