Put Bitcoin to Use in Everyday Life with Shake’s NFC System

The world of bitcoin might sound mysterious and foreboding to some, and to others, it sounds mysterious and exciting.

Actually using bitcoin in everyday life, meanwhile, has proven somewhat difficult in the past, and that’s a development that might change with Shake Labs Inc’s new payment system, a near-field communications (NFC) system that allows users to turn to bitcoin from mobile phones just about anywhere that takes NFC.

The Shake system, currently going through alpha version testing, turns to the Visa network to accomplish its transactions, and allows users to convert bitcoin to a more standard currency, using the system almost like a prepaid card.

There are some fees associated with this, though, including a one percent fee to translate the bitcoin into the local currency of note, and a three percent fee when the card is used to make purchases in foreign currency, which right now appears to be anything but Canadian dollars as Shake Labs operates out of Canada.

The card has a limit of $2,500 per day, except for those willing to send documentation to Shake as a means to confirm identity.

Then, the maximum goes up to $10,000 per day. Undocumented users can refill a card twice daily, and documented users can top off five times daily.

While the Shake system isn’t exactly offering anything that can’t be had somewhere else, this does seem like one of the best efforts yet to bring bitcoin into the mainstream.

Indeed, this might actually be the best effort to do that yet. Previously, bitcoin was mostly just an investment tool, a commodity like gold or pork bellies, now it can take that step toward being a currency.

Though this really just operates as a stand-in for actual currency, it allows those who deal in bitcoin to have a means to convert the currency to a more usable local alternative.

Since it can be done sufficiently rapidly, it can be used a as a platform for a mobile payment system. That’s good news for bitcoin, which had been suffering from a distinct lack of places that would accept it as payment.

It’s not quite the same as paying bitcoin—it’s more like an automatic money exchange system tied into a mobile payments system—but it has much the same effect in the end. That will likely prove good enough for many.