An idea casually thrown around by two Sydney friends while in a university tutorial several years ago will now see the Australian cryptocurrency landscape changed forever.
Andrew Grech and Richard Voice, both 24, met at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in 2018, while studying a double degree of Business and IT.
“We were in the same tute (tutorial) together. The topic in the tute was ‘does anyone have any business ideas’,” Mr Voice told news.com.au.
Mr Grech told his classmates he wanted to make it possible to buy things directly with cryptocurrency because: “I trade crypto and there’s no real easy way to spend it.”
Mr Voice “loved the idea” and chased down Mr Grech after class, who handed him a business card.
The two soon became fast friends and in October last year launched their company CryptoSpend together, which allows Australians to use cryptocurrency to pay their bills.
The uni students have also convinced financial services giant Visa to partner with them.
Working with Visa, they can issue physical debit cards to cryptocurrency traders, who can then spend money in real time as the price rises and falls.
The card will be rolled out from next month.
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On Wednesday, Mr Voice and Mr Grech revealed to news.com.au what this card might look like.
It’s the first card of its kind in Australia.
The card can be used for over the counter purchases, as well as online shopping opportunities.
“We’re incredibly excited. We’ve built this to bring a solution into a market where we’ve seen a space,” Mr Voice added.
“Another exciting thing is digital cards as well as physical. You’ll be able to get it (a crypto debit card) in your Apple Wallet straight away.”
Axel Boye-Moller, head of product and solutions for Visa’s Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific region said the card was ideal for “everyday” purchases.
“Crypto-linked Visa cards are making it easier to spend your cryptocurrency on everyday items, anywhere Visa is accepted,” Mr Boye-Moller said.
“That could be paying for your weekly groceries, a pair of shoes, or a home delivered meal.
“For Australian consumers, this solution connects the simplicity of the ‘tap to pay’ checkout experience with the world of digital currency, and the small business on the other end doesn’t need to change a thing about how it accepts payments.”
How would it work?
ASX-listed Novatti will issue the card to consumers.
It will hit the market in September.
Customers will be able to link their crypto portfolio to the CryptoSpend app.
They can spend their crypto directly out of the CryptoSpend wallet – conversions to fiat money is no longer required.
CryptoSpend launched 10 months ago, and has 1400 customers.
The company already has an agreement with the RBA-backed “new payments platform”,…
Read More: Visa to launch Australia’s first cryptocurrency debit card