To our valued Dash community members:
Thank you for your patience while we work to resolve the current outage of our debit card payment services. I truly apologize for this unwelcomed event. Ionia was notified on June 10th that our bank partner suspended the program. Because of this service interruption the DashDirect Beta Prepaid Card Program is temporarily on hold.
We appreciate your patience, understanding, and goodwill as we do everything it takes to resolve this delay as quickly as possible.
Although we will always take responsibility for the high standard of operation our customers expect and deserve, we also realize when breaking new ground there will be pushback by those whose model we’re disrupting.
I’d like to give extra context around the Ionia card program and the events of this week:
Background:
- The DashDirect Beta Prepaid Card Program was available through Ionia’s fully-approved and fully-compliant card program, approved by Ionia’s then-current issuing bank partner.
A little insight to the events that led up to today:
- On Tuesday June 7th, 2022, Ionia launched a new card program with Edge Wallet, integrating the popular Ionia card program and functionality into the existing Edge Wallet app
- With success comes buzz, excitement, and attention. While Ionia and Edge followed all guidelines, several media outlets unfortunately released statements with unapproved language, upsetting the card network and certain government regulators, in spite of the program's compliance with all rules and regulations.
- The language used in the articles was upsetting to the card network, from a reputational perspective. Unhappy, the card network began placing pressure on the issuing bank, claiming the language used in the news did not comply with the program requirements, and thus we were not in compliance and were not authorized to continue. It’s important to note that we did not publish anything at all, and Edge provided only compliant materials, approved by our card issuer.
- Ultimately, our issuing bank succumbed to the card network’s pressure and deemed the program out of compliance, due to the unapproved marketing messaging from several publications.
You might be asking, “but why?”
- The Ionia Card Program is the first of its kind, providing private, instant, on-chain transactions, allowing users to spend their cryptocurrencies as easily as USD at millions of merchants in the US while maintaining a self-custodial, permissionless, and private environment.
- FInancial institutions are timidly participating in card programs that involve cryptocurrency, though they have not embraced the values imbued by them. New is scary, even more so to legacy financial institutions. Reputational risk is a significant portion of the ongoing tension between legacy financial institutions and cutting-edge fintech solutions for cryptocurrency communities.
- In hindsight, we realize we should never have allowed any PR to go out, even though the content had approval from the card issuer. Since the publishers have license to change what they say and how it is said, Edge did not have the ability to control the messaging appropriately to protect the program. I deeply apologize for having not prevented this from happening.
So what’s next for the program?
- The Ionia Card Program, and subsequently the DashDirect Beta Prepaid Program, is on hold.
- The card issuing partner has terminated its relationship with Ionia.
- All of the technology used to create and run this program belongs to Ionia and is largely unaffected by which card issuer we use.
- The issuing bank that originally partnered with Ionia is one of many. We are actively creating relationships with new potential partners who share in our steadfast mission to provide financial freedom to the world and hold true with us when resistance arises. Our team is actively having these discussions both at the Consensus event in Austin, TX, and via email, and phone with non-attending potential partners. We are finding lots of interest, but we will work very carefully to identify long-term alignment.
What’s next for the DashDirect community?
- Your funds are not at risk.
- Two options: refund or hold tight for the re-launch.
- Full refunds will be made for any funds currently frozen on a DashDirect Mastercard. Please refer to the refund section below for additional information on how to receive your refund.
This is just the beginning for Ionia, for DashDirect, and for every individual or organization searching for financial freedom.
While I write this today with sadness, contrition, and disappointment, I have a renewed determination to bring financial freedom to the world. Moments like this determine whether the oppressors will succeed in stripping us of our basic human rights. Together, we can fight for what we know to be the right side of this battle. May others look back at what we will accomplish and be grateful for the shared resolve, innovation, and principles that our community demonstrates over the coming months to restore our rights of privacy, ownership, and freedom.
- Marshall Greenwald
We thank you for your continued trust in DashDirect. We are here to help answer any questions you may have.
- Your allies at DashDirect
If you would like a refund for the prepaid funds currently associated with your account, please submit an email with the subject line “Refund Request” to
[email protected] from your registered email address. Include your refund wallet address. If you do not send the email from your registered email address, we will not be able to verify that the request is authentic without an additional verification step. A full refund will be issued to your wallet address.
