Ted Rogers, President of Xapo, the first company in the world to issue bitcoin debit card, thinks the participation of the major card networks is necessary to propagate the use of bitcoin. 

The past year has seen several more bitcoin debit cards launched in the market, as well as their growing popularity and usage. Among the most important bitcoin card issuers Rogers names Xapo, ANX and E-Coin.

In an interview to CoinTelegraph, Ted Rogers expressed his opinion on the upcoming developments in the bitcoin debit card market in 2016. From his point of view, more “bitcoin-related cards will be introduced, both from independent start-ups and from existing wallet and exchange platforms.” Besides, more players from traditional financials services should be expected to enter the market, though most probably in 2017.

Among the majors that could seriously influence the process of bitcoin adoption worldwide, Rogers named such international card companies as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, but indicated that it could be a very slow process since these financial actors first need to “seize the opportunity that bitcoin presents.”

Rogers put a special emphasis on the role of debit cards in the bitcoin expansion as a payment method. Since the majority of merchants are still unwilling to accept bitcoin, the cards are necessary to make bitcoin a part of consumers’ daily lives. In this respect, the participation of world card networks could play a decisive role in this process.

Anna Lavinskaya