Giftcards In The Crypto Ecosystem- Create,Send &Redeem

jueco (76)in Tron Fan Club • 2 years ago

Hello crypto friends,

It is a pleasure to be here again to discuss on a topic of high Importance to the crypto ecosystem.

Today, we shall be discussing on cryptocurrency gift cards.
Gift cards is not a new thing to most of us here but to the newbies, it might be an unfamiliar term.

This topic will help all understand what a gift card is, how it can be redeemed, created and sent, please follow along as we begin.

WHAT IS GIFTCARD

A gift card which is popularly known as a gift token/voucher in the United kingdom and gift certificate in the North America can be explained to be a prepaid stored value money card which is mostly issued by a bank or a retailer.
And is meant to an alternative to money for purchases within a specific market or closely related business

A gift card in other words can be explained to be a prepaid debit card which holds a specific amount of money which can be used to purchase different goods.

A store gift card is the one designed to be used at a particular store or by specific retailers while the general used gift card can be used by any retailer, and can be used for cash withdrawal at the ATM.

Giftcards are sometimes given by employers as rewards/gifts to employees.
And it may also be shared by retailers as a sales promotion strategy inorder to entice customers to return to their store

A general feature of giftcards is that they are anonymous and are disposed off when its stored value is exhausted.

From the purchaser point of view, a gift card is given as a gift when giving cash is not socially appropriate.

TYPES OF GIFTCARDS

There are different kinds of giftcards that can be sent to people and they are:

CLOSED LOOP GIFTCARDS

As the name implies, this is a type of giftcard that is marketed by store and only permit the card owner to buy something from a specified retailer.

The closed loop giftcard can only be used by a specific merchant either at the store or at a website.

If a closed loop giftcard is to be issued by a company that has different retailers, then the gift card issued will be one that can be used at any of the stores of the company.

This kind of giftcards do not need an activation fee and it doesn't carry the logo of the company but carries the logo of the merchant of the store, hereby advertising the store to others.

The closed loop giftcards are not reloadable, they become useless once it's balance is spent.
The funds on a closed loop giftcard always has an expiry date which requires the card owner to use before the expiry date.

OPEN LOOP GIFTCARDS

Open loop giftcard as the name implies is one that is open to different merchant of a store.
The open loop giftcard often gives a cash equivalent, and can be more precisely referred to a credit/debit card, and can be used wherever the card is accepted.

This kind of giftcard, unlike the closed loop giftcard usually display the payment processor's logo and can be used by any merchant.

The open loop giftcard usually serve as a standard prepaid card and is reloadable, giving it's users the opportunity to add extra funds to the already existing funds.

DIGITAL GIFT CARD

This form of giftcard Is also known as the e-gift card.
Unlike the open/closed loop giftcard, they have no physical appearance, they are gifted online and are redeemed online.

The digital gift card always comes with codes which is usually used to spend it's value, and they are usually sent to your phone number or your email address.

This form of gift card can be easily accesed and used since it doesn't require you to be carrying it about, searching for a store to spend it.

ADVANTAGES OF A GIFT CARD

Gift card are easy and convenient to use.
Gift card can be used to control spending( useful in preventing bank overdraft)
Gift card can be used as the best gift for holidays, weddings and many other celebration
Gift card can also serve as an alternative form of payment, if you prefer not to give cash or credit card

When it comes to giving gift, we may at times run out of ideas on what to buy for a friend, we don't know what they need at the moment.
It is at this point we can send a gift card, hereby giving them the opportunity to choose what they want.

DISADVANTAGES OF A GIFT CARD

One of the disadvantages of a gift card is that you will be charged for not using the card, this fee is called inactivity fee.
Another disadvantage of gift card is that, for you to add money, you will be required to purchase or reload fees
Closed loop giftcard usually impose a limit to purchasing power
Loosing a physical giftcard can be disastrous, especially if you fail to save the card number.
After a gift card has been used, there's sometimes a little amount of money remaining, which if not used, may lead to money wasting.

