Crypto Payments in El Salvador: How Local Businesses are Leading the Adoption

Physical cards have been the standard, but they come with their share of limitations: manufacturing delays, added costs, and inflexibility. Virtual cards, however, bring a faster, smarter alternative, allowing users to maintain self-custody and link their chosen assets directly for spending. 

That’s where the Virtual NAKA Card comes in. Unlike traditional Web2 virtual cards, the Virtual NAKA Card empowers users with self-custody, enabling full control of their digital assets. Its innovative design combines the convenience of a virtual card with the flexibility and security of blockchain technology. Whether your customers will be transacting, storing value, or exploring the possibilities of decentralized finance, the Virtual NAKA Card adapts to your needs, offering a seamless bridge between the traditional and digital financial worlds. 

We spoke with Luka Paragi, NAKA’s Chief Product Officer, to learn how the Virtual NAKA Card is simplifying payments, empowering issuers, and providing a new benchmark for the services businesses can offer their customers. 

Can you explain the main differences between the Virtual NAKA Card and a traditional physical card, and why a business might choose one over the other?‍

Luka Paragi: Virtual NAKA Cards provide a more cost-effective solution for card issuance with on-demand distribution. Unlike physical payment cards, which require manufacturing and delivery—incurring both time and expense—virtual cards are instantly enabled within the user’s card management application, streamlining the process. Virtual NAKA Cards also remove the need for owning a physical plastic card as well as optimize the payment process with self-custodial NAKA Cards. 

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How do you see the Virtual NAKA Card enhancing cross-border transactions for businesses operating in multiple regions?‍

Luka Paragi: We see stable coins as one of the best options for remittance. Transactions are near instant and fees represent a fraction of the cost in comparison to traditional remittance methods. Where is the problem? Receivers need to off-ramp from stable coins into local FIAT currencies and that can be expensive. Here NAKA comes into play. Our payment network removes the need for remittance receivers to off-ramp and can now directly spend their received stablecoins.

As the Virtual NAKA Cards are one of the most affordable and accessible to issue this solution is even more suited for markets with a large percentage of unbanked people and markets with high inflation. 

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What’s the timeline for the evolution of the Virtual NAKA Cards in the upcoming years? When will the virtual cards be accepted online, etc.?‍

Luka Paragi: Next year will be an important one as we focus on key markets where our impact will be most significant. In these targeted regions, we will work to expand our acceptance points and onboard new NAKA Card issuers.

Looking ahead, we plan to introduce support for online payments, enhance our virtual card functionality, and extend support to the iOS platform. The NAKA Network will also benefit from extensive “under the hood” optimizations, delivering even faster, more cost-effective, and secure transaction processing. Additionally, as we onboard new card issuers, the payment network will expand to support new tokenized assets and currencies.

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How does NAKA support issuers that want to customize the branding or user interface of the Virtual Card within their app?

Luka Paragi: Virtual NAKA Card issuers enjoy full creative freedom to customize their issued cards to reflect their brand identity. While physical cards allow for custom designs, they are limited to a single design per card order. Virtual cards, on the other hand, enable each user to have a unique, personalized card design.

This level of customization strengthens the connection between businesses and their customers, offering a distinctive, branded experience that stands out in today’s competitive market.

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Are there specific industries or sectors that would particularly benefit from offering a Virtual NAKA Card?‍

Luka Paragi: As mentioned earlier, developing markets greatly benefit from virtual cards as the most affordable card-issuing option. However, virtual cards are not limited to this sector alone. Many modern banks and neo-banks now enable their customers to buy and hold crypto assets and are also tokenizing assets such as precious metals and stocks.

In this space, NAKA can be a valuable partner by providing an additional virtual card option for their user base, enabling seamless spending of these tokenized assets directly.

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The Virtual NAKA Card isn’t just an update to traditional payments—it’s a complete rethink of how we handle financial transactions in a digital world. From solving cross-border challenges to offering unprecedented flexibility for issuers, it’s a tool designed with both businesses and users in mind.

As our CPO explains, with upcoming innovations and a growing network of issuers, the Virtual NAKA Card is set to redefine what’s possible in the world of payments.

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