Ether.cards – Another Take on “Physical” Crytocurrency

Ether, Crystallized. – Claims the header-slogan of the Ether.cards homepage, and while what’s being sold here may not be literally that, it is certainly very close to it. Ether cards allow people to take their Ethers into their hands – quite literally – and to gift them to others, or simply carry them around in their pockets. The concept is very simple and clever: an Ether Card is essentially a piece of plastic, much like a regular credit/debit card, which has its own ETH public address, that one can send ETH or other tokens to. The card also has the private keys, under a scratch-off panel. These keys can be used to import the “contents” of the card back into an ETH wallet, thus redeeming the funds.

ether.cards
Ether.cards

The cards lend the cryptocurrency a tangible nature, meaning that those who possess such cards can physically gift them to their friends/loved ones/whomever they want to. Besides being a great way to introduce others to cryptocurrencies, Ether Cards offer people a physical sense of possession, thus making it easier for beginners to “stomach” the concept of cryptos.

The “life-cycle” of an Ether Card can be summed up thusly: the buyer acquires say 10 such cards (the minimum order is 2, so that’s well above the mark), and he/she proceeds to load 10 ETH onto each such card, by simply scanning the public address of each card with his/her phone, and sending 10 ETH to it from his/her wallet. He/she then proceeds to hand out these cards to 10 people. These people then create wallets of their own and import the private keys after they scratch off the panel. Ether.cards offer detailed instructions in this regard. While at first glance this redemption process may seem a tad intricate, it really isn’t.

Ether.cards recommend myetherwallet.com or Jaxx for redemption, but it should work fine with any other ETH wallet solution available out there. If you are gifted/earn such a card, make sure you use a trusted service though, and don’t give up your cryptos to scammers. Always create a new wallet for the redemption of your Ether Card.

Ether.Card Costs

The Ether Cards are currently available in three designs, a Seasonal one for GBP 3, an original one, for GBP 2.50, and a Holiday one, for GBP 3. The minimum orders on all three versions are 2. Personalized cards can be ordered too. The minimum on such orders is 100 though.

Should I Trust Ether.Card?

Yes. While there is certainly potential for fraud in this business model, thus far no one claimed stolen funds. If the issuer of the card does not steal the funds loaded to the cards, no one else can really do it, as these cards are essentially the equivalents of paper wallets.

The manufacturing process is where there are several security-related vulnerabilities, and to allay possible fears in this regard, the site goes into great detail explaining every step of this process.

The issuer orders the cards “raw” and it prints the keys/QR code/scratch-off panel on them afterwards. The printing process takes place on a secure computer. The code used to generate the cards can be examined at the Ether.cards website.

In addition to a number of other security measures, there’s a guarantee offered as well: a certain percentage of the funds resulting from the sale of cards is set aside in a contract account, and held there for a year following the production of the card. Card buyers can verify that their deposits have indeed been paid, through the tool available at Ether.cards.

If one happens upon a card, the account of which has outgoing transactions, or one the private key of which is not accepted, refunds will be issued from the guarantee fund, up to a maximum of 50 times the amount of the guarantee deposit.

The Ether.cards domain was first registered in August, 2016, by a certain Nicholas Johnson, based in London. The corporate registrant is Arachnid labs Ltd, located at 183 Richmond Road, London, UK.

Red Flags and Question Marks

There aren’t really any such issues here. The business model pushed by the operation is indeed feasible, and the community feedback regarding the service is clean as well.

Complaints

The operation has been running for more than a year now, and the feedback from users is positive. There is in fact no trace of a complaint anywhere. Some users are quick to point out though that while the cards do make nifty little gifts, they also compel users to use private keys generated by someone else.

Ether.cards Review Conclusion

Ether.cards is a legitimate and interesting little operation. Their cards make great gifts, and they come with decent safety features and backup. Because the cards make use of private keys generated by a third party, it is not recommended to keep massive amounts of ETH/tokens on them.

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