Visa Plans Ethereum Auto Payments

According to Visa, they will enable users to set up automatic payments from their self-managed Ethereum (ETH) cryptocurrency wallets. The payments juggernaut predicted that cryptocurrency users would eventually be able to use their self-custodial crypto wallets to automatically pay their subscription phone, electricity, and video-on-demand bills. Visa also mentioned that automated payments would be made regularly so that customers would no longer need to start transactions manually. In the world of traditional finance, automated bill payments are typical. Visa now wants to combine this idea with blockchain technology. Visa explained the significance of creating a smooth digital payment framework that encourages the simplicity of bill payment:

"Online bill pay is growing rapidly, and customers – especially younger ones – have come to expect the ability to set up recurring payments and take advantage of other conveniences associated with using their Visa cards."

How the Proposed Auto Payments Plan for Visa and Ethereum Would Operate

According to Visa, a brand-new self-custodial wallet known as “delegable accounts” may make the auto payments scheme feasible. Based on account abstraction, this kind of wallet might make it easier to create new types of multi-owner and public accounts. Visa declared:

"This application could allow a user to set up a programmable payment instruction that can push funds automatically from one self-custodial wallet account to another at recurring intervals, without requiring the user’s active participation each time."

Visa also mentioned that users could create a whitelist of pre-approved auto payments using the delegable accounts. Due to this development, the owner's signature wouldn't be required for each payment. However, the business acknowledged in its technical paper that significant engineering work is needed to develop the technology necessary to support the delegable accounts. The technology must enable the user's account to operate similarly to a smart contract. A delegable account is a particular kind of Ethereum account that, under Visa, combines the features of a user account and a smart contract.

Visa wants to use blockchain technology to its full potential.

Visa's suggestion for auto payments fits into the company's larger blockchain innovation plan that uses Ethereum's strength. So far, the world's largest payments company has conducted ongoing research into new strategies for getting around Ethereum transactions' strict hardcoded requirements. Co-author of the Visa crypto auto payments proposal Catherine Gu offered her opinion on the strategy. Suppose one of the main applications of blockchain is to facilitate payments. In that case, the “basic requirement is that the technology has to function just as well as today, if not better,” according to Visa's head of central bank digital currencies and protocols.