This app converts crypto into vouchers you can use at Checkers, Pick n Pay, and Steers

(Image: Getty)

• Startup 6Dot50 is making it easier for holders of crypto tokens such as bitcoin, ethereum, and litecoin to spend it at major South African retailers.
• Crypto holders signed up on its app can purchase goods and services through its platform at over 80,000 stores in chains such as Dis-Chem, and Incredible Connection.
• Using crypto, users can purchase vouchers that convert their crypto value into digital rands that can either be spent at 6Dot50’s network of merchants, or be retrieved at Pick n Pay.
• For more stories, go to www.BusinessInsider.co.za.

Using digital money and transactional services platform 6Dot50, South Africans can now use six cryptocurrencies to shop at major retailers in South Africa, including Checkers, Steers, Wimpy, and Game.

Until last year, 6Dot50 focused mainly on selling money vouchers, a digital solution aimed primarily at unbanked people. Four months ago, it introduced its new product, allowing crypto holders to buy digital vouchers to spend their online tokens at over 80,000 stores across the country without having a bank account.

Its network of merchants include some of South Africa’s leading retailers such as Dis-Chem, Pick n Pay, Shoprite, Famous Brands-owned restaurants like Fishaways, Debonairs, and Mugg & Bean. Others include Incredible Connection, Hi-Fi Corporation, Fly Safair, Loot, One Day Only, and Cape Union Mart and its sister stores. Its crypto holders can also purchase from any Zapper-enabled retailer.

Users can do cash refunds through the company’s deal with Pick n Pay, if they wish to spend their vouchers at a store that doesn’t fall under 6Dot50’s network of merchants.

Founder and CEO Warren Venter describes 6Dot50’s crypto offering as an off-ramp from crypto to fiat.

While some merchants accept crypto for their goods and services through wallet-based services such as Coinbase, many retailers remain crypto sceptics. They have been wary of adopting crypto as a means of payment, mainly because it does not meet the standard definition of money.

The platform currently has six cryptocurrencies available: bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash, litecoin, dash, and ripple.

Upon selecting a cryptocurrency, the user receives a quote stipulating how much a voucher will cost in crypto. Given the volatility of cryptocurrencies, the quote refreshes fast.   

“Once you push confirm, we give you 15 minutes to conclude that transaction by transferring your crypto from your crypto wallet to an address that you provide; and within 15 minutes, that rate is guaranteed,” Venter said.

“As soon as you convert to digital rands in your account, you can immediately go and spend those digital rands anywhere. It takes about as little as two minutes but up to as much as 20 minutes for your crypto to reflect in your account, and then it’s instantly available,” he said.

Since its inception, it has garnered 9,300 active users and, in December alone, processed more than R2 million in transactions, R500,000 of which were crypto transactions. Its bitcoin and ethereum users make up about 72% of its transaction values, making the two cryptocurrencies the biggest on the platform.

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