The evolution of cryptocurrency, from a niche libertarian tool for purchasing dark market goods to a trillion-dollar industry with ETFs and the largest frauds in generations, has been extraordinary to watch, but as Wall Street continues to pile in, sex toys get thrown at basketball players, and exchanges and centralized tokens partner with credit card companies, it might be time to ask: what are we even doing?
Exchanges and coins have been bragging about credit card collaborations for years, and while there may be arguments for having credit cards and using them extensively—especially for the last decade-plus when rates have been exceedingly low—a cryptocurrency or exchange pretending it’s innovative to partner with Mastercard or Visa is strange.
The latest egregious crypto-sin crafted in this vein is the “Gemini Credit Card – XRP Edition.”
Read more: CFTC alleges Gemini cover-up: Execs funded market manipulation
So, what does the ‘XRP Edition’ of this Gemini Mastercard partnership look like?
Well, it seems to be exactly the same as the normal Gemini Mastercard, but with two subtle differences: the card is blue and says “XRP” in the upper right corner. Maybe you’re thinking that this card is able to earn more rewards in XRP or provides more mechanisms to earn XRP than the Gemini Mastercard.
You would be wrong.
At the end of the offering on the website, Gemini even states, “The XRP card functionality remains the same as all current Gemini cards in the market—but with an innovative design for the XRP Army to show their allegiance.”
Show your allegiance? To a near-useless cryptocurrency that originally was intended for bank settlements and has never realized that dream? Why? Why would anyone want to show allegiance to that?
Baby’s First OpSec
Even if we ignore the fact that the card quite literally provides no new use cases, reward mechanisms, or even different rates, it’s also an unbelievably terrible personal operational security misstep.
Not only does the card quickly show that the cardholder has a cryptocurrency account at Gemini, but it explicitly proves that they have spent time purchasing and holding XRP—which has gone from 30 cents a few years ago to $3 now. Why not go around asking people to rob you at gunpoint instead?
Considering how crypto-related kidnappings, muggings, and burglaries have been distinctly on the rise this year, it appears as though the financial and security geniuses at both Gemini and Ripple have decided that the best opsec is in fact no opsec at all.
