No CommentsWant to pick up some bitcoins without having to pay for them? Sounds too good to be true, or perhaps a scam, but a new partnership between Tango and Snapcard could result in bitcoins being given away as part of reward programs.
Getting some gifted bitcoins certainly beats having to mine coins or having to buy them through an exchange. Of course, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and reward programs generally reward people who complete certain activities. Still, having bitcoins as a reward option, rather than say a gift card to Amazon, is great news.
Tango is most well-known for its “gifts-as-a-service” services, which is used by a variety of international companies, such as Amazon and Best Buy. Tango connects companies with customers or other end users, and rewards customers with gift cards. Tango makes it easy for its customers to provide end-users with gift cards for whatever reason they choose.
Companies often like to give away gift cards as part of engagement programs. For example, a company might reward an employee for a special event, such as a birthday. Such programs can be useful for fostering loyalty, and rewarding high-performing employees, customers, and other parties.
Customers who use tango’s programs already have access to some 60 different choices in regards to where they can receive gift cards. Now, customers will also be able to select bitcoin as one of their possible rewards, giving end-users even more options.
How and why end-users will receive rewards is largely left up to the companies that use Tango’s services. A company might decide to send out gift cards on birthdays, or to celebrate special events, such as weddings. Or a company might reward someone for participating in a company sponsored walk-a-thon. The possibilities are pretty much endless.
Tango won’t be handling much of the bitcoin related backroom work, and instead will rely on Snapcard and its custom Application Program Interface (API). Snapcard is already a leading payment process and bitcoin wallet, and recently launched a new API called “MassPay.”
Snapcard’s mass payment capabilities and ease-of-use make it a logical fit for Tango, which focuses on providing user friendly and low-maintenance rewards programs. With bitcoin, companies looking to launch a reward program won’t have to worry about the regional relevance of gift cards, nor will they have to worry about exchange rates. Bitcoin is arguably the perfect international payment option. Snappay is already available for use in over 200 countries.
The addition of bitcoin to Tango is arguably another sign of the growing acceptance and adoption of bitcoin. Tango is already one of the world’s hottest tech startups, and is in use by more than 1,000 corporate clients. Now these clients will be able to easily use bitcoin. Having bitcoins as a reward option should also help spread the use of bitcoin by the public, helping to ensure increased adoption.
Whether or not bitcoin will be as immediately popular as gift cards for well-known stores remains to be seen, but at the very least consumers will have more choices.
