We are dropping support for nearly all third party crypto-assets

It is with a slightly heavy heart that we are announcing that, 30 days from now, we are dropping support for ~80% of the currencies that we previously supported. We have been on a mission to see which distributed networks are used for more than just speculation by providing people with the ability to use various crypto-assets to pay for real world goods and services by acquiring gift cards, vouchers and other prepaid products. We are saddened because it seems that even when promoting directly within the currency communities themselves, many crypto-assets are purely being used for speculating. We had higher hopes.

However, this really wasn't a very difficult decision. With Bitcoin, ETH and other fiat-pegged assets making up the majority of the transaction volume, after almost a year of support, it's time to say goodbye and focus on the future that we think is the most likely to lead to mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency.

This isn't to say we're giving up on our thesis that "cryptocurrency is the future of money". Rather, it's a refocusing of efforts. To us, this means focusing on solving real problems, not just speculating.

We will continue to support and monitor the following types of cryptocurrencies within our e-commerce store:

• Dominant stores of value (BTC, ETH).
• Fiat pegged assets/currencies because they are essentially better versions of digital cash and less volatile.
• Assets on fast networks with low fees. These are particularly good for payments.
• Platform/reward tokens that have actual utility, on a functioning platform, that people can earn.

We also have an interest in networks where you can stake assets and earn interest for securing the network, as we see this as a great way to economically incentivize people for securing the network.

Additionally, we believe privacy is incredibly important, however, due to our need to comply with Canada's Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (PCMLTFA), for the foreseeable future we will only support unshielded/non-anonymous transactions for crypto-assets.

Ultimately, at the end of the day, we think that in order for cryptocurrencies to go mainstream you need the following things to happen:

1. You shouldn't need to know how blockchains and private keys work. You shouldn't even know it's a crypto-asset. It should just be money that is easy and fast to use.
2. They need to have a high degree of perceived stability and trust.
3. You need to be able to use them to pay for real things.
4. You need to be able to get your hands on them easily. We think the best way is to earn them or be given them, not going through complex verification processes and buying them.

This is where we will be putting our focus. We already make them easy to spend on real things, but will be focusing on solving some of the other problems.

You can view an up-to-date list of our currently supported crypto-assets here.

Onward and upward,

Eric & The Bidali Team

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