It is commonly thought that banks are the ones looking at Bitcoin with a particularly disapproving eye. In fact, mass acceptance of digital currencies would take most of the work out of banks. However, we will probably have to wait a bit longer for that. Meanwhile, there are companies that are threatened by the slowly growing popularity of Bitcoin here and now. It is commonly thought that banks are the ones looking at Bitcoin with an especially disapproving eye. In fact, the mass acceptance of digital currencies would take most of the work out of banks. However, we will probably have to wait a bit longer for that. In the meantime, there are companies that are threatened by Bitcoin's slowly growing popularity here and now. Every new user and every new business that accepts BTC takes away a small part of their profits. These companies are payment operators, and the largest of these is the US-based Visa. So it's worth paying attention to what Jonathan Vaux, executive director of digital payments and development at Visa Europe, has to say about Bitcoin. On July 8, Vaux gave a reading at the WIRED Money conference in London. He devoted it to his organization's perspective on Bitcoin, as well as the problems of collaboration between large financial institutions and startups, including bitcoin. Let's start with bitcoin itself. Vaux's statement characterizes a new approach by financiers - separating BTC as a currency and blockchain technology. The same approach was seen in a recent analysis by PNB Paribas bank. We have further confirmation that bankers are intensively studying this technology and testing its possible applications to make traditional, government-controlled (and in practice, bank-controlled) currencies more competitive. On the other hand, however, Visa, as a company that makes its money primarily from payment processing rather than money creation, is also interested in payments in BTC. Vaux put it this way: I am often asked what I think about Bitcoin. I see a separation here between the currency and the underlying technology. I also think Bitcoin as a currency is interesting. Visa is in the business of trading currencies, after all." Visa also sees an increase in Bitcoin's capitalization and the subsequent stabilization of its exchange rate as essential to the effective use of BTC as a transfer currency. On the other hand, however, he does not hide his desire to use his own blockchain to improve the company's current operations. Vaux devoted the second part of his speech to the relationship between financial startups and big players, such as Visa (the conference was devoted, among other things, to facilitating such contacts). The sins of young, ambitious companies are typical - being enamored with technology replaces a thorough analysis of its usefulness and economic viability. Added to this is the lack of real business plans and, it is worth noting, directing the offer only to the so-called "generation Y", i.e. current thirty-year-olds. From the point of view of bankers it is a mistake, because people 10 or 20 years older usually have more money. On the other hand, older people are often not able to assimilate raw, "unprocessed" modern technology, even if it is completely groundbreaking. Bitcoin is still largely such a technology. Vaux also noted the surprising phenomenon of fierce competition between bitcoin startups, which often engage in futile bickering instead of focusing on what should be their historic mission, which is to increase bitcoin's popularity. Photo under Creative Commons license: flickr.com Tags bitcoin btc payment operator payment processor Visa
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