'Masked' Card Lets Online Shoppers Pay Anywhere With Bitcoin

Online privacy company Abine has announced the launch of Bitcoin Anywhere, enabling Coinbase wallet holders to make bitcoin purchases at any e-commerce site.

Bitcoin Anywhere, currently in beta and invite only, will enable Coinbase users to link their wallet to Abine Blur, a password control service.

When they want to make a purchase, consumers create a privacy-enhancing 'Masked Card', which work in a similar way to pre-paid gift vouchers. They are created on-the-fly and are loaded with US dollars funded from the user's bitcoin account.

Andrew Sudbury, Abine co-­founder and CTO, said:

"When a user makes a Masked Card, we are issuing a limited-balance, limited-duration credit card for that transaction. When you generate a masked card we charge your funding source."

Blur then withdraws the bitcoin needed for the transaction from the user's Coinbase wallet. Sudbury confirmed that any remaining funds are refunded back to the user.

When asked about user security the CTO said that user information is "tokenised and stored in a way that meets or exceed PCI Level 1 Compliance. All public payments communications happens over SSL, and no account numbers are stored directly on our servers".

He added:

“What we aim to achieve is to assess consumer demand for a purchasing experience that balances innovation, convenience, compliance, and security."

Abine has confirmed that it has plans to open up the service to other wallet holders in the future. "We want to give users the choice to fund their accounts and payments in a way that is most convenient for them", the CTO concluded.

Disclaimer: This article should not be viewed as an endorsement of the services mentioned. Please do your own research before considering investing any funds via these services.

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