#508
Lights, Camera…Solana
Published:
Oct 02, 2023
Author:
Sarah Parsons Wolter
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If you are one of our readers, odds are you have a credit or debit card. For our U.S. readers, there’s a roughly one-in-two chance that the card is issued by Visa, the world’s largest major payment network. Visa is a financial behemoth working behind the scenes of trillions of dollars in annual transaction spend by connecting customers, issuers, acquirers, and merchants – and their network just announced a watershed moment for stablecoins and blockchain technology. Visa recently announced it would facilitate transactions involving acquirer’s Worldpay and Nuvei via Circle’s USDC stablecoin on Solana blockchain.
Yes, there might be more buzzwords in that headline than striking writers in Hollywood, but let’s explain the strategic importance to Visa. Worldpay and Nuvei are global acquirers that processed ~$650b in transaction volume last quarter across every geography. However, settlements for cross border transactions have traditionally included a days-long currency conversion process and expensive wire transfers. To address this, Visa began a USDC settlement pilot with Crypto.com in 2021 on the Ethereum blockchain which offered sizable improvements in timing and cost compared to traditional settlement methods.
Yet with heightened demand for faster and cheaper settlement mechanics compared to other options like Ethereum, Solana became a strong fit for Visa. Solana far surpasses the capabilities of Ethereum with an average block time of 400 milliseconds, 400 transactions per second, and significantly lower prices at $0.00025 cost per transaction (compared to at least ~$2.50 for Ethereum). Put more simply, Visa chose to drive a Ferrari at a fraction of the cost that it would take to use an Oldsmobile.
While Visa the payment director picks up their need for speed, we can’t help but wish their counterparts in the film industry would reconcile their differences and do the same. Who doesn’t want to be stuck watching reruns?
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Lights, Camera…Solana
Visa expands stablecoin settlement capabilities to merchant acquirers - Following a Crypto.com issuer pilot, Visa expands stablecoin settlement capabilities with Circle’s USDC, adding pilot programs with merchant acquirers Worldpay and Nuvei, and utilizing the Solana blockchain. Read more
Solana offers solutions to banking’s ‘bizarre inefficiencies' - Mert Mumtaz, co-founder of RCP company Helius, insists Visa’s recent expansion of stablecoin settlements to Solana is good for all of crypto. Read more
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