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DashDirect Virtual Visa/MC Proposal Updates

craymarshallg

craymarshallg

Active member
Masternode Owner/Operator
This thread will be used to post updates on the proposal to create a virtual card for spending Dash through DashDirect at any Visa/MC accepting merchant.

First of all, a big thank you to the DAO and MNOs for approving our proposal and allowing us to partner with this community to bring this solution to market.

Updates and answers to questions will be provided to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting. All program details are subject to regulatory approval, legal review, and business decisions based on this early-stage project.
 
Based on our initial due diligence with multiple vendors, we have some details on a proposed program outline. Please see below.



Program Type
The DashDirect MasterCard is a reloadable open-loop MasterCard program. The corporate-sponsored program allows anyone to instantly load funds onto their card and immediately spend the funds at any merchant who accepts MasterCard globally1. This program will be integrated into the Dash Core Group official wallet through the DashDirect mobile app for iOS and Android. Cards are issued by Patriot Bank (TM) and managed by a Program Manager. CrayPay is the Corporate Sponsor.

Custody
We believe that you should have full control of your own money. DashDirect and the DashDirect MasterCard are non-custodial. Nobody will have access to your private keys or your money, except you.

Know Your Customer (KYC)
We believe that privacy is a human right. Obtaining a DashDirect MasterCard does not require any "Know Your Customer" verification. You must register for DashDirect, so that your card is protected from unauthorized access. We comply with all requirements for issuers, card associations, regulations, local, federal and international laws. We do so while still protecting your privacy. We do not believe in economic censorship2.

Credit/Underwriting
We believe in making finances accessible to everyone, of any background, regardless of credit history, age, location, or citizenship status. We do not check your credit nor ask for personally identifying information that could be used for a credit check. We do not discriminate.** There are no credit or other requirements to participate in our MasterCard program.

Limits
To comply with rules, law, and guidelines from FinCEN and other regulatory bodies, you will be limited in your Transaction volume. This is a key feature that allows us to offer this program without KYC. The current limits are outlined below.
Limit TypeLimit Amount
Daily Spending$1,000 USD
Total Load Balance$1,000 USD
Virtual Cards
You will be able to use a virtual card for e-commerce transactions, with an option to copy/paste the card details into the merchant checkout page.

NFC Phone Wallets (Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay)
You will be able to provision your card to an Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, or Google Pay wallet for simple NFC payments at merchants who support these wallet options. A list of officially-supported wallets will be provided before launch.

Physical Cards
You will have an option to order a physical card, if you choose to. A one-time charge will apply to cover the cost of printing, encoding, and shipping the card to you. You will be able to earn back the initial cost by spending at least $750 USD at US Merchants (amount to be confirmed) within the 90 Days of activation. We will confirm the regions where this is available as well as cost for the cards before launch.

Card Branding
Your card will be branded as a DashDirect Rewards MasterCard.

Security
DashDirect is fully compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards and uses industry-leading security and tokenization to protect you and your payment information. Notably, we do not store your card details, or your wallet details. Our card issuing partners store your card details, which are represented within our systems by a token. You store and manage your own private keys within the Dash Wallet. We use bank-level security (256-bit encryption) to ensure your information is safe and secure. We use Multi-Factor and Two-Factor Authentication to prevent unauthorized access, so your card details are safe. We are still exploring tokenization architecture with our card issuance partners.

Transactions with Non-US Merchants (Planning Stages)
We seek to enable economic freedom globally. Users will be able to transact with any MasterCard merchant globally. The cost charged for foreign exchange fees is 1% of the USD amount of the transaction. Transactions at non-US merchants will not contribute toward refunding the initial physical card cost. If you make a Foreign Transaction, the amount deducted from the funds will be converted by the network or card association that processes the transaction into an amount in USD. Mastercard may use a conversion rate that is either: (i) selected from the range of rates available in wholesale currency markets (which may vary from the rate the association itself receives), or (ii) the government-mandated rate in effect for the applicable central processing date. The conversion rate used by the network is not charged by DashDirect and is not influenced by DashDirect in any way. We are still exploring how this feature can be supported and how to determine the amount we should request in Dash when currency conversion will apply on the transaction.

