Traditional Payment Giants Adopt Blockchain; Does This Mean the Merging of Two Worlds?

The realm of traditional finance is in the vicinity of a transformation. As people seek for more convenient innovative alternatives, global payment giants are forced to explore these technologies to meet their users’ needs.

Many credit card and financial service providers including central banks are studying the role of blockchain-steered digital money in their economic, finance and banking sector. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic intensified this process as the need for digital innovations has grown rapidly. However, some global players have been exploring technologies such as blockchain even before the pandemic.  

Adopting blockchain

Back in 2016, Visa launched a blockchain-based Business-to-Business (B2B) payment project dubbed Visa B2B Connect. The solution was aimed at managing global B2B transactions in real-time and in an efficient, predictable, fast, secure and transparent way. 

Now, it seems the company wants to further enhance the possibility of the platform while taking the course to more innovations. Recently, it has listed a vacancy for a blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) specialist with the knowledge of Ethereum to enhance its platform. The listing further says that the company requires the professional for building a distributed app for card-less payments and cross-border transactions.

Another payment giant, PayPal, is also exploring innovative techs such as blockchain and cryptocurrency, according to CoinIdol, a world blockchain news outlet. Recently, the company also announced the hiring of blockchain and cryptocurrency specialists. The announcement triggered rumours that PayPal is going to offer direct cryptocurrency buying and selling options. However, no one from the company has confirmed or denied the rumours so far. 

Are traditional payments slowly merging with digital currency?

It seems that traditional finance is merging with innovations to enhance the user experience and offer more efficiency. Both traditional payments and cryptocurrency offer their users significant benefits to fulfil various needs. 

In this period of Covid-19 pandemic when paper money is often considered a source of contamination and therefore a threat, there has been a big growth in the use of cashless instruments including cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, etc., mobile money (MoMo) services such as Airtel Money, MTN MoMo, and credit cards such as Mastercard, Visa, Discover, Swift, etc.

On the other hand, the traditional finance sector is not getting weaker at all as people often consider them more reliable and trusted. Besides, they offer different functions and benefits that cryptocurrency payment operators. Considering this, the majority of users prefer to benefit from both traditional and innovative technologies, thus making it logical to merge them into a single service.