Shift's bitcoin-backed debit card beta issues new round of invites

Last month, San Francisco-based bitcoin startup Shift Payments announced plans to release a new debit-card system that would enable users to pay with traditional bank accounts, as well as bitcoin and Ripple wallets. Backed by tech-industry kingmakers Y Combinator, the card promised to serve as a next-generation bridge between digital currencies and traditional banking by allowing users to switch their funding sources on the fly from a mobile app. Now, Shift’s service appears to have quietly entered beta testing, with a handful of invites going out today.

It’s not known how large the beta test is, or even when the beta officially launched. Shift itself has kept relatively quiet about the service, although there are reports of a limited number of cards being released late last month.

The timing of this new round of beta invites is a strong indication that things are moving rapidly for bitcoin’s push into the mainstream. Invites to Circle, once suspected of being vaporware, are becoming extremely common, and Xapo’s version of a bitcoin-backed card has been available since mid-summer. With PayPal making no secret of its movements into the bitcoin space, and the likely integration of a bitcoin wallet into their service in the coming months, the market for services that can bridge the gap between digital and real-world currencies is already starting to look a little crowded.