You can now pay with cryptocurrency without your phone or any other electronic device - all you need is a wristband!
Bitcart, an irish platform for discount gift cards, has just launched Festy - a wearable with which you can pay in DASH.
The wristband has integrated QR codes and NFC technology, and is designed primarily for festival users to pay for their food and drinks.
How does it work?
You can use Festy without any app, smartphone, or other electronic device.
The wristband is linked directly to the user's dash wallet, so that they can pay with access to their dash funds and complete transactions within a matter of seconds through the InstantSend technology. The funds are not stored on the Festy platform, but rather on the wallet itself.
Of course the merchant accepting the payment can scan the wristband with a specific device, receive the dash funds on his wogn wallet, and exchange them to fiat currency later on.
The transactions are secure - no private keys or card numbers are displayed during the process, and the users can top up their wristbands through specific ATMS or their online dash account.
“Our partnership with Dash makes the perfect payment solution for everyday transactions. Unlike existing traditional bank payments that take a two-five per cent fee, there is no cost on receiving Dash for merchants. Merchants accepting payments will never have a chargeback, and there are potentially enormous savings to be made compared to the crippling fees from existing payment solutions.”-Bitcart CEO Graham de Barra
Why Festy?
The Festy wristband's main purpose is for Festival users, as the name suggests.
Everybody who has been to a festival knows this problem - if you don't have enough cash on you, you can expect to deal with long lines and high fees at ATM machines.
And even if some Festivals started accepting payments via smartphones - you don't have signal at most Festivals anyway, and many people don't even like to carry their phones around there due to the high risk of losing it or getting it stolen.
But the same think also goes for Bars - it's just much more convenient to pay with a wearable instead of having to carry around cash.
“This is a product my friends and I would use, because who wants to take their personal belongings to a bar or festival when you don’t have to. And who wants to keep counting cash at the bar and putting change in your pocket? No one. Merchants are going to love it too. Incredibly low fees, lower than a debit and credit cards, and by the time they scan the wearable chip, the money transfer has been executed and settled, with no risk of a double charge or fraud.
There’s a growing amount of real world use cases for Dash as an attractive payment option, and it’s an exciting time ahead.-Daniel Diaz, Dash VP of business development
Where can Festy be used?
Generally, Festy is compatible with any Point of Sale System that accepts Visa contactless payments, or any smartphones / computers with NFC tags. You can even complete offline payments via the integrated QR codes.
Right now, the first prototypes of Festy are being used at the Opera Incubator, a Blockchain Conference and Hackathon in Cork, Ireland.
The attendees get given a wristband that's already topped up as an invitiation to purchase food or drinks with them, or even tip the musician.
After this testing phase, the commercial stage is scheduled to beginn in early autumn.
What do you think about the idea of a cryptocurrency wearable?
© Sirwinchester