Singapore-based TenX has been making waves recently, with the release of its Visa card that allows its users to spend cryptocurrency anywhere Visa is accepted. In this interview, we sit down with Brendon, community manager of TenX, to discuss the project’s future.
Sam Safahi: How many cards do you think you’ll be able to produce a day at max capacity?
Brendon: Once our waitlist is cleared, we’re only going to be limited by our card issuer’s printing warehouse. I don’t have exact numbers but they’re capable of numbers in the thousands per day.
Sam: How do you plan to compete against cards such as Monaco or Centra? What’s unique about TenX?
Brendon: We prefer to prove our product with actions and not words. To this day, we’re still the only company with a proven working product and a large, active userbase.
TenX is not a debit card company. Our debit card offering is simply an interim solution until digital currency payments are accepted in their pure form. We believe the current plastic card solution in the financial industry is close the end of it’s life as is blatantly obvious in countries like China with WeChat and Alipay, where payments are done almost exclusively with mobile applications.
Our major point of difference is our COMIT network (http://comit.network/) where we are working toward a completely tokenless cross-chain payment solution.
Sam: Will you add more currencies as payment options in the future, if so what’s the next one?
Brendon: Our current offerings are BTC, ETH, some ERC20 tokens, and DASH. The only currency currently enabled for the public is BTC, while the others are in use with a batch of beta users. We’re aiming to release ETH and some ERC20 tokens for all users in the coming weeks, with final testing on our ETH V2 wallet wrapping up now. DASH will follow shortly after that for full rollout.
We’re not stopping there. As outlined in our whitepaper, we want to support as many coins and tokens as possible. Our main criteria for adding currencies in future is based on ease of integration and trading volume.
Sam: Are you planning on making cards out of metal, say for luxury customers?
Brendon: We have 2 special edition cards currently in existence which are both metal. These are no longer available and were a one-time offering for our larger token sale contributors. There were 50 Founders cards available which are made of pure platinum metal. There were 1000 Limited Edition cards available which are made of brushed metal. There may be more unique cards offered in the future (for example, with special partnerships), but this is currently a low priority for us – it is far more important we scale the product and get cards in hands.
Sam: Where are you able to use a TenX card?
Brendon: It can be used worldwide at any merchant that accepts Visa.
Sam: Does TenX plan to expand into other markets? If so, which ones?
Brendon: At our core we’re a financial company and this won’t change. Our main focus after full release of our debit card solution will be further developing and pushing our COMIT network which we believe will be vital for the future of blockchain payments.
Sam: So TenX will phase out the physical cards once crypto currencies are accepted universally? If so, don’t you think many will want a physical card so they don’t have to use an app all the time?
Brendon: There’s going to be a point where merchants no longer have traditional POS terminals and physical cards are completely phased out.
Sam: Will TenX allow other companies or products use COMIT?
Brendon: Yes. Once ready, COMIT will be fully open source and available for developers to further improve on. COMIT relies on other entities providing liquidity over each blockchain.
Sam: What is the purpose of TenX having a coin? Is it a share of the company or used for paying fees in the future etc?
Brendon: Our token will be able to be spent using the debit card. It is also used to provide rewards to token holders.
Sam: What are the benefits of using TenX to pay instead of Bitcoin, for example?
Brendon: There are no benefits, it is simply an alternative option. The main purpose is for the reward system.
Sam: What is the rewards system?
Brendon: It is clearly outlined in our whitepaper, I would recommend reading the section dedicated to the token for a full overview. In short, card holders will receive 0.1% cashback in the form of PAY for any spending on their personal card. The PAY used for this cashback is purchased by TenX from the open market as the supply is limited. Additionally, PAY token holders can receive extra rewards and incentives from the loyalty program.
Sam: Thank you for your time today.
Brendon: No problem. If your readers have any more questions they will be able to find a wealth of information on our support page at https://support.tenx.tech/hc/en-us
Alternatively, we have a number of community representatives on our social media channels. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter, and we’re soon launching our own customised chat client. Our Slack is not open to new registrations due to scripted phishing attacks happening on our users. More information on the new client coming later this month.
