If you follow crypto news you probably saw somewhere that VISA europe just canceled the licence of Wavecrest limited which is a major provider of visa debit card that can be loaded with crypto-currency, services that were interrupted include BitPay, Cryptopay, Bitwala, TenX, Xapo and Wirex.
According to visa the licence was canceled for non-compliance with operating rules and all cards issued by Wavecrest got canceled without any notice leaving some customers that were solely relying on those cards stuck with no direct access to their money while being overseas.
This episode is a reminder to all of us that we must not rely on a single institution to serve our needs and that decentralisation and redundancy are extremely important in today’s world. I find it astonishing that a partnership between wavecrest and visa could be terminated like that without any notice given to customers and just canceling their cards in a matter of seconds, even a 24H notice would have been enough for people to adjust and just withdraw money from their account via ATM or back into crypto.
I believe those kind of events are supporting evidence that money needs to be decentralised and that access to banking cannot be controlled by just a few institutions or payment networks that have the power to just cut you out of the system, that cannot happen with crypto as long as you control your private keys, your are responsible and in control of your money.
I personally was using 2 debit card in EUR and USD provided by Wirex and I find it convenient to be able to spend crypto anywhere a card is accepted but I really look forward to that time where we won’t have to use them and where any business will accept crypto directly, until that time I have to say debit card are very useful and I think it is a shame VISA decided to pull the plug on this business.
Luckily Wirex team has been very reactive and I just received an email from them saying customers will be able to withdraw funds loaded on the cards back to bitcoin so money is safe which is already a good point. Wirex is also working with a new card issuer to provide new debit cards to its customers as soon as possible. They stated that remplacement cards will be free of charge for existing customers.
I have to say I am very satisfied with the customer service at Wirex and the amazing work the team is putting to solve those problems.
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Originally posted on Organizing my decentralized journey. Hive blog powered by ENGRAVE.