Visa to Integrate Bitcoin Payments in Brazil
Takeaways
- Visa to implement crypto in Brazil banking system via API’s
- Visa developing “their own” business to business smart contract platform
- They are testing “direct Bitcoin payments” for their crypto cards, eliminating fiat intermediaries
As Bitcoin bounces back from an extremely conspicuous flash crash on the day El-Salvador made Bitcoin Legal tender and distributed Bitcoin to millions, more bullish news in Latin America for crypto and Bitcoin is being swept under the rug. Visa announced that they plan to bring “crypto services to traditional banking platforms in Brazil”. According to the announcement, they plan to integrate crypto solutions into the banking system in Brazil, and also announced they are working on “direct Bitcoin payments”.
Visa’s VP of new business in Brazil, Eduardo Abreu said that they plan to develop APIs to “unite traditional banks with cryptographic products”. What this would mean is that investments in crypto, and ETF’s, would be possible within the traditional banking platforms, with no middleman. This would be massive as Brazil already has a Bitcoin ETF, and with a population of nearly 225 million, Visa is looking to make a major splash in the world of crypto.
They also announced that they are working with “several national companies” to issue cryptocurrency cards. Some of the participating companies include Zro bank, Alterbank, and Rippio. However, one of the bigger pieces of the announcement is that Visa appears to be working on a “business-to-business” oriented blockchain that will facilitate payments between companies–using smart contracts to do so.
It will be interesting to see if Visa, which has made crypto investments in the recent past, is going to aim to compete with other crypto smart contract platforms by building their own, which is an arduous process, rather than just utilizing one that is already market-ready. Visa could always just utilize a private version of an already existing smart contract blockchain.
Probably the most interesting part, though, is that Visa stated they are testing direct Bitcoin payments in Brazil. This would mean that Bitcoin transactions will be able to occur peer-to-peer, somehow, within the Visa infrastructure. Visa states that this is “completely different than what happens now with most crypto cards, where there has to be an intermediary that exchanges bitcoin for fiat money on the fly.”
Visa has made their crypto interest very clear as of late when they purchased a Cryptopunk for 165,000 dollars just a couple of weeks ago. Visa has also indicated that they have an interest in implementing NFT’s as well. Head of crypto as Visa, Cuy Sheffield said that NFT’s “will play an “important role” in the future of retail, social media commerce, and entertainment”. He said that cryptopunks have become a “cultural icon” in the crypto community and mentioned that they bought the cryptopunk to gain an understanding of NFT’s and indicated Visa is keen on using them going forward.
Once again, this is an extremely big development–in that the largest payment giant in the world, Visa, has executives at the helm that are not only ready to implement crypto, but appear to actually like it. To put it in perspective, can you imagine Visa announcing they are testing direct Bitcoin payments just one year ago? Always look at the whole picture, crypto is taking over, and Visa will either participate or be consumed–this is Web 3.0.
The post Visa to Integrate Bitcoin Payments in Brazil appeared first on CryptosRus.
Text source: CryptosRus
