Crypto app BitPay adds Apple Pay support to its prepaid MasterCard

BitPay, a cryptocurrency payment service provider, has announced that its prepaid card now supports Apple Pay for in-store, in-app, and online payments.

Users of the service can now add the BitPay Prepaid Mastercard to their Apple Pay wallets. The card allows users to convert cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin into spendable fiat currency, and then load it onto the prepaid card for payments.

The BitPay wallet app itself lets users buy, store, and pay various cryptocurrencies. It currently supports Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, and four stablecoins.

"We have thousands of BitPay Wallet app customers using the BitPay Card who are always looking for new places and ways to spend their crypto. Adding Apple Pay and soon Google and Samsung Pay makes it easy and convenient to use the BitPay Card in more places from day-to-day items to luxury purchases," said BitPay CEO Stephen Pair.

To add a BitPay card to Apple Wallet, users will need to download the most recent version of the app from the App Store.

11 Comments

Flytrap 61 comments · 7 Years

About 3 years ago

alanh said:

What is a fiat currency?
Fiat
means "by arbitrary order or decree," which is derived from the original Latin meaning "let it be done."

Fiat Money or currency, therefore, is money that has been created by arbitrary government order or decree, but has no intrinsic value in and of itself - i.e. it is not pegged to or backed any thing of real value such as silver, gold, camels, cows or even land. This is what allows governments to simply print as much money as they want or need, because they do not need to back it with something real, like silver or gold.

We, as citizens, accept the value of Fiat Money we are told by the government for as long as we have confidence that it will remain exchangeable with other citizens for something of close to that value over a given period of time. Once that confidence starts to waver for enough citizens in the population, citizens being asked to accept and hold Fiat Money for a period of time in exchange for something of real value at the present time (such as a car, milk, land, etc.), start to hedge their bets, by asking for a little bit more to cover their perceived risk of loss of value at some point in the future (i.e. they start devaluing the value of the Fiat Money). The opposite happens when enough citizens start to worry that there may be a future shortage or limited ability to access more Fiat Money or that it may get harder in future to convince people of the value of the items they are selling (e.g. car, horse, etc.) than it is today.