Crypto payments
What’s new in the field of accepting and using crypto payments
According to a recent Visa report, crypto payments are no longer a curiosity. As a result of 3 months of work with cryptocurrency services, customers made payments worth $2.5 billion, which is 70% of the total volume for 2021. Consumers see the usefulness of a Visa card connected to an account on a cryptocurrency platform because “it gives them the opportunity to use funds to pay for purchases, allows them to manage expenses, and everything is paid immediately and without problems,” says Visa CFO Vasant Prabhu. Visa is currently working with more than 60 crypto companies. And they are even preparing to launch their own consulting center to help clients take their first steps in the cryptocurrency market. Obviously, although we are still far from using cryptocurrencies as a daily means of payment, work on their adoption, integration and implementation is actively underway. In this article we will tell you about several important developments in this area.
This February, Apple introduced the Tap to Pay feature, which turns the device into a terminal for contactless payments. Users can pay using contactless credit and debit cards and other digital wallets “with a simple touch to their iPhone — no additional equipment or payment terminal is required.” This means that customers using Coinbase Card, CryptoCom Visa Card or similar payment cards can use their cryptocurrency assets to make payments via Tap to Pay. This spring the first payment platform offering this service will be Stripe, as well as the e-commerce site Shopify Point of Sale . A feature will be added to the iPhone that will allow sellers to accept cryptocurrency payments. By the time of launch, it will be available only in the USA, on iPhone XS and older models.
LINE Corporation, which is a Japanese messaging giant, announced that from March 16, users will be able to pay with a native LINK token ($LN) in any of the LINE Pay online stores. The trial period, which will last until December 26, is aimed at testing real-world scenarios for using the token, as well as increasing the convenience and number of payment options for users.
Without going far away from the giants of mobile services and devices, let’s also recall Samsung, which recently announced Samsung Wallet, which will be integrated into the new Galaxy S22 Ultra smartphone. The wallet is a secure storage, and it was designed to provide users with access to a “set of digital products” that include driver’s licenses, ID cards, digital house keys and also cryptocurrencies. Samsung Wallet will work on its own payment platform Samsung Pay. Security will be provided by the Samsung Knox Vault platform, which encrypts confidential information and blockchain keys, and also stores them separately from the main operating system of the phone.
The payment processing giant PayPal is not left out. It is doing internal work on the development of the crypto payments direction. A team of six industry experts has been formed to act as consultants on cryptocurrency, blockchain and digital currencies. The purpose of such an advisory board is to create a more inclusive digital financial ecosystem, as well as support current and future projects.
The leading crypto exchanges are not far behind. In 2022, Binance, which aspires to become the leader of the Ukrainian crypto market, plans to issue a payment cryptocurrency card in Ukraine. The balance on it will be in cryptocurrencies, fiat is not required. At the time of the transaction, the amount is automatically converted from crypto to fiat. Representatives of the local Binance division say that local laws do not prohibit payments in cryptocurrencies if payment assets are converted into fiat.
FTX announced the release of a VISA debit card. This is how the card will work: the cryptocurrency on the FTX balance will be automatically converted to the required amount at the time of payment. So, there will be spent crypto not fiat. The card is not available yet, but you can join the waiting list.
Of course, as Solana validators, it’s our duty and honor to mention Solana Pay, which was announced this month. Solana Pay is a set of decentralized payment standards and protocols for merchants that allow them to directly accept and make payments in dollar digital currency, such as USD Coin ($USDC), at points of sale and online. Solana Pay makes it possible to conduct almost instant settlement at almost zero cost of payments from participating sellers, opening access to more than $4 billion currently in circulation on the Solana blockchain, and more than $49 billion across the entire digital asset market as of February 1, 2022. The first payments were already made using Solana Pay: a cappuccino was bought at Bliss Coffee Cafe, and a latte was paid for at Red Giant Coffee. A few days after the launch, Solana Pay attracted more than 300 potential customers, most of them small and medium-sized enterprises. Solana Pay uses all the advantages of the Solana blockchain, which means that in addition to high transaction speed and low fees, it is also carbon neutral and provide privacy. Now Solana Pay is supported by FTX, Phantom and Slope wallets. In the future, they plan to add Solflare, Crypto Please and Glow. The infrastructure partners are Cirlce, Citcon, checkout.com.
There was also news that Google will add the option of storing digital assets to its virtual cards. To do this, the company signed contracts with the Coinbase crypto exchange and the BitPay provider. But it is not yet known when this service will be available.
Ledger has launched the issue of Crypto Life (CL) cryptocurrency debit cards, which allows Ledger users to buy, exchange and stake crypto. The CL card supports Bitcoin ($BTC), Ethereum ($ETH) and USD Coin ($USDC) and Tether ($USDT) stablecoins. Cardholders can instantly convert their cryptocurrency into fiat. Users also have the opportunity to get a loan using their digital assets as collateral. So, cardholders will be able to use their debit card without having to sell crypto. Users can also receive salaries on this card and choose what percentage of their income they want to convert into $BTC and $ETH.
In addition, such large companies as Airbnb and Uber say that they are working to accept payments in crypto in the future. All this news shows that we are moving towards the adoption of cryptocurrencies as new global currencies, and towards the creation of a new economic system.
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