The Spend card has announced support for Apple Pay, further facilitating the spending of Dash for real-world purchases.

Spend, a debit card and payment app that supports a variety of different cryptocurrencies, including Dash, allows these to be converted at the point-of-sale for instant purchases. In a new post this week, Peter Hertel, CMO for Spend, announced that the app had now added support for Apple Pay:

“Apple Pay is accepted at millions of merchants worldwide and almost all major retailers in the US. This feature grants Spend users an instant ability to spend over 16 supported cryptocurrencies on-demand through the Apple Pay network.”

The addition of Apple Pay support allows for contactless payments when spending cryptocurrencies instead of the typical chip or swipe card option, facilitating an already streamlined experience. According to Spend customer Chris Webb, the experience of using the service to spend Dash is already relatively seamless:

“Using the Spend card is really easy. All you have to do is send Dash to your Spend wallet. Then when you use your Spend VISA card, the funds are pulled from your wallet in real time. There’s no need to do any conversions or exchanging, it all happens automatically in real time.”

Spend is available to US customers, a region that has traditionally been a challenge with cryptocurrency debit cards.

Additional workarounds to spending cryptocurrency simulate mass adoption

The addition of Apple Pay to the Spend experience further expands the ability for cryptocurrency to be used as a daily money, albeit in an indirect way. Hertel sees this as crossing a significant divide between the ability to spend cryptocurrency directly and the usefulness of traditional payments:

“Spend has bridged the gap to bring the spending of cryptocurrency to mainstream retailers and has made the entire process seamless. Users are able to verify their KYC instantly, issue a Spend Visa Virtual Card instantly, and link it to Apple Pay instantly, creating a truly “instant” solution. Thereafter, all the user needs to do is toggle on the digital currency they want to Spend and tap their Phone on the Apple Pay supported retailer. The rest of the magic happens in the background as Spend instantly converts the asset to local fiat currency on the trigger of the transaction.”

In addition to Spend, other services are debuting to facilitating the indirect spending of cryptocurrency for everyday purchases. Earlier this week, Gemini and Flexa partnered to provide a custodial workaround to spending cryptocurrencies, where customers deposit into the app, which then debits from their balance when scanning a code at select participating retailers.

Real mass adoption as Dash’s final goal

While workarounds facilitating the spending of Dash improve its usefulness in the short term, the true purpose of the currency is to be spent directly without going through the fiat system. According to Webb, while Spend is convenient, he looks forward to being able to spend Dash without an intermediary:

“While the Spend card is nice bridge, the ultimate goal obviously is to spend your Dash directly as it provides better security and privacy, is more reliable, and has lower fees.”

At present, nearly 5,000 merchants around the world accept Dash as listed on popular merchant listing site and app Discover Dash. In Dash’s version 1.0 release, codenamed Evolution, users will be able to transact via usernames and contact lists, further facilitating the usage of Dash by the average user and facilitating mass adoption.