Visa launches next step of crypto plans

Top executives from Visa reveal that the company is working towards much more in the cryptocurrency industry

Senior director and head of cryptocurrency at Visa, Cuy Sheffield, revealed in a report that the global payments network was taking another step forward regarding its work on its cryptocurrency payment technology. The company would also be incorporating blockchain tech into its operations.

While the Visa executive did not provide a specific timeline for the project, Sheffield said that the research on that front would continue until next year.

Sheffield revealed that Visa had collaborated closely with central banks around the world on the development of CBDCs, as the topic had been making headlines recently. Conversely, Visa also wanted to offer its expertise to help the central banks in the development of their CBDCs, as well as other firms that are looking into the possibility of developing privately issued stablecoins.

In addition, Visa is looking into the potential of offline digital currency payments, which Sheffield stated is a top priority for central banks as well. However, he believed that there were technical challenges in ensuring that digital currency payments were secure, predicting that central banks may have to face the same factors that affect private companies building stablecoins.

On that note, a research paper from the Bank of Japan did affirm that the accessibility and resilience of CBDCs was a prominent hurdle in launching such tokens.

When asked by Forbes about their plans on joining consortiums in the future after the company’s withdrawal from the Libra Association, which is affiliated with Facebook, the Senior Vice President and Global Head of Fintech Terry Angelos revealed that the company has not made any decisions to join consortiums as of the moment.

“If we join a consortium, it’ll be because we want to influence and help some of those principles that we believe in be executed. That said, we haven’t made any decisions to join consortiums right now and I doubt that we would join any exclusively.” he explained.

“We want to support the digital currencies that our diverse set of clients demand. Therefore, part of the network of network strategy isn’t to try and just pick a winner. Rather, it’s being able to have products and services that work with many different digital currencies and networks.“ Sheffield added.

According to Angelos, Visa is also planning to add more companies in the cryptocurrency industry as principal members of Visa. As of writing, the leading cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase partnered with Visa to receive its principal membership. This allows users of the Coinbase crypto exchange to spend their cryptos in any location that accepts Visa.