As cryptocurrency prices have skyrocketed and crashed repeatedly since the inception of this technology, virtual currencies have come to be seen more as an investment class, rather than as a medium of exchange. Arguably, this trend goes against Satoshi’s vision of a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Admittedly, though, financial instruments characterized by such extreme volatility are unsuitable for use in day-to-day commerce. Moreover, despite the fact that merchant adoption of cryptocurrency is rising, it is still not feasible to use cryptocurrency for every transaction.
But what about those of us who wish to be all in on crypto, or who are paid in crypto, but also need a way to spend their funds as life requires? We can charge our expenses to a credit card and liquidate crypto as needed at the end of the month to pay our bill, but what if the market crashes and we’re stuck with a bill we can’t pay? Alternatively, what if we sell a large portion of our holdings at the beginning of the month for spending money right before a rally?
Solving this exact problem is the goal of Monaco[1], an ambitious company that is attempting to the bridge the gap between crypto and the traditional payment infrastructure through the Monaco Card[2] and Monaco Wallet[3] app. The Monaco Visa Card is a debit card that allows customers to load up funds by selling their crypto holdings on the Monaco app.
Currently, the app and card support four cryptocurrencies—bitcoin, ether, Binance Coin, and the Monaco Token (MCO)[4], and seven fiat currencies—USD, GBP, EUR, HKD, SGD, JPY, and CAN. Monaco also has plans to release a credit card which will allow users to borrow against their crypto holdings.
At Consensus 2018, we
