Complaint Review: Blockcard - none provided

This is advertised as a "crypto" credit card. Beware, the crypto part means they steal your crypto and replace it with thier crypto, Ternio, which has no liquidity. It's not listed on any major exchanges. The consumer can't really buy it at "market" rates because there really is no market for it. And Blockcard doesn't even sell you thier cypto at the rate you can buy it on the few unheard of exchanges that sell it. Instead they use "the going rate" on an exchange that only they use. This gives Blockcard control of the price.

The way it works is this:

You send your chosen crypto to the card wallet, that crypto is converted to Ternio which is the card's native currency. Afterward your card balance is calculated by number of ternio you have mulitiplied by the "value" of ternio. (More on how this is calculated later and why it is in quotations). You then can spend your dollar value of turnio. When you spend it, they buy it on thier "exchange" at below market value This sets a low price, devaluing the balances people are holding.  They sell it to you at $0.008 or higher, and you sell it to them at .0005x when yo spend out of your wallet, losing 20% or 30% with every purchase.

It's basically a scam that works off arbitrage. But they are the only ones who can arbitrage. You might have done due diligence and checked coingecko or CMC before buying. Then you look at your balance and you're left wondering what happened. The money in your wallet doesn't match your calculations. Well, this is because Blockcard doesn't take the average TERN price from all market pairs across the few questionable exchanges that have listed it. Instead, that price comes from one exchange and one pair in specific--one which normal people can't access or trade and which has no sellers. It appears that the sole purpose of this pair (TERN/USDD on stellarterm) is to buy back Ternio at 15% less than selling price. And if you think you'll be able to buy back the Ternio at the price they are liquidating it for your purchases, fugheddaboudit.

Ternio is not a real cryptocurrency. Sure, it's on the blockchain, but it was not designed with any of the brilliance or ethos you've come to expect in good projects. There's no focus on deflation, no proposition of increasing value, no interest for staking coins other than a 6% reward for purchases which will do little to soothe the burn of the 30% you'll likely lose. The only thought that seems to have gone into this is how to make a quick buck off every purchase. With other far better options out there, I can't imagine anyone will use this card more than once unless it is because credit problems have left them with no other alternative.

If you're in crypto for the tech, for the people who are dreaming about ways to lift people out of poverty and provide banks to the unbanked--not to take advantage of desperation, but to provide a much needed service--blockcard is the wrong place to look. Think more like predatory lending or payday loans or flim-flam scams--that seems to be closer to the ethos of this project. Except it's worse than that, because these guys are actually, in my opinion, white collar criminals. Somehow they got Visa to sign off on this.

I came to this card with hope that it was a way to avoid the exorbitant coinbase transfer fees and long clearing periods, and what I got was minus a almost four-hundred bucks in twenty minutes. Please don't make the same mistake.