Even though Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies are slowly taking off around the world, the major problem with them is that you can typically only for goods and services from a retailer that accepts Bitcoin.

Until now…

ZAZOO, a subsidiary of Net 1 UEPS Technologies, has just announced that it’s signed a deal with South African-based Bitcoin platform BitX to allow users to spend their hard-earned bitcoins anywhere they wish through the company’s VCpay technology.

VCPay is a South African-developed virtual credit card app. Using it is simple: you simply install the app on your phone, and then you can use it to create legitimate credit card numbers with expiry dates and CSV numbers that will be accepted anywhere. In order to use the card number, you can either link it to a bank account to withdraw money on the fly or top up an amount into your VC Pay account.

Systems like VCPay are especially useful if you’re worried about people skimming your card details in online transactions: you can create a card with exactly the balance you want to spend and then never use it or top it up again. Essentially it’s a one time use card that won’t be any good to anyone who steals the details later. You don’t even need a bank account to sign up for VCPay.

With the BitX partnership, you can transfer Bitcoins onto the card and then use them to make purchases in any currency.

“This collaboration will enable BitX and VCpay users to now spend Bitcoins agnostically, anywhere online and anywhere in the world, without any changes to the existing acquiring or switching infrastructures. We believe that BitX is an ideal partner for our technology as it is a rising star in the crypto-currency field, and supported by astute investors such as Naspers,” said Philip Belamant, Managing Director of ZAZOO in a statement.

Belamant further explained that by making BitX and VCpay inter-operable, it means that anyone who has Bitcoin will be able use a mobile virtual card completely offline and without the need to access a mobile phone network.

“Customers can then use these MVCs to pay for goods and services online or at any merchant that accepts debit or credit card payments, or they can transfer funds to family or friends who do not own Bitcoin via standard remittance applications,” he said.

Belamant says that this move potentially adds an extra layer of anonymity to Bitcoin payments.

“Because VCpay is a tokenized payment, no card holder information is shared with the merchant,” Belamant told htxt.africa, “This is great because if the merchants database is ever compromised – or they decide they feel like selling your data – it will mean nothing to the third party into whose lap the data falls, unlike traditional plastic cards.”

Giving a real-world example of how this could work, Belamant explained that a gamer will be able to sell in-game assets in exchange for Bitcoins and will then be able to generate a VCpay MVC to pay for his UBER ride.

ZAZOO is planning to roll out the functionality across the globe, but for now it is only available in Europe, Singapore, Philippines, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Malaysia and Indonesia.

[Image – CC by 2.0/Martin Kalfatovic]