Skip to main content

Visa Is Building A Payment Channel Network On Ethereum

Visa has been active in engaging with crypto, and this week is no exception. Reports have emerged that the payment facilitator and financial services firm has deployed it’s first smart contract on Ethereum Testnet.

The move isn’t the first to signal Visa’s increased acceptance to adopt crypto in their operations.

Visa’s Universal Payment Channel

The company is showing clear investment in becoming a leader of payment processing through central banks via crypto. Visa’s first smart contract deployment was a payment channel accepting both Ether and USDC. This is a conceptual protocol in development by the payment processor that will enable interoperability between central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), called a “Universal Payment Channel,” or UPC.

The timing is appropriate given the global discussion around CBDCs. This week alone, Nigeria is looking to be the first country in Africa to launch a CBDC, the Bank of England has released it’s CBDC forum members, and New Zealand’s Central Bank has sought public feedback on CBDCs. Of course, the biggest story in the speculation is China’s recent bitcoin ban paired with rumors of the country’s exploration of a ‘digital yuan.’ Through it all, it’s safe to say that crypto and centralized currencies are at the forefront of most countries treasury departments lately.

Visa’s UPC is being built to support different CBDCs across a variety of blockchains. The company’s head of crypto, Cuy Sheffield, described the initiative as a “longer-term future thinking concept around a way that Visa could potentially help become a bridge between one digital currency on one blockchain and another digital currency on another blockchain.”

Ethereum testnet is host to Visa's first take at a Universal Payment Channel protocol. | Source: ETH-USD on TradingView.com

Related Reading | Crypto Analyst Says Ethereum Market Is A “Ticking Time Bomb”, Here’s Why

It’s All Part Of The Plan

This week’s development is far from the first move from Visa to dig their heels in crypto. Last month, the company purchased a CryptoPunk and released a positive perspective around NFTs. And at the midpoint of 2021, the company shared that over $1B had been spent on crypto-linked Visa cards on the year. Through it all, Visa has shown a clear favorite in Ethereum as well, and now is utilizing the chain once again with the Universal Payment Channel. The company’s clear engagement with Ethereum could prove fruitful to establishing further institution buy-in for the blockchain.

In the corresponding UPC research and insights report released by Visa, the company shows a clear desire to be a “network of blockchain networks” for global transactions. Digital asset tracker 21Shares has described Ethereum as “the most significant single innovation within the cryptoasset and blockchain industry since the creation of Bitcoin in 2009.” Should Visa’s UPC be built on the backbone of Ethereum? There’s good reason to be optimistic looking forward.

Related Reading | TA: Ethereum Just Reversed But $3,150 Presents A Major Challenge

Featured image from Pexels, Charts from TradingView.com

from NewsBTC https://ift.tt/3kUU5gk
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Any questions, Please.

Popular posts from this blog

Five Bitcoin Price Charts Analyzing The Dramatic Q1 2022 Conclusion

There are only hours remaining until the Q1 2022 close in Bitcoin price action. With the important quarterly candle set to close tonight, let’s look at what technicals might say about the direction of the next quarter. Q1 2022 Comes To A Close For Bitcoin The first quarter of a year, often sets the tone for the year to come. In investments, a poor Q1 performance is indicative of a bad year ahead. Considering the fact that Bitcoin price is now above $45,000 after touching $32,000 this quarter, it is tough to say the performance has been “poor” by anything other than crypto standards. Related Reading | Bitcoin Weekly Momentum Flips Bullish For First Time In 2022 The cryptocurrency has recovered nearly 40% from the low, leaving a long wick behind. Such a long wick suggests that before the quarter came to a close, buyers stepped up in a major way. Buyers were able to step up in a larger capacity in Q1 2022 than bears were able to in the final quarter of last year. The bearish wick to cl...
Post a Comment
Read more

FTX hacker reportedly transfers a portion of stolen funds to OKX after using Bitcoin mixer

On-chain activity suggests that the hacker has sent at least 225 BTC (4.5 million) to OKX so far. Hackers who drained FTX and FTX USA of over $450 million worth of assets just moments after the doomed crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, continue to move assets around in an attempt to launder the money.  A crypto analyst who goes by ZachXBT on Twitter alleged that the FTX hackers have transferred a portion of the stolen funds to the OKX exchange, after using the Bitcoin mixer ChipMixer. The analyst reported that at least 225 BTC — worth $4.1 million USD — has been sent to OKX so far.  1/ Myself and @bax1337 spent this past weekend looking into the FTX attacker’s deposits to ChipMixer. It appears they’ve likely been transferring a portion of the stolen FTX funds to OKX after withdrawing from CM So far we’ve accounted for at least $4.1m (255 BTC) sent to OKX pic.twitter.com/C46JZWtktn — ZachXBT (@zachxbt) November 29, 2022 According to ZachXBT, the FTX h...
Post a Comment
Read more

2 metrics signal the $1T crypto market cap support likely won’t hold

Despite the 8.5% weekly rally in cryptocurrencies, the lack of stablecoin premiums in Asia and futures markets activity shows buyers’ lack of confidence. Cryptocurrencies broke the $1 trillion market capitalization resistance on Oct. 26, which had been holding strong for the previous 41 days. Despite Bitcoin’s ( BTC ) modest 5.5% weekly gains, the aggregate value of 20,000 listed tokens increased by 8.5% between Oct. 24 and 31. Total crypto market cap, USD (in billions). Source: TradingView The cryptocurrency market was positively impacted by a 6.3% weekly rally in the Russell 2000 mid-capitalization stock market index. Some encouraging news accompanied the positive tailwinds from traditional markets. For instance,  55,000 BTC was withdrawn from Binance on Oct. 26, a record high. Typically, analysts consider the reduced number of coins deposited on exchanges a bullish indicator, as the immediate selling pressure eases. Moreover, exchange and wallet provider Blockchain.com ...
Post a Comment
Read more