GlobaliD and Uphold launch the XRP Card, a boost for crypto payments

By Gaia Lamperti

Cryptocurrency exchange Uphold and digital identity firm GlobaliD teamed up to launch a Mastercard debit card that will provide up to 5% cashback in XRP, a digital asset built for real-time, global payments.

Users will be able to add funds to the card via a bank account and the card will support about 50 national and digital currencies available through the Uphold-powered digital wallet. When making purchases, customers will earn cashback via XRP rewards that will be ‘airdropped’ into the Rewards section of the GlobaliD Wallet tied to their digital identity.

The debit card, which was created in just five months from conception to initial launch, will be available exclusively to the 400 members of the XRP Army Group on GlobaliD. But, the company states, “the longer-term vision is to empower any community with the tools to quickly and conveniently issue their own community debit cards to their members, each with their own unique set of traits and rewards programs.”

The announcement fits into a generalised push towards making digital currencies more and more mainstream, turning them into a common currency to pay for everyday goods and services with the simple swipe of a debit card. The Silicon Valley-based crypto platform Uphold has already been working on that, trying to revolutionise the way in which consumers shop and hooking it up to their bitcoin, metal and equity investments.

The development of the XRP Card, created thanks to GlobaliD’s Sovereignty Stack composed of self-sovereign identity, messaging and the wallet, is an extra step towards that direction and an essential building block for the next chapter of the internet. In fact, the XRP Card becomes a reference implementation of the firm’s long-term vision, a way to help people bridge that gap to the real world from their online community, as well as another way to express and establish identity.

“We believe that identity is a combination of the credentials you have, the people you communicate with, and the value that you own. In the context of value, it’s also about how you spend it, it’s a big part of your identity,” Paul Stavropoulos, Senior Product Manager at GlobaliD, said. “Right now, the main way people spend is through debit and credit cards. So, we see debit cards as the first step toward allowing folks to spend and make transactions with a value of any kind that they hold.”

Laura Toh, Director of Strategic Initiatives at GlobaliD, added: “The vision for GlobaliD is for everyone to have an identity that allows them to trust and be trusted online, similar to real life. Our theory is that community is the best way of creating incentives for people to kickstart that approach, where the starting point for your identity is to be able to start interacting with other people.”

The XRP Card was first announced earlier this year in February and has officially launched at the end of July. For now, the card is initially being rolled out to US residents, but the company is working on international expansion.