Payments giant Visa has teamed up with Ethereum scaling firm ConsenSys to help central bank digital currency (CBDC) networks bridge the gap with traditional financial institutions.
Customers will eventually be able to use their CBDC-linked Visa card or digital wallet anywhere that Visa is accepted globally, Catherine Gu, Visa’s head of CBDC, said in a blog post Q&A with ConsenSys.
“If successful, CBDC could expand access to financial services and make government disbursements more efficient, targeted and secure – that’s an attractive proposition for policymakers,” Gu said.
Visa’s CBDC Payments Module was created as an on-ramp for CBDCs to existing payment networks, according to Gu. Banks and issuer processors will be able to plug into the module and integrate their existing infrastructure, she added.
The payments firm said its crypto teams plan to work with central banks on pilot and prototype cases starting in the spring.
Visa said in early December that it had formed a global crypto advisory practice to help financial institutions develop their cryptocurrency businesses as demand for crypto products continues to grow.
Meanwhile, ConsenSys launched “ConsenSys Rollups” with the help of Mastercard’s engineering team to enable expansion on both the Ethereum mainnet and for private use.
