Jason Simon on the importance of Visa’s decision to embrace cryptocurrency

The cryptocurrency movement continues to garner support from some of the largest entities in the financial sector. Most notably, both Visa and PayPal have recently announced that they are beginning to embrace digital currencies more than ever, despite previously having maintained a strict ban on virtually any type of interaction with the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Jason Simon, a FinTech expert who is closely following the progress of cryptocurrency around the world, highlights the importance of Visa’s decision to get behind digital currencies.

Visa CEO Al Kelly recently participated in an interview with CNN’s Julia Chatterley, explaining the financial payment giant’s involvement in digital currency. At the heart of the reversal of the company’s position was the realization that digital currency has tangible value as a payments solution as it has overcome previous resistance instigated by the volatility associated with some currencies, such as Bitcoin (BTC). This, combined with Visa’s recognition that cryptocurrency has a legitimate place in facilitating payments, has led the company to explore adoption in new ways.

Asserts Simon, “Visa has finally realized the true value of cryptocurrency. It has taken great strides to introduce new payment solutions that can be built around the use of digital currencies like BTC and is beginning to support their status as a payments alternative. The shift in how the company views digital currencies, with the massive global control Visa enjoys, shows how beneficial cryptocurrency is and how it is helping revolutionize payments.”

Kelly explains that cryptocurrency is facilitating financial inclusion and that the company is enabling networking solutions to make transactions between cryptocurrencies and fiat. The company wants to ensure that it is in the middle of any movement of funds and the executive adds that cryptocurrency is an exciting trend with substantial capabilities. He refers to digital currency as “digital gold” that creates legitimate utility. To assist with the company’s continued efforts to enable mainstream adoption of BTC and others, Visa is currently working on solutions that will allow digital settlements. It has also introduced application programming interfaces (API) to allow banks to be able to onramp customers so they can buy, trade and custody cryptocurrency.

Adds Simon, “This is truly just the beginning of what is coming for digital currency. There has already been a major shift in how the world views cryptocurrency in just the past two years and it has made tremendous progress as a form of currency. The next few years are going to bring even more progress and could allow digital currency to realize its full potential. While there are still certain obstacles in the way, such as regulatory oversight, there is no doubt that cryptocurrency is well on its way to becoming a standard form of currency across the globe.”