A recent report from the US-based multinational financial services corporation has shown that it is making progress on its crypto payment technology
Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, reported that the company would soon integrate blockchain into its operations. Although he didn’t give more details on when the project would be implemented, he pointed out that the research in the area would go on until 2021.
He went on to say that Visa had reached out to and interacted closely with central banks all around the world on the subject of digital currencies. Sheffield explained that the giant payment company was willing to lend its expertise on the matter to help central banks “as they think about CBDCs” and other financial institutions “exploring” stablecoins.
The senior director also revealed that Visa had reviewed and weighed up the prospects of offline digital currency payments. Nonetheless, Sheffield was quick to bring to the fore technical obstacles in the way of making these payments more secure. According to him, the majority of the central banks would come up against the same issues experienced by private companies that build stablecoins.
As it happens, a research paper from the Bank of Japan showed that the main hindrance to the launch of these tokens is the overall accessibility and resilience of CBDCs.
Terry Angelos, the senior VP and global head of Fintech at Visa, hinted that the financial service company was looking to extend the size of its principal members to accommodate more crypto-centric companies.
At the moment, we only know of the US-based crypto exchange Coinbase that forged a partnership with Visa to earn its principal membership. The collaboration with Visa allows Coinbase members to use their crypto assets in any place where Visa is accepted.
“We are seeing significant interest in demand from crypto companies that want to work with Visa and connect their clients to our network of 60-plus million merchants,” said Angelos.
Sheffield added that Visa had incorporated 25 more companies from all around the world. In a statement, he said, “We have close relationships with a number of the leading crypto wallets and exchanges, and we help them access our network of over 60 million merchants.”