Duncan Betts
Aug 23, 2017 · 2 min read

Thanks for evaluating PAY. Here’s my thoughts: if you own Visa, AMEX, Stripe or PayPal stock, you’re not paid a dividend based on profits (let alone a dividend with a permanently fixed payout calculation based on revenues). So, that’s quite a big difference.

How they expect to extract 0.5% for the PAY holder, and give 0.1% to the card holder… I can only imagine they’re not operating in Europe, where they can’t earn more than 0.2% in total in interchange fees (https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/news-insights/insight/18-months-impact-interchange-fee-regulation-european-union-cards-market).

Unlike holding Visa, AMEX, Stripe or PayPal stock, PAY is not a stock, and your relationship to them is very different than if it were, if you hold it.

Lastly, they for some bizarre reason do not intend to obtain a “card issuing licence” until 2019. What they don’t specify, is whether they intend to become an acquiring bank (Visa/MasterCard only deal with banks) or partner with an acquiring bank who provide customized Visa/MasterCard cards as a white-label service. If the former, why don’t they say so, that would be a bold, ambitious, fantastic move, if the latter… they could probably start and finish this process in a few short weeks.

Seems a lot like Plutus actually, just, launched more recently.

Unfortunately, Plutus may have decided to rebrand as Abra (who are owned by Plutus Financial). I am not certain they are connected, but it does highlight a risk of PAY tokens nonetheless; you don’t own a stake in the company’s assets, and don’t have decision making power. This is the wild west, it’s my understanding that they (TenX) could decide to open up a “sister brand” under a new name, send cardholders new “free” cards operated by the new company, offering slightly higher cashback, or simply wait for customers cards to expire and tell them a new card will now cost them $50, but another company are offering a special offer of a free card to existing TenX customers, and cut PAY holders out of the equation — just saying, when investing in appcoins, think about what could happen in the future if the project does succeed on a large scale. This is why VCs buy a stake in the company, and usually don’t buy the tokens.

I won’t be investing in either. I want to be encouraging merchants to take Bitcoin, not encouraging users to get Visa cards.

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    Duncan Betts

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