CoinTelegraph contacted the eight major providers of Bitcoin debit cards with the question: Can Bitcoin debit cards really be private or anonymous? Below are the results, categorized by region and level of disclosure required. Financial privacy: Bitcoin vs. banks One of the main advantages of using Bitcoin over traditional funding methods is privacy. When a Bitcoin transaction is sent, its record is permanent and public on the blockchain, but not tied to any particular identity. Many users, such as those who frequented the Silk Road, prefer Bitcoin for exactly this reason: it’s anonymous and private. However, one of the major challenges of using Bitcoin is the limited number of merchants and services that accept it as payment. Enter Bitcoin debit cards, a product that takes Bitcoin and converts it into currency for use at traditional merchants. The challenge with Bitcoin debit cards is that, by and large, they tend to require the same level of financial disclosure of traditional financial institutions. While this is still an advantage over banks, which can shut down the account of a customer at any time under any pretense (especially under pressure from government), it still does not constitute financial privacy. Full identification (US) Coinbase Coinbase has a debit card, the Shift card , which pulls Bitcoin directly from the customer’s Coinbase wallet for each transaction. This is convenient, since it saves customers from having to keep their Bitcoin wallet separate from their card’s wallet, and topping up the card’s balance prior to transactions, instead making using Shift one unified, streamlined process. In this sense, Shift is closest to a true Bitcoin debit card. Unfortunately, the Shift card is not available in every state in the US, so potential customers in New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, Hawaii, Maryland, Georgia, West Virginia, Minnesota, and Arkansas […]
