Automatic cryptocurrency payments will become available in the Visa app
The U.S. corporation Visa plans to launch automatic payments using cryptocurrency. Digital money will be used to pay utility bills.
It should be noted that Visa is not the first operator, which has decided to expand opportunities for customers by using cryptocurrency. A number of banks already offer a similar service. According to Visa, in the near future, its customers will be able to pay their utility, Internet, and telephone bills through electronic wallets.
The payment operator first announced its intention to include the possibility of using cryptocurrencies in its application in December, when information about how such processes will be carried out was published in the company’s blog. It is known that a gateway based on Ethereum will be used to carry out transactions. This technology does not need to confirm each transaction, all processes are carried out automatically.
The very concept of automatic utility payments is widely used by various banks. As for such payments using cryptocurrency, for this purpose, Visa plans to apply a new type of electronic wallet based on the AA principle, or account abstraction. This concept was first published in 2015 and involves the ability to combine smart contracts and wallets based on the Ethereum ecosystem.
A Visa customer will be able to configure the necessary functionality independently in the company’s app. Thus, the system will automatically transfer funds from the account to the e-wallet on a regular basis. While the innovation from Visa is still under development, the company’s specialists are changing the functionality of the service to make it compatible with cryptocurrency technology. However, representatives of the company promise to launch a test version of the service in the near future, and after testing – to make a version available to all customers.
Different companies are testing different systems to pay utility bills using digital currency. For example, in 2021, the municipality of Williston in the U.S. allowed local residents to use cryptocurrencies to pay regular bills. For this purpose, the city authorities cooperate with BitPay service.
For now, the list of services available for payment this way is limited, but the municipality plans to expand it over time. BitPay payment operator charges 1% of the amount for each transaction. It is also possible to make payments through Google and Apple Pay mobile apps, but in this case, the fee is 3%. Williston has become the third U.S. city where it has become possible to make utility payments with crypto. Many residents have actively supported the initiative and used this payment option. Moreover, the approach is planned to be improved to make it even more comfortable for e-wallet holders.
