TenX and PAY poised to make a big splash in the debit card market

By Saunthra Thambyrajah

This week, the spotlight is on TenX, a Singapore registered company and blockchain developer, who is positioning to disrupt the traditional debit/credit card market. Its platform’s token is called PAY. While no means the only developer of a crypto debit card (blockchain players Monaco and TokenCard are also in the same business), TenX offers an attractive reward system that is sure to make people sit up and take notice.

TenX, who’s tagline is “making cryptocurrencies spendable anytime anywhere”, is developing a debit (and in future a credit) card and a TenX mobile wallet that will let users spend their cryptocurrency in real life.

TenX cards have started shipping but there is a five figure waiting list, said Julian Hosp, co-founder of TenX, in his September 5 weekly live streamed Q&A. Debit card users are asked to limit their uploads to $10,000. However, Hosp said that they were working to see how they could accommodate a user who was interested in using their card to purchase a car.

Understandably, this ease of use alone is a significant development for all cryptocurrency holders as it gives them easy access to their investments in the real world. However, the company has an attractive reward system for its token holders to sweeten the pot further.

In its whitepaper, the company stated that it was offering a token holder reward of 0.5 percent of the entire payment volume spent through the TenX wallet and card. Payments of this reward will be in Ether or whichever cryptocurrency is the equivalent of Ether in the future.

When asked about this generous reward system – no other credit card company offers something like this – a representative from the company said that “TenX only exists thanks to our consumers & members. That’s why we want to give something back”.

“We are not able to give a huge amount to the TenX card holders but we’d like to give something back even though these are small percentages,” she stated further in her emailed response.

In this video, Hosp explains more about the fee structure, rewards, interchange fees for foreign currencies and the company’s earnings.

The TenX team, particularly the developer cohort, is growing and the company will be moving to a new office before the year end. Hosp, in his September 5 weekly Q&A, also hinted about a new partnership between TenX and a credit card issuing company and support from a major crypto wallet provider in the near future.

Follow the TenX TV channel on YouTube to listen in on Hosp’s live Q&A sessions.

Points of Interest: TenX, which has been around since May 2015, has developed a debit card in conjunction with a mobile TenX wallet that will enable users to spend their blockchain assets.

The alpha version of the TenX wallet went live in September 2016.  Bitcoin was the first currency able to be stored and spent using the wallet. In August 2017, the TenX wallet supports Bitcoin, Ether and Dash cryptocurrencies.

Also in August 2017, tests of the TenX wallet and card facility are ongoing.

In January 2017, TenX outlined its plans for including every cryptocurrency on its wallet and debit card in a white paper. The whitepaper explains how TenX will integrate the COMIT network into the TenX platform. The COMIT network will process transactions – by issuing an invoice to the user, who will then choose which currency he or she wants to use to pay these transactions. All this will be carried out almost instantaneously. And this facility can be use at any of over 36 million merchants.

TenX also developed the PAY token (an asset on the Ethereum platform which utilises the smart contract features of the Ethereum platform), as a means of furthering the technical development of their products, broadening their partnerships and developing and maintaining operating procedures that meet world standards and develop the COMIT network.

205 million PAY tokens were created. 51 percent of the tokens were released for purchase by the public in an initial coin offering (ICO) sale held in June 2017. 10 percent of the remaining tokens will be reserved as an asset in the company to bring value to early investors. Another 10 percent will  be paid out slowly in conjunction with salaries to TenX employees. 9 percent is reserved for academic research on COMIT, 10 percent for token swaps and 10 percent to grow adoption of PAY tokens and COMIT.

The company, in its whitepaper, stated that it will not be creating more tokens.

Down the line, the company also plans to apply for a banking licence to integrate fiat currencies into the TenX wallet and the TenX card.

The company is offering a card user incentive of 0.1 percent of the user’s individual transactions, which will be paid in PAY.

It is also offering a token holder reward of 0.5 percent of the entire payment volume spent through the TenX wallet. Payments of this reward will be in Ether.

Citizens, residents and greencard holders of the United States and citizens and residents of Singapore are not eligible to purchase any PAY tokens.  In an email statement, a representative for the company said that this was due to legal reasons.  “It takes way longer to start [in] those markets as they have certain other regulations, which is a huge effort for us and takes more time – that’s why could not offer it so far. But working hard on it”.

Disruptor of: Debit and credit card market.

Saunthra is an editor at ETV and a freelance writer who blogs at topazturtle.com. She does hold PAY tokens in her portfolio.