i2c, Shift Payments Offer Card for ‘Cryptocurrency Adopters, Loyalty Points Junkies, Underbanked’ (Nov. 4, 2014)
Payment processor i2c Inc., is providing the payment processing infrastructure behind a payments card geared for everyone from “cryptocurrency adopters and loyalty points junkies to the underbanked.” The Shift Payments debit card, enables consumers to make payments in fiat currency, as well as digital and alternative currencies, including loyalty points, airline miles, precious metals and bitcoins, according to an announcement.
Consumers can spend digital and traditional currencies anywhere major payment cards are accepted—in stores, online and internationally—and i2c enables Shift to integrate into the authorization stream and existing settlement process with the issuing bank and card network. The companies currently are testing the cards in the market. According to Shift Payments’ Website, the company had to turn away consumers wanting to participate in the beta because there was so much interest.
“We are at a point in time when consumers are driving the evolution of financial services,” said Stephan Koukis, senior vice president, business advisory group at i2c. “We are excited to be partnering with Shift to establish a blueprint for enabling consumers to pay using alternative funding sources, such as loyalty points, airline miles, gold and other precious metals, bitcoins and any alternatives that may exist in the future.”
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