nio Card Adds Bitcoin Payments to its Long List of Features

December 3, 2013 By: David Mindich

The Bluetooth and NFC enabled smartcard, nio Card, has recently announced the addition of bitcoin payments to the rather long list of features the card already boasts.

Originally dreamt up as a means for the creator to keep from losing his things, the nio Card is a third generation iteration of the nio Tag. More of a Swiss army knife than a standard contactless card, the Nio Card is capable of handling a large array of applications. These range from serving as a locator for your lost wallet or purse, to holding your rewards card information, to giving you feedback on your daily running workout.

The nio Card utilizes NFC and Bluetooth technology to create a “nio chain” between your phone and the card. Should you accidentally leave your phone behind, you can turn on a setting that will cause it to sound an alarm once you’re a certain distance away. This feature will also help with fraud, as no payments will be able to be made if your phone isn’t with the device.

Interestingly, bitcoin is actually the first payment method available on the card—as the company is still in talks with banks about offering other payment methods. For now, users can set an amount of bitcoin to either transfer or receive into their phone, and “bump” phones together to complete the transaction.

With all these different features (it has an ambient temperature sensor for some reason) it’s difficult to place nio Card into a single category, and while it seems like it’s hoping to be taken seriously as a mobile wallet/payment card alternative, it may still have a way to go.

Along with the nine apps already available for nio Card, the company has four more in development, and is offering SDKs to anyone interested in finding other uses for the technology.

Nio Card is at about half of its 35,000 euro goal on Kickstarter with a week left of funding. Any forgetful, fitness oriented bitcoin users who’d like to know what the temperature is on a regular basis can shell out 40 euros for their own nio Card here.