<…> instead of making Bitcoin a means of payment, a Swiss company is converting Bitcoin into a kind of voucher so that its users can spend Bitcoin indirectly.<…>
I figure that what they are talking about is this:
https://www.vaerdex.ch/products/cryptonowCointelegraph’s article states that:
Presently, the options available to them would be to redeem the vouchers via an exchange service or sell the BTC amount loaded on the card using one of the 70 Bitcoin ATMs operated by Värdex.
You don’t really spend the bitcoins directly. Infact, you purchase the voucher for x amount of CHF, but you need to activate it in order to convert the CHF to bitcoins. Activation is performed for a fee between 2,9% and 5,9% (depending on the actual reseller).
The card itself has a private key and a public key (you need to trust that the privte key is indeed known only to you). Similar therefore to a paper wallet in a sense, not acting as a card to spend your bitcoins directly at a store, but rather to store them (or redeem them as stated in the above quote).
Edit: better described here:
https://cryptonow.ch/enthanks for the fully explanation, i missed that. the scenario they offer is more precisely what @sunsilk wrote.
It is just another use case of bitcoin to make the no coiners use it easily. But it is no different from the way we spend it for purchasing things, online or physically.
It may seem easy to hear as you can receive or give bitcoins as a gift card for the receiver has to spend it or can simply do the same as we do and that is to hold too.
I like their concept that actually tricks the government, paying with Bitcoin directly is prohibited but paying with Bitcoin vouchers is not prohibited cmiiw