Monaco – Cryptocurrency Visa Card App For Sending & Spending?

Ever since the first public release of Bitcoins as open-source software in 2009, the financial market started to shift. Slowly and steadily, Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies started to change the financial world.

On July 1^st, 2013, a single Bitcoin was worth roughly around $85 USD. Today, that same Bitcoin is worth well over $2,600 USD. Needless to say, Bitcoins have drastically changed the currency world.

One of the biggest challenges that many Bitcoin users face today is using their Bitcoins to purchase items at their local stores or online merchants. Although many online retailers have started to accept Bitcoins as payment, at the moment there are very few brick and mortar locations that deal with accepting Bitcoins as payment.

The primary reason for the lack of willingness to accept Bitcoins stems from one of the key features that Bitcoins offer, anonymity. Because of the way that the open source code is designed, those who spend, transfer, deposit or withdraw Bitcoins from their online wallet can stay anonymous at all times.

While this is an amazing feature, which was one of the main reasons why the Bitcoin market took off in the first place, many retailers find it difficult to cope with for security reasons.

The only solution is to transfer your Bitcoins into your desired form of currency, which most banks will charge you huge fees for, then deposit said transferred money into your bank account. Although this is a viable solution, it is time consuming and results in spending a huge amount in transaction fees, especially for frequent users.

What Is Monaco?

Luckily there is another solution, the Monaco VISA card. The idea is simple and yet extremely effective. Create a Monaco account with an IOS or Android app and link a Bitcoin or Ether wallet to the account.

Once everything is verified and filled out, you will receive a Monaco Visa card which can be used at any location where Visa is accepted, online or at a physical location. Every time you swipe the card, an exact amount of BTC or Ether is converted into the exact purchase amount in whichever currency you are currently using.

Currently Monaco supports up to 23 currencies in 120 different countries. The only thing you pay in addition to the purchase amount is a 1% transaction fee. Monaco pays for your exchange rates between the cryptocurrency and whichever currency you are currently using.

The main reason this solution is so much better than anything else out there is because the current exchange rates (which are used to convert your cryptocurrency into the currency you are making the purchase with) is at perfect interbank exchange rates.

This means there aren’t any additional fees, those the bigger banks love to charge unsuspecting customers. Additionally, using BTC or Ether for your foreign money transactions bypasses additional exchange fees between your current home currency and the currency used in the country you are traveling to or shopping at.

This equates to more savings in addition to already low interbank exchange rates. There are no monthly or annual fees. All transactions are seamless. The exact amount needed to cover each transaction is taken out of your cryptocurrency wallet and the rest of the balance remains in your wallet which you can view through the app with ease.

At the given moment, Monaco lets you use your Bitcoins or Etherium to fund the wallet. However, you can also add flat currencies to the account to cover future purchases. Over time, it is likely that other cryptocurrencies will be accepted as a funding method.

Additionally, you can send money to other Monaco app users absolutely free of charge and in real-time, which means that the sent funds are instantly available to be used by a Monaco Visa recipient. Lastly, the on-boarding process is extremely easy and can be done entirely through the app which usually takes less than 3 minutes.

Monaco Verdict

Monaco is definitely making it a lot easier for us to use BTC and ETH in the real world.

While there aren’t any monthly or annual fees, the 1% exchange and swipe fee seems completely reasonable considering the amount of money you save vs. the fees to exchange the currencies on your own and pay all the other big bank fees associated with currency exchanges.

If you are looking for a way to make it easier for you to use your BTC or ETH without any hassle, we strongly suggest that you head to mona.co and take a look at what they have to offer. You won’t regret it.