Visa plans to integrate automatic payments with cryptocurrencies

The expert group of the payment giant Visa has proposed to integrate automatic cryptocurrency payments, so users will be able to pay bills in cryptocurrencies with a minimum of time. Providers will automatically withdraw the required amount to pay for the usual services: phone bills, monthly subscriptions, utilities.

Visa representatives are confident that the introduction of automatic payments can encourage cryptocurrency owners to use their savings as means of payment, which will have a positive impact on the popularization of digital assets. In the world of traditional finance, such services have long been commonplace. However, in the field of digital assets, when only cryptocurrency holders have access to private keys and the ability to operate their funds, such a solution is a big step.

The difficulty of launching the new feature is that automated programmed payments that regularly withdraw funds from a user’s account «require engineering work.» This is because no smart contract can initiate the sending of funds on its own. The user always needs to sign these transactions.

Visa has proposed to solve this issue by creating a new type of cryptocurrency wallet called a «delegable account» based on the concept of «Account Abstraction» (AA). The founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, proposed the «Account Abstraction» back in 2015, its essence is to combine wallets and smart contracts on ETH into independent accounts.

According to Visa representatives, the delegated accounts created in this way will function as smart contracts and allow users to carry out scheduled transactions that will be executed according to the logic embedded in them, without the need to manually sign each individual payment.

The Visa team supports cryptocurrencies despite the problems in the blockchain industry. This was stated by the payment giant’s CEO Al Kelly in late November. According to him, Visa is laying the groundwork for offering services related to digital assets, as the company expects an increase in demand among business owners and consumers for the use of plastic cards for cryptocurrency transactions.