A team of ex-Revolut employees have released Zeal, a DeFi wallet and debit card combination that enables direct cryptocurrency spending on everyday items, eliminating the need for conversion to fiat currency.
The Zeal wallet, now available as a browser extension and mobile app, facilitates both onchain and everyday payments using a crypto Visa debit card from Gnosis.
The launch of Zeal comes on the back of a strategic partnership inked with Gnosis earlier this month, which also includes a $2 million investment.
Hannes Graah, Zeal founder and former VP of growth at Revolut, says: “Spending crypto is hard — many think of crypto as an online casino due to its volatile price movements. Wallets have reinforced this perception by focusing heavily on trading. Zeal’s new approach combines a feature-packed EVM-wallet with a Visa card that lets people buy a coffee or connect to Uniswap from the same app. Unlike previous crypto cards that require a fiat balance, the Gnosis Card spends onchain crypto directly.”
When a merchant requests payment from a customer, Gnosis Pay checks the customer’s token balance in their smart wallet. If sufficient, the payment is authorized, and the merchant can claim it. The tokens are then withdrawn and converted to fiat for the merchant. The entire process is instantaneous and seamless for the user.
“From their experience of working at Revolut, there is no question that the Zeal team has created one of the most user-friendly self-custodial wallets in DeFi," says Friederike Ernst, co-founder of Gnosis. "The lack of biometrics and seed phrases will make this the perfect wallet for anyone getting started with DeFi. We are also particularly excited about the launch of the Gnosis card. This is a huge step in allowing people to actually purchase everyday items with their crypto. It also enables our ecosystem to take a large step ahead in the journey of seamlessly integrating Web3 financial rails into existing payment experiences.”