Market Analysis Report (20 Dec 2022)

Global payments giant Visa has signaled stronger, sustained interest in crypto through a paper outlining how the firm could collaborate with the Ethereum network on automatic payments. The paper details how Ethereum users could schedule auto-payments sent from self-custodial wallets.

It’s currently not yet possible for Ethereum users to schedule automatic payments, but the feature could be enabled through a popular Ethereum proposal called “Account Abstraction,” which would allow Ethereum user accounts to function like smart contracts and feature pre-scheduled execution functions.

Visa’s solution would involve a new type of self-custodial wallet called a “delegable account,” which would allow users to set up programmable payment instructions to push funds automatically to another account at recurring intervals.

The payments giant has already successfully tested its delegable accounts on a private chain using StarkNet, a layer-2 scaling solution that supports Account Abstraction.

The paper is a further sign that Visa is planning on being an active player in the cryptocurrency space. Catherine Gu, Visa’s Head of CBDC and Protocols, was quoted saying the company wants to “actively contribute to technical developments happening in the crypto ecosystem.”