Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Says CEO • Hacker News Board

Re: Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Says CEO

#21

Post by lotsofpulp » Sun, Jan 31, 2021, 10:17 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #15

kneel wrote: post #8

Don't trust, verify. It makes sense to Visa since they are in the business of verifying trust. Proof of transaction history (ie credit) is public and inherent to blockchain, apparently this is taking some time to realize.

Visa is in the payments business. The US Federal Reserve ("The Fed") is going live with an instant payments service in 2023-2024 [1] [2]. What does that leave Visa with? Hence, the existential crisis (first, trying to buy Plaid, and now "Crypto!"). [1] https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/index.... [2] https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/08/31/fednow-the-federa...

Visa is left with a valuable rewards game system where people get cash back or points or whatever. Plus the liability protections that credit cards come with.

People can already use debit cards with no effort, and merchants can accept that at very minimal costs. But still, most merchants are hesitant to offer lower prices to purchases with debit card because they are betting people spend more with credit cards.

I don’t expect this to change when the Fed’s system comes into play. I would actually expect the Fed’s system to replace cash transactions more than credit cards.

Re: Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Says CEO

#22

Post by andrewmcwatters » Sun, Jan 31, 2021, 10:18 PM UTC

I wonder if this is one of these dot-com bubble-esque articles that we'll look back on and think, "What an interesting time."

Re: Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Says CEO

#23

Post by wincy » Sun, Jan 31, 2021, 10:19 PM UTC

shanecoin wrote: post #7

lovetocode wrote: post #2

Cryptocurrency continues to gain more ground but I still have my reservations about it being the currency of the future. If by design, cryptocurrency has a finite volume of transferrable currency, do early adopters have an unfair advantage that could potentially make the currency unusable? I don’t see how it could possibly be fair when earlier mining yielded currency more quickly.

> cryptocurrency has a finite volume of transferrable currency This is true of Bitcoin. Others, such as Ethereum, have a known inflation schedule, which would help alleviate the issue you mentioned as being a currency of the future. Furthermore, it is looking like the "currency of the future" may (at least in the short term), look more like a cryptocurrency that is worth $1 and is 1:1 backed by a dollar in a bank acc…

Couldn’t a government just destroy a stable coin by seizing the currency backing it? Isn’t the point of a cryptocurrency supposed to be that it’s not controlled by any government?

Re: Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Says CEO

#24

Post by alextheparrot » Sun, Jan 31, 2021, 10:21 PM UTC

Are there any crypto projects that allow chargebacks? I religiously avoid using my debit card except at bank ATMs to avoid that once every few years when someone skims my credit card.

That and rewards are the main value-add of a traditional payment flow at the moment.

Re: Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Says CEO

#25

Post by pjc50 » Sun, Jan 31, 2021, 10:21 PM UTC

kneel wrote: post #8

Don't trust, verify. It makes sense to Visa since they are in the business of verifying trust. Proof of transaction history (ie credit) is public and inherent to blockchain, apparently this is taking some time to realize.

However, not with a central counterparty doing off chain transactions and settlement. It makes sense, really: the speed and energy consumption of bitcoin is far too bad for mass adoption of direct transactions, and there's no fraud prevention or recovery of accidental loss, so Visa can replace the inefficient blockchain parts with a nice central database that the few remaining people wanting to do purchases rather than speculation can use.

Re: Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Says CEO

#26

Post by AgentME » Sun, Jan 31, 2021, 10:22 PM UTC

bootyfarm wrote: post #6

Great, let’s all accelerate climate change even faster.

The second most popular cryptocurrency, Ethereum, is making progress toward adopting proof-of-stake, which will obsolete the need for mining and therefore be much more eco-friendly. Hopefully other cryptocurrencies will do this too as PoS becomes more understood and proven.

Re: Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Says CEO

#27

Post by daptaq » Sun, Jan 31, 2021, 10:22 PM UTC

doggosphere wrote: post #10

lovetocode wrote: post #2

Cryptocurrency continues to gain more ground but I still have my reservations about it being the currency of the future. If by design, cryptocurrency has a finite volume of transferrable currency, do early adopters have an unfair advantage that could potentially make the currency unusable? I don’t see how it could possibly be fair when earlier mining yielded currency more quickly.

Fiat currencies will probably always exist. Digital crypto assets like Bitcoin or Ethereum will exist alongside them. Bitcoin can be an asset like gold, of which users keep a portion of their networth to protect from economic uncertainty. Its deflationary policy may make it less usable as a currency, but at least crypto gives people choice.

> Digital crypto assets like Bitcoin or Ethereum will exist alongside them. Bitcoin can be an asset like gold, of which users keep a portion of their networth to protect from economic uncertainty.

Seems improbable, as it is far less stable than Gold. From what I see, it is almost never used as a currency, and almost always as a speculative asset. The main indicator for me is that Bitcoin is always measured in Dollars (or some other fiat currency), instead of having some value that it taken to be it's own. Have you ever heard someone say "This bike cost me 0.63 Bitcoin"?

Re: Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Says CEO

#28

Post by londons_explore » Sun, Jan 31, 2021, 10:22 PM UTC

wincy wrote: post #23

shanecoin wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> cryptocurrency has a finite volume of transferrable currency This is true of Bitcoin. Others, such as Ethereum, have a known inflation schedule, which would help alleviate the issue you mentioned as being a currency of the future. Furthermore, it is looking like the "currency of the future" may (at least in the short term), look more like a cryptocurrency that is worth $1 and is 1:1 backed by a dollar in a bank acc…

Couldn’t a government just destroy a stable coin by seizing the currency backing it? Isn’t the point of a cryptocurrency supposed to be that it’s not controlled by any government?

Hasn't panned out that way for Tether... So far...

Re: Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Says CEO

#29

Post by pjc50 » Sun, Jan 31, 2021, 10:23 PM UTC

doggosphere wrote: post #10

lovetocode wrote: post #2

Cryptocurrency continues to gain more ground but I still have my reservations about it being the currency of the future. If by design, cryptocurrency has a finite volume of transferrable currency, do early adopters have an unfair advantage that could potentially make the currency unusable? I don’t see how it could possibly be fair when earlier mining yielded currency more quickly.

Fiat currencies will probably always exist. Digital crypto assets like Bitcoin or Ethereum will exist alongside them. Bitcoin can be an asset like gold, of which users keep a portion of their networth to protect from economic uncertainty. Its deflationary policy may make it less usable as a currency, but at least crypto gives people choice.

You're not protecting from uncertainty with a currency whose value fluctuates against the dollar by 10% daily on a regular basis.

Re: Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Says CEO

#30

Post by cft » Sun, Jan 31, 2021, 10:23 PM UTC

lovetocode wrote: post #2

Cryptocurrency continues to gain more ground but I still have my reservations about it being the currency of the future. If by design, cryptocurrency has a finite volume of transferrable currency, do early adopters have an unfair advantage that could potentially make the currency unusable? I don’t see how it could possibly be fair when earlier mining yielded currency more quickly.

The original holders will die, and their heirs will sell. The original holdings will diffuse to the richest as with any asset, give it 100 years