It’s hard finding a reliable way to spend your cryptocurrency. When BTC’s fees went sky high in 2017, many merchants were sent scurrying from the crypto arena and have yet to return. With the Lightning Network permanently six months away, and few established crypto payment gateways, crypto debit cards have become a popular means of converting to fiat. But due to the complexities of operating a crypto-fiat business while satisfying regulatory requirements, coupled with the whims of payment giants Visa and Mastercard, crypto debit card companies find themselves in a precarious profession.

Getting fiat money out of crypto is a lot harder than getting it in. In the past year, crypto debit cards have become an immensely valuable bridge between the fiat and crypto worlds. The two financial realms – legacy and future finance; centralized and decentralized money; fiat and cryptocurrency – don’t always sit well together. Crypto debit cards such as those offered by Bitpay, Wirex, and Revolut are routinely relied on by tens of thousands of cryptocurrency users for quick access to fiat. The cards score poorly for privacy but are highly convenient.

As the holders of several crypto debit cards have discovered over the last 12 months, however, their issuers tread a regulatory tightrope. The agreements that crypto debit card companies have with payment processors are prone to being revoked at a moment’s notice, leaving businesses and their card-holders out in the cold. News.Bitcoin.com spoke to two crypto card companies, Wirex and Revolut, as well as point-of-sale service Paytomat, about the challenges faced when operating a crypto-fiat business.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: news.bitcoin.com