Cryptocurrency owners will be able to use their Visa cards

The head of Visa’s cryptocurrency division, Q Sheffield, has spoken about the company’s new plans to integrate digital asset payments. According to Sheffield, during his speech at StarkWare Sessions 2023, Visa will allow its customers to convert cryptocurrencies into fiat money and vice versa.

«This is one of the areas where we want to develop muscle memory. Justas we can convert dollars to euros during international transactions, we should be able to convert digitally tokenized dollars into their traditional fiat counterpart,» said Q Sheffield, emphasizing that in the near future, the payment giant will allow converting stablecoins. Sheffield did not name the exact timeframe for the launch of the new service, but assured that Visa has already tested the technology and was satisfied with the result.

. @cuysheffield and @visa have fell into the rabbit hole of Account Abstraction!

This is huge! pic.twitter.com/CFniLLBq5C

— Starknet-Ecosystem.com ✨ (@StarknetEco) February 5, 2023

According to the head of the crypto division, the payment giant is exploring how to incorporate blockchain technology into its existing network to speed up transfers. However, for now, international transfers are made using the Swift system, which does not support operations with stablecoins. «Currently, we are working with Swift, so users cannot move money as often and quickly as they would like, as there are a number of limitations in Swift networks. We’re experimenting, testing, and looking for new solutions to enable users to make cryptocurrency transfers,» Sheffield explained.

As a reminder, at the end of December 2022, Visa representatives stated that the introduction of automatic payments could encourage cryptocurrency holders to use their savings as means of payment, which would 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 owners have access to private keys and the ability to operate their funds, this decision is a big step.

«It's too early to draw conclusions, as blockchain development is still in its infancy. However, we believe that stablecoins and state digital currencies have the potential to play an important role in the payment industry. We have many initiatives in this direction,» Visa CEO Al Kelly emphasized at the annual presentation to shareholders.