Dash integration into the Paycent platform has been announced, adding a host of new fiat conversion options, including a debit card.
A subsidiary of Texcent, Paycent is a Singapore-based platform that enables the management of many fiat and cryptocurrencies within the same wallet, as well as converting back and forth in real time. Users are able to cash in via debit card or cryptocurrency transfer, convert, and cash out via the Paycent debit card. Bradley Zastrow, Dash Core’s Head of Business Development, believes that this integration will improve Dash’s attractiveness for merchants and for cross-border payments and remittances:
“Paycent’s real-time transaction speed and multiplatform API makes this a great opportunity for anyone, regardless of experience with digital assets, to make payments to merchants as well as pay cross-border remittances using their smartphone device. This is the kind of integration that makes cryptocurrency’s payments potential a reality to the global public.”
According to a recent announcement by Paycent, the new Dash integration and trading pairs will be live early next week.
#PaycentUpdate: Good news! Manage more of your digital assets on the Paycent app as all Dash Features and Pairs will be available next week. Stay tuned for more updates and visit https://t.co/5gGUimAJY8. pic.twitter.com/Xybge3Pkjq
— Paycent (@PaycentGlobal) May 10, 2018
Instant permanent settlement is attractive, but elusive in the crypto and fiat worlds alike
The main point of attraction and differentiation for Dash in an increasingly crowded cryptospace is its InstantSend functionality, which allows payments to be locked in instantly with no chance of being double-spent. As pointed out by Paycent’s COO Nitin Gupta, waiting for long confirmation times can be a deal breaker when using cryptocurrency:
“One of the reservations the average day person or shop owner has with utilizing cryptocurrencies is transaction settlement times. No other digital asset can compete with Dash’s InstantSend transaction speed. Dash allows merchants the ability to receive payments instantly by a customer, making Dash one of the first entries into real-life consumer payments making it no different as if you were to swipe a credit or debit card.”
Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin originally used zero-confirmation, or 0-conf, transactions for merchant environments, where transactions were accepted as soon as broadcast and assumed to confirm at a later date. This approach, however, can lead to vulnerability to double spends and transactions failing due to network conditions, weakening the security that cryptocurrency payments are prized on providing.
A US/EU functioning Dash debit card has remained elusive
On Paycent’s developmental roadmap for the first two quarters of 2019 is acquisition of money transmitter licenses for both Europe and North America. This will allow Paycent debit cards to be used in these two elusive markets, providing a Dash debit card option.
The availability of a Dash-supporting debit card option for the US and EU has long been in high demand, with providers such as Ten X, Wirex, and the Dashpay card headed up by Charlie Shrem promising to provide solutions. Those options have thus far failed to materialize, and formerly available Dash debit cards such as ShakePay were forced to cease issuing cards due to issuer WaveCrest Holdings pulling support following pressure by Visa. Paycent obtaining money transmitter licenses could bridge this divide and provide an easier solution for Dash users to spend their funds anywhere.
