Bitcoin Casino Payments with Visa Coming in the Future?

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Today is a very special day for Bitcoin as October 31^st, 2018 marks the 10^th anniversary of the release of Bitcoin’s original whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto. While the past decade brought many important milestones for the digital currency, including its expansion into the world of cryptocurrency casino games and online gambling, Bitcoin has still failed to reach one important goal – to be accepted by big players from the traditional financial sector. But according to All Kelly, the CEO of Visa, that may change in the future.

Visa Decides Cryptocurrencies Aren’t a Threat No More

In a recent interview with Jim Kramer from CNBC’s “Mad Money” segment, Kelly reveals that Visa isn’t considering cryptocurrencies to be a threat in the short term, despite the company’s past criticism of the digital assets. The CEO also hinted that the Visa Company may move to adopt blockchain-based systems into its network, should cryptocurrencies become better established in the future.

Speaking to Kramer, Kelly said that cryptocurrencies need to become more like fiat currencies for Visa to become more “comfortable” with them.  He also said that the crypto sector was “certainly” no longer considered a threat to the company “in any way”. Asked what would it take for Visa to take the leap forward, Kelly said that should cryptocurrencies start becoming less of a commodity and more like a “payment instrument”, Visa would consider moving in “that direction”

As the CEO reveals, the credit card provider intends to stay in the “middle of every payment flow in the world”, no matter the underlying technology or the currency behind that flow. His opinion paints a different picture from the interview he had with CNBC in January this year, when he called Bitcoin “a speculative commodity” and said that the company will only be processing fiat-based transactions in the future.

Although nothing is certain yet, seeing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies adopted by Visa would help alleviate some problems faced by online businesses, especially cryptocurrency casinos. Despite Bitcoin-based operators becoming more diverse, reputable, and popular with online punters, there are still people who find using cryptocurrencies to gamble complicated or scary. If Visa allows direct fiat-to-crypto payments, it would be a major break for Bitcoin casinos.

MasterCard Applies for Blockhain Patent

Visa is not the only payments processor interested in cryptocurrencies, according to this week’s reports. As revealed last Thursday, MasterCard is also planning to enter the sector with cryptocurrency reserve banking. The US-based financial corporation reportedly filed a patent application last week for a product that will allow merchants to interact with blockchain-based currencies.

According to the patent filing, MasterCard plans to use fiat banking systems to create a new fractional reserve product that would combine crypto and fiat assets together. As the filing explains, the combination between “