South Korean bitcoin exchange Coinplug has some big plans ahead. The company is distributing pre-paid bitcoin gift cards to about 24,000 convenience stores across the country. Thus far, about 8,000 of those stores are part of the 7-11 franchise, and other major chains are slated to be selling the cards by the end of the month.
The company confirmed in a Reddit post:
“We are in the process of distributing the cards to convenient stores.”
Coinplug’s Richard Yun talks a little about how the process works:
“When users redeem okBitcards, they automatically get an instant wallet. It’s good for people who find it hard to buy BTC like teenagers, and buying for gifts etc.”
The way it works is pretty straightforward. The customer must first purchase a card over the counter. The cashier must then print out a receipt for the customer which bears an individual PIN code. Whoever purchased the card may then redeem the coins through either the okBitcard mobile app or through the website. The actual card itself represents only fiat value and does not actually carry any bitcoin.
In other news, Coinplug has also partnered with ATM operator Nautilus Hyosung to bring two-way bitcoin ATMs to the country, and is currently launching a new one to be placed in the computer science department of Korea University. The company is also further experimenting in offline-to-online (O2O) payments.
