Visa, the multinational payments giant, has announced it is planning to bring cryptocurrency services to traditional banking platforms in Brazil. The company also announced that it is working with several cryptocurrency companies in the country to bring cryptocurrency payment cards to the market and hinted at a possible direct integration of bitcoin in payments.
Visa Gears Up for Crypto Integration in Brazil
Credit card giant Visa has announced it plans to integrate cryptocurrency solutions into traditional banking platforms. Eduardo Abreu, Visa’s vice president of new business in Brazil, stated the company has plans to develop applications (APIs) to unite traditional banks with cryptographic products. In this way, it would be possible to make investments in cryptocurrencies and ETFs within banking platforms with no intermediates.
Visa also announced it is working with several national companies to issue cryptocurrency cards. Among these are Zro Bank, Alterbank, and Rippio, which will allow users to connect these to bank accounts. The Visa executive did not comment on a possible ETA for these developments.
B2B Developments, Direct Bitcoin Payments, and NFTs
Visa revealed that they are also working on a B2B (business-to-business) oriented blockchain that will allow payment settlement among companies using smart contracts. Abreu stated that the system was already in testing phases with some of their customers, and that the company would have more announcements in this regard in the future. This system would enhance transparency in payments among providers and suppliers, allowing everyone with access to the system to verify payments and deposits.
Visa also stated they will start testing direct bitcoin payments in the country. This means that transactions will allow bitcoin to be transferred to other accounts directly. 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.
The inclusion of direct bitcoin payments will facilitate the payment process and eliminate these intermediaries. In March, the CEO of Visa in Brazil stated it expects to implement this functionality sometime this year. Abreu stated there was also an NFT initiative in the works for Brazil. Visa has already jumped onto the NFT bandwagon by purchasing a Cryptopunk, a digital avatar on the Ethereum network, for $165K in ether, in August.
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