GIFT CARD SCAMS

Source

In the world today, giftcards are becoming the main target for scammers.
The report of Federal Trade Commission has it that consumers have lost close to $148m to giftcard scams within the first 9months of 2021.

This scams comes in a way that the scammers will request the consumer to make a payment using gift card, and when this is done, the scammers will request for the card number which they inturn use to siphon the money.

CRYPTOCURRENCY GIFT CARD

Cryptocurrency giftcard can be explained to be a digital giftcard that uses cryptocurrency as it value rather than the fiat currency.

You can purchase a crypto currency giftcard wherever and whenever you wish and you can send it to anyone you want to, irrespective of their location on the planet earth.

Cryptocurrency giftcard can also be created by binance exchange and sent to your friends and loved ones making use of binance exchange.

Fortunately, binance exchange allows it's users to create and send giftcard of different cryptocurrencies to friends and loved ones.

HOW TO CREATE CRYPTOCURRENCY GIFTCARD

To create cryptocurrency giftcard, I will be using binance exchange for this practical.

As seen above, the first thing I ensured was that I have enough cryptocurrency that I can gift out.
As seen above, I transferred 10steems from my spot wallet to my funding wallet which will further enable me carry out the needed transaction.

Then I visited the home page of the binance exchange on my device, and I clicked on "more" icon just as shown above.

After clicking on the more icon, the display on the left appeared.
It displayed different icons of which I proceeded to click on giftcard, since I wanted to create one.

After clicking on giftcard, the image on the right appeared, and brought out options for me to redeem or send giftcard.

I then clicked on send giftcard since it had a subtitle that says "create giftcard"

After clicking on the "create giftcard" icon, the above Image displayed, and I was asked to select which cryptocurrency I intend to use to create the gift card.

Since I had earlier planned to use steem, I clicked on steem, but this time around, I decided to create a giftcard worth of 5steems.

As shown above, I wasn't charged to create the gift card, I then clicked on next.

As shown above, my gift card has been successful created after I clicked on next.

I then proceeded to check my card details and as shown, I have 5steems available in my gift card.

HOW TO SEND GIFT CARD USING BINANCE EXCHANGE

As we know, a gift card is a card with value in it usually given as a gift to a friend.
Since we have successfully created one using steem as the value, let's proceed by gifting it to a friend.

To send a gift card is not difficult, follow the above process and wait at the stage where you are asked to create a giftcard, just as shown below.

As shown above, I clicked on "send giftcard" icon again, but this time with the intention of sending giftcard.

After I clicked on it, the next page appeared and I was given an option to either create another giftcard or send the already created one.

I then chose to send the already created one by clicking on it, then clicking on "next" icon

The above then displayed, as shown above, you can send giftcard through email or via text message.

I then decided to send it via email address, and I inputed my sister's email address and the necessary information.

After inputting the necessary and clicking on send, the giftcard was sent to my sister.

Then I proceeded to check the card details, checking the card details, I saw that the giftcard has been sent but it hasn't been redeemed, thus giving me authority over it.

Then later, I told my sister to check her email that I sent her a gift, and she did and sent this Screenshot to me.

As seen from the image above, the giftcard was delivered to her alongside the code to redeem the card, then I asked her to redeem it and send me the screenshots, which will be explained as we proceed.

HOW TO REDEEM GIFTCARD

To redeem a giftcard is quite easy, follow along as I explain how she redeemed hers.

To redeem your giftcard, you can follow the initial procedure and get to the above stage, then click on redeem giftcard.

After that, the display on the right appeared, then click on redeem to crypto.

You can actually redeem and convert to fiat currency but she decided to to redeem to crypto.

After clicking on redeem to crypto, the above appeared and she proceeded to input the code to the giftcard.

After that, clicked on redeem inorder to redeem the card.

After clicking on redeemed, the card was successfully redeemed and we went to check her card details and it was shown that she has successfully redeemed the giftcard.