Nov 29 2013 / GigaOM – Bitcoin may be riding high, but spending it is still hardly an intuitive process. A new device called the nio Card, currently in Kickstarter mode, may provide an answer by allowing contactless Bitcoin payments — and because it has built-in NFC, it will work with the iPhone.
A British startup called Bluenio has revealed what it claims is the world’s first Bitcoin payment smartcard – or at least it will be if no others have popped up by the time it ships in March.
Bluenio is already in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign for the nio Card, which was initially pitched as a security chain for helping to cut down on the loss of smartphones and wallets. It still does that – it does a few things, actually — but on Friday the company said it would also function as a Bitcoin wallet-slash-payment-card that can transfer money “in a single tap” using near-field communication (NFC) technology.
Easier Bitcoin payments
“It’s a cool way to provide secure Bitcoin payments in a way you currently can’t do,” Bluenio co-founder Ben Hounsell told me. “The way of making a Bitcoin payment right now can be a little bit convoluted, or certainly not as easy as making a traditional chip-and-PIN payment or a tap. You have to scan a QR code, read it in, validate the payment, enter private keys… it can be quite irritating.”….. Read more
