Yesterday it emerged that international payment giant Visa has filed a patent for a blockchain-based “Digital Fiat Currency.”
It seems Visa filed the patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office back in November 2019, though it was only published yesterday, on 14 May 2020.
Apparently, Simon J Hurry, and Alexandre Pierre, filed the application on behalf of San Francisco-based Visa International Service Association, which seeks a patent for a digital currency recorded on a blockchain, and controlled by a “central entity computer.”
The application mentions Ethereum as a possible blockchain, and says two records would be involved; one indicating “the digital currency for an amount associated with the denomination has been created for a public key associated with a digital wallet;” and one recording the “removal of the physical currency from circulation in a fiat currency system.”
The proposed system references the US dollar, but also covers other central bank digital currencies, like the pound, euro and yen, enabling the digitisation of physical currency from anywhere in the world.
Visa has been involved with blockchain for some time, and was one of the original members of the Libra Association, the body overseeing Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency. However, Visa withdrew from Libra late last year, along with other companies, amid widespread regulatory and political concerns about the project.
In June 2019, Visa also confirmed it would be harnessing distributed ledger technology in the $125 trillion international cross-border, business-to-business transaction market with SWIFT – the Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.
In February this year, Visa also authorised Coinbase to issue debit cards, making the exchange the first pure-play crypto Visa Principal member. While at the end of March, Malta-based crypto exchange Binane also launched a Visa debit card.
AYO.NEWS says:
It really shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that Visa has been working on something like this behind the scenes. Despite being cautious with public statements about digital currencies, all major global financial and payment companies know full well that legacy systems are as good as dead, and that the future is blockchain-based.
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