Visa is Getting Behind Digital Currencies and Blockchain

Payment titan Visa has declared its support and development of blockchain and digital currencies. The financial services company wrote in a blog post, “we’re reshaping how money moves across the globe, and that means pursuing a broad array of technologies and partnerships. In that regard, digital currencies offer an exciting avenue for us to continue doing what we do best: expanding our network-of-networks to support new forms of commerce.”

The post entitled “Advancing our approach to digital currency” tells the company’s purposes and plans to experiment additional into blockchain and cryptocurrencies, joining in the relevance of its pursuit as the world moves forward digitalization in the finance industry. With more customers and businesses embracing digital currencies and circulation growing wide, stretching over US$10 billion in May, Visa is striving to tap into this space and avoid falling behind from opponents.

Before Visa’s declaration, the United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued an official letter saying national savings banks and federal savings associations are now obliged to offer cryptocurrency custody services for consumers. Acting Comptroller of the Currency, Brian P. Brooks, stated in a statement, “from safe-deposit boxes to virtual vaults, we must ensure banks can meet the financial services needs of their customers today. This opinion clarifies that banks can continue satisfying their customers’ needs for safeguarding their most valuable assets, which today for tens of millions of Americans includes cryptocurrency.”

Consequently, legacy finance companies such as Visa are announcing their support of digital currencies and blockchain. Visa explains that its primarily looking to help join its network of financial firms, merchants, and customers to adapt to an emerging payment sphere powered by blockchain and digital currency. The payment company revealed its years of research in blockchain-inspired solutions strive to bring next-gen digital transactions to life.

“Our research team has been exploring the science of blockchain technology for several years. Today their research is focused on new mechanisms to improve scalability and enable offline digital currency transactions.”