There is no doubt that cryptocurrencies have entered our lives with force, despite the fact that for many they remain unknown. Good proof of its strength is the association that the VISA operator is carrying out. It will allow you to buy with your cards in physical stores and using cryptocurrencies. This is something that already happens in some places and also with some exchanges. For example, the Crypto platform already has its own card with which you can pay with crypto and make the exchange with standard or fiat currency.
This association does not imply any change for merchants, who will not have to change or update their POS terminals or carry out any additional task. According to Cuy Sheffield , Visa’s head of cryptocurrency, “It will be the same as any other Visa transaction to them. But on the backend , crypto assets instantly become fiat.”
It is an important incentive, and the fact that traders do not have to take any action is not a logical act. There are millions of people who daily carry out operations with these securities for years. That the owner of a business does not have to worry is already a help that will favor the popularization of these assets. The key that has led VISA to make these types of payments is not to deny a reality. In the first 6 months of 2021, the operator has managed more than 1 billion dollars with cryptocurrencies , it has cards that can be linked to them, so denying this reality is absurd. Expanding the horizon does nothing more than give a much-needed boost to these values.
Until now, cryptocurrencies have been used almost exclusively as a form of speculation. The extreme volatility of these digital currencies, perhaps one of their most obvious characteristics, has favored that a large number of people have won, and also lost, a large amount of money. Instability is precisely one of the most obvious characteristics of cryptocurrencies. For example, Bitcoin lost 40% of its value in a few weeks this 2021 , reaching its maximum on April 14 and having stabilized at a figure close to 30,000 euros today.
On the other hand, the popular Dogecoin has seen strong increases during 2021, around 6,000 percent. The statements on Twitter by Tesla mogul Elon Musk caused this value to skyrocket. For Musk, the Dogecoin will in the future be the “people’s currency”.
Cryptocurrencies were born in 2008, the result of the work of Satoshi Nakamoto , the pseudonym of one or more people who saw in this value a clear bet for the future. Based on blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies are characterized by not belonging to any entity or government , they are decentralized, have large price fluctuations and are exclusively virtual. That is, cryptocurrencies do not exist as such in the form of bills or coins.
In order for cryptocurrencies to work, so-called cryptocurrency miners intervene. Instead of chipping the rock to extract a mineral, what they do is put their computers to work to solve complex mathematical operations. For this they get a reward and can complete the operations.
The blockchain makes it possible for cryptocurrencies to work. This technology is still a gigantic database in which operations are transcribed, and it is totally secure. To do this, it uses blockchains, complex mathematical algorithms that are related to each other. The arrival in the physical world of operations with cryptocurrencies that VISA now carries out will undoubtedly help these values acquire a greater interest on the part of the general public. An incentive that opens the door for financial operations to take on a different dimension.
