Early Access Update #5

Greetings Early Access community!

Building something new is fun, but it isn’t easy. When we envisioned this product we knew we were going to be introducing new behaviors to the rewards experience: bitcoin and gamification. Until now 99.99% of cards offered points or miles and flat rates, which means that we need to change very real, ingrained behaviors to succeed.

Until now 99.99% of cards offered points or miles and flat rates, which means that we need to change very real, ingrained behaviors to succeed.

Why bitcoin and gamification? We believe this combination will attract the next generation of bitcoiners that are increasingly looking for experiences that enrich their lives with real value and regular moments of fun and delight. As a startup, it’s our job to forge a new path and define big, new opportunities that will differentiate us from and allow us to compete with incumbents.

This is why we chose to release to a small early access group in order to get it right before we release it to everyone. While we know we’re moving in the right direction with 97% of cardholders saying they would be “disappointed” if they could no longer use the Fold Card, we also know we have much further to go in making it a great card for everyone.

We’ve asked our early access community to be transparent about their experiences (good and bad) and in response we’ve promised to be transparent about how we’re going to address them. This card is in its most raw, early form with critical features still missing and some key incentives misaligned, however I’m increasingly confident that we’re going to end up building something incredible with this community.

Here are the primary issues we see from users and what we’re going to do about it.

Spin Experience

Fold is unique in that we don’t promise a guaranteed flat rate to each user, instead we earmark a flat rate across all spend on the platform for rewards that will be distributed to users via spins.

Spins are entirely probabilistic using a cryptographically secure random number generator and regulated as a sweepstakes with odds posted with every new wheel. This means, however, that some people have extraordinary luck, some have good luck, some have bad luck and some have a mix of it all, creating a very emotional experience for everyone. One of our primary challenges with this card program will be to strike the right balance and ensure that everyone experiences a little of it all.

The ability to earn extra ‘spins’ means you can recover a spin you missed, respin a prize you aren’t happy with or use it on an ACH payment.
Minimum satsback will be implemented to ensure that you will always get a minimum back on your purchases. ETA: Early February

Funding Speeds:

It currently takes 5–7 business days to get funds on the card through in-app ACH and bank transfer, which is way too long.

1–2 Day ACH Funding will significantly change the existing funding experience. ETA: Early to Mid February.
Instant Debit Funding has been delayed but it will solve the real-time funding issue and expectation that many of our users desire (without having to instant fund via Venmo or Apple Cash). ETA: mid to late February.

Merchant Deals:

Taking advantage of our merchant deals is a great way to supercharge your stacking on Fold, however it hasn’t been easy due to inventory shortages.

Inventory Shortages: Fold experienced gift card shortages due to liquidity crunch, aka we were selling cards at a much faster than we could source them. We’ve since found a resolution to this and should have all inventory and denomination restored. ETA: Tomorrow (February 3).
Inventory Expansion: Fold already has deals with 100’s of merchants, however we’ve been solely focused on developing the Fold Card. As critical features and issues are resolved, we will begin rolling out the new merchant inventory. ETA: Early to mid March.
🆕 Affiliate & Card-Linked Offers: Fold users are about to get a major boost to their ability to stack sats via passive card-linked offers and affiliate deals. This means you won’t necessarily have to go through gift cards to get boosted rates. Check out some of our participating merchants:

Purchase Spin Limit:

We implemented a limit on spins due to some merchants and processors blocking the Fold Card because people were splitting their bills into 10–20 small transactions. While Fold is ok with this, it can lead to account shutdown and no card should make you waste so much time splitting up payments. In response we implemented a temporary 7 spin / day limit to stem the issue which will affect less than 1% of users.

We’re immediately upping the spin limit to 10/day in order to affect less than 0.25% of users.
We’re removing the global spin limit and replacing it with something more targeted that shouldn’t affect the vast majority of users going about normal spending. ETA: Early February.

Spend & Deposit Limits

Because this is a new program we’ve been subject to tight spend and deposit limits. We know it’s important to increase these to make this card work for many of our users who want to use this as their primary card.

We’re working with our bank partner to significantly increase the limits and expect to have good news soon. ETA: Mid February.

ACH Rewards: ACH rewards are still being developed and will rollout after funding and extra spin fixes. ETA: Mid to Late February.
KYC Review: We’ve had a backlog of people stuck in KYC and are working with our partner to expedite their review. ETA: Mid February.
Bugs and Performance Issues: When you’re building fast, you also accumulate technical debt fast. We’ve decided to slow down in order to speed up, addressing some critical bugs and tech debt that will make the experience smoother and more reliable. ETA: Ongoing.

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When will we begin onboarding more users?

Currently, 100–200 invites are going out each day. We will close Early Access to prepare for our public launch once a few more critical features land: Extra Spins, 1–2 day funding and improved KYC.

Things to remember

Remember the early access code of conduct. We are all in this together.
While the Fold Team is small, we’ve got your back. If a support issue comes up, please refer to our FAQs and guides on support.foldapp.com or submit a ticket there if you need additional help.
Give us ideas for what kinds of prizes you want to see on the wheel. The wheel will change frequently. What do you want to win?
Please respond to our survey that is on your Fold Card tab in the app. We want to hear from you!