The Swiss department store chain Manor has been offering Bitcoin as voucher cards since the beginning of the week. There are three variants for a fixed amount of 100 or 500 Swiss francs (around 90 to 450 euros). The third variant of the gift vouchers called Cryptonow allows buyers to define the amount of the credit themselves, which can be between 50 and 500 francs.
It is up to the buyer when he wants to redeem the credit on the Cryptonow card. As a result, the value of the voucher in Bitcoin is also determined based on the current exchange rate. To do this, the voucher card must be activated on the Cryptonow website.
Cold Storage
When activating the Cryptonow card, a fee of 2.9 to 5.9 percent of the purchase amount applies. According to the provider Värdex Suisse from Zug-based “Cryptovalley”, the city of Zug has been accepting Bitcoin payments for years.
The public key and the private key are located on the back of the Cryptonow card. According to Värex, this “cold storage” solution for storing the cryptocurrency should be particularly secure because the activated credit is 100% stored offline and therefore not endangered by hacks.
Kiosks and gas stations are coming soon
In the course of April, kiosks from Valora and Avec shops will add the card to their range, as will the petrol station shops from Shell, BP and Avia. The number of sales outlets for the Cryptonow card would then add up to around 4,000.
Värex is a spin-off of the Swiss cryptocurrency broker Bitcoin Suisse. In 2017, Värex entered the Swiss market with 10 ATMs. Today Värex offers ATMs in 70 Swiss locations (and 2 in Liechtenstein) for buying and selling Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies.
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