Empire Card

The revolutionary crypto debit card offering perks usually reserved for elite credit cards. Initial Coin Offering (ICO) begins August 15th 2017.

Empire Card is the first cryptocurrency debit card that allows users to spend their digital currency, while the accepting retailer instantly receives cash — all while offering elite credit card style perks to its users, including air miles, access to airport lounges and hotel points.

While cryptocurrencies, and the Ethereum network in particular, are all the rage right now within the tech community, the adoption of these currencies by the general public has remained elusive, due to the complexity of use and separation between cryptocurrencies and ‘real world’ application. While investors in many digital currency projects have faired well, the general public could be forgiven for asking the point in holding money in digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ether, when it needs to be exchanged into hard currencies in order to actually be spent. The problem with debit card systems to date is that they tend to either require changing your digital currency into cash as soon as you load it onto the card, or waiting a few minutes every time you do a transaction due to the time it takes to send currencies like Bitcoin. Empire Card solves this by offering an instant exchange mechanism which allows transactions to be completed immediately, so any retailer instantly receives a normal debit card transaction.

Empire Card uses will have relatively low fees of 0.5%-2% depending on their card status, making it considerably cheaper than major credit cards, especially considering a crypto-fiat transaction occurs during the spending process. These network fees will be pumped back into the network, which will be used to expand Empire’s partnerships, improve the perks being offered to card holders, and ensure continuous liquidity.

Of course, one of the core major selling points used to convince people to use expensive elite credit cards are the range of perks coming with their use. Empire Card comes into its own as the first ever crypto-debit card that takes credit cards on by offering the same advantages. This is achieved by
allocating a portion of the money raised in the ICO, together with the continuous money raised by the network’s transaction fees, into securing perks for every Empire Card holder. Empire has already secured talks with several major airlines, hotel groups and hub airports to secure these advantages for its users.

The excess funds created by the fees levied on the usage of the card (the ‘profit’) will be completely decentralized and split among all the owners of Empire Coins (EMP). Every month those coin holders will receive a dividend on a ‘one coin, one share’ basis. While the three major credit card companies, Visa, MasterCard and American Express, combined for over $4bn of profit in Q1, Empire is run on the blockchain meaning 100% of the reated value is passed onto card users and holders of EMP. While there will be a range of cards, including a Gold Card, Platinum Card and elite Black Card, the purchase of these will not go to benefit shareholders, but be shared by all participants in the network.