Rewards Program (Planning Stages)
Transaction TypeReward TypeReward Amount
Gift CardInstant Dash Back (Discount)Average 5% / Up to 12%
MasterCard (Non-Cashback Merchants)Not EligibleN/A
MasterCard at Cashback Merchants3Instant Cash Back (Account Balance)TBD

1Participation in the program and use of the card are subject to certain Transaction limits. We allow transactions anywhere that MasterCard is accepted. In the future, some merchants, merchant categories, or regions may be prohibited.
2Transactions may be subject to transaction pattern monitoring to comply with regulatory requirements. If required by law or our program partners, Cray Pay may have to remove a user from this program and terminate their card. Do not attempt to use the card for any illegal activities.
3We are very early in discussions to investigate whether the DashDirect MasterCard will be compatible with a card-linked offer provider to enable cashback offers.

* This overview represents a summary of the proposed program details which are subject to change with or without notice. Before program launch, we will confirm the final program details and make them available to the community.
 
Thanks for the update Marshall, the limits was interesting to me, it seems reasonable for day to day purchases. Please keep us updated with the schedule, milestones and any issues/delays upfront to avoid surprises, everyone is eager to see this succeed, good luck to you! :)
 
craymarshallg said:
Know Your Customer (KYC)
We believe that privacy is a human right. Obtaining a DashDirect MasterCard does not require any "Know Your Customer" verification. You must register for DashDirect, so that your card is protected from unauthorized access. We comply with all requirements for issuers, card associations, regulations, local, federal and international laws. We do so while still protecting your privacy. We do not believe in economic censorship2.
Click to expand...

Good job!
 
I know you're working on a european solution. Just to say, I'm not going to be paying 1% on non-US transactions. Cards like Wise (previously TransferWise) do the transactions natively to where you spend and are only processed as foreign when there's insufficient balance. A DashDirect Mastercard is more a backup option for me unless you can eliminate these foreign transaction charges.
 
Wise has a very unique and powerful solution for spending funds in different fiat currencies. I don't see where they offer anything with cryptocurrencies. Can you point me to some information on how the card is tied to your Dash wallet? I'd be very interested in reviewing that solution. If they have that solution, we don't need to do anything in the regions they already serve. Since they serve most of the world, including the US, I'm confused about why our solution is needed at all.
 
xkcd said:
Thanks for the update Marshall, the limits was interesting to me, it seems reasonable for day to day purchases. Please keep us updated with the schedule, milestones and any issues/delays upfront to avoid surprises, everyone is eager to see this succeed, good luck to you! :)
Click to expand...
Will do! Thanks for the support.
 
craymarshallg said:
Wise has a very unique and powerful solution for spending funds in different fiat currencies. I don't see where they offer anything with cryptocurrencies. Can you point me to some information on how the card is tied to your Dash wallet? I'd be very interested in reviewing that solution. If they have that solution, we don't need to do anything in the regions they already serve. Since they serve most of the world, including the US, I'm confused about why our solution is needed at all.
Click to expand...

I didn't explain that very well. Wise doesn't support crypto and they require KYC. Their KYC is a rolling process. Instead of having levels of KYC they apply rules as you grow into the system e.g. adding a euro account or initiating a large fx would trigger more requirements, I'm not a fan of KYC or this rolling process, am just explaining.

So yeah, it's a little unfair that I am not comparing like for like. But if you could somehow do localized versions to avoid foreign transaction fees, that would be really good.
 
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GrandMasterDash said:
I didn't explain that very well. Wise doesn't support crypto and they require KYC. Their KYC is a rolling process. Instead of having levels of KYC they apply rules as you grow into the system e.g. adding a euro account or iniatting a large fx would trigger more requirements, I'm not a fan of KYC or this rolling process, am just explaining.

So yeah, it's a little unfair that I am not comparing like for like. But if you could somehow do localized versions to avoid foreign transaction fees, that would be really good.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the clarification. That helps a lot. We are working to solve all of the challenges, including global transactions and associated FX fees. We may need a different issuer for non-US consumers, or maybe a means of converting that doesn't cost as much. We actually have currently proposed 1%, but we pay 1% plus $0.30/transaction, so we are already planning to lose money on every transaction. I am not sure how much volume to project, so it's a difficult proposition for us to just eat the costs entirely. I'm still exploring other partnership opportunities and there are some very interesting players. So far, the only partners who have global solutions also require KYC (no exceptions). We are early in the process, so I'm sure we'll continue to find partners or workarounds to enable what we are seeking:

No Custody
No KYC
No Fees
Instant
Crypto-Friendly


If you can think of other issuers who might be able to accommodate all of the above, we'll gladly reach out to explore the opportunity with them.
 
