Cryptocurrency players must decrease the level of technical proficiency required for prospective users to participate in the sector to accelerate mass market adoption.
This is according to Greg van der Spuy, CEO of Cardware Wallet, who was speaking to TechCentral about the company’s new Spendl crypto debit card, which allows consumers to use their crypto assets like they do fiat currency.
“We have two core pillars of our business, the savings aspect where users adopt the ‘hodl’ mentality, and the spending perspective, which is about providing the infrastructure and capacity for users to spend their assets,” said Van der Spuy.
“The Spendl product suite and Spendl Money offer a bank account, a card, full voucher systems and airtime – anything that you want to buy. Additionally, this includes crypto trading, stablecoin payments and international remittances through stablecoins. The debit card system is critical because it uses existing infrastructure, so anywhere the card scheme is accepted, you can now spend your crypto.”
Van der Spuy said the reason this approach is important is that users can order their Spendl debit card and immediately be able to use it without having to wait for the service provider to build a network of participating merchants that supports the service. The advantage for merchants is that they can enjoy the benefits of accepting crypto-backed payments without having to make any infrastructural changes either.
Converted to fiat
Spendl Money has a partnership with Access Bank South Africa through PayAccSys that allows cryptocurrencies to be converted into fiat currency when a payment is made. When Spendl users travel overseas, they are given the option of converting their crypto to rand first and then to local currency, or to make a direct conversion to local currency at the point of sale.
The Spendl debit card supports chip-Pin, tap-to-pay and magstripe payment processing and can be added to digital wallets like Samsung Pay and Google Pay. Van der Spuy said integration with Apple Pay is proving to be difficult, but the company is developing a virtual card facility that will act as a workaround to the problem.
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An online banking facility gives functionality such as utility payments and debit orders via cryptocurrencies. The card is also usable at car rental companies and hotels that accept debit cards for hold deposits.
Van der Spuy said that while some 5-10% of South Africa’s crypto-owning population has the technical proficiency to understand and then practice self-custody of private keys in the way Cardware Wallet allows, most people either do not have the technical acumen or do not want to concern themselves with those details, preferring to have their private keys managed for them by cryptocurrency platforms like Luno and VALR.
Van der Spuy said the company has gone to considerable effort to “obfuscate the blockchain aspects” of the service. “People don’t really want to know that it’s running on a blockchain, only that their money is safe. When I walk up to a till point in Spar and I tap my card, I’m not thinking, ‘I wonder who the acquirer is, I wonder who the switch is, I wonder who the sponsoring bank is’.
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“I want to use a traditional system that allows me to spend my crypto in a way that is conventionally easy to understand and, more importantly, that’s familiar to every existing ecosystem,” said Van der Spuy. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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