We were asked on Discord for a target launch date. We are a bit early to know the timeline, but our target is to launch the program by Dec 1. Our engineers and designers won't be able to scope the project until I select the partners and sign agreements and receive documentation from the various partners.

Current Target for Launch: Dec 1st, 2021
 
Just a quick update. We have signed with a bank, an issuer, and a program manager. We now are working on our KYB and Due Diligence requests from the bank for approval. We have to get this part right, as this will determine whether the program can be approved as outlined or whether the bank will require changes or deny our application all together. We do believe it will be approved, and we are working closely with our program manager to accurately complete the DD materials to optimize our potential for approval.
 
We have received initial approval from the compliance board at the program manager for US only. This means our documents are ready to submit to the bank for approval. We are seeking an opinion letter from outside counsel, which (if obtained) could allow the program manager to submit our application for global approval at the bank as well. We see this as a big win. We do not believe anyone has gotten this far in developing a crypto debit card program that is non-custodial. We will continue pushing the approval processes along. The recent funding for month 2 will help us with the legal costs and labor for the intense due diligence and research. Our UX/UI development will begin as soon as we have approval from the issuing bank.

I will continue to keep the community updated on our progress.
 
We are seeking approval from our card issuing bank, program manager, and MasterCard as follows:
Privacy: No "KYC" (Know Your Customer) or "CIP" (Customer Information Program)
Freedom: No restrictions on spending based on region (US/Non-US); No restrictions on merchant categories

We already have partial approval (US merchants only, but all other elements as we are seeking).

In order to get approval within the framework outline above, we are seeking a legal opinion letter from a reputable firm. This will possibly be expensive, but we are just now beginning to schedule discussions with several firms recommended to us or known to us. We will get quotes and initial thoughts on our position in the next couple of weeks. We will also continue moving forward with our current approval from our program manager.
 
Just a small update:
1. We are beginning our UX designs after doing significant research and review of other Fintech applications with debit/credit cards integrated.
2. We are interviewing one final law firm for a legal opinion/memorandum giving us guidance on the various regulatory requirements. The goal is to find the path to launch for US and Non-US merchants with no KYC, while complying with all relevant regulatory requirements.
3. We are interviewing rewards and rebate networks for potential integration. The goal with these discussions is to find a simple way to add rewards to transactions made through the MasterCard program.
4. We are attending Money 2020 next week. If you are attending, please stop by the Dash booth, or reach out to [email protected] or send me a PM on Discord. I'd love to meet any MNOs, community members, and other supporters.
 
A few updates:
1. We have begun development of the API integrations with our issuing bank partner. This is happening in tandem with UX discovery and design. We welcome any community feedback on how the virtual MasterCard program should look/feel to a user. The easiest way to provide this feedback is by suggesting a virtual card program you love or one you hate for us to review (be sure to tell us whether you love it or hate it, lol).
2. We have selected a firm for legal review of our card program and relevant legal frameworks and guidance from the agencies with oversight. We will begin that engagement shortly.
 
I would desperately beg you, please do not go sending verification codes via PSTN, text or voice! It is a huge pain in the butt when you are traveling between countries.

Also, when sending emails, don't go leaking info via the subject line.

Where possible, provide web interface for those not willing to install apps.

Don't go crazy with password strength requirements. No passwords is best.
 
GrandMasterDash said:
I would desperately beg you, please do not go sending verification codes via PSTN, text or voice! It is a huge pain in the butt when you are traveling between countries.

Also, when sending emails, don't go leaking info via the subject line.

Where possible, provide web interface for those not willing to install apps.

Don't go crazy with password strength requirements. No passwords is best.
Click to expand...
I don't quite follow. Are you talking about the general features of DashDirect or are you talking about the integration of a MasterCard into the app? I don't know how any of the items above would be related to the MasterCard program. Maybe I don't understand the comments above. I apologize.
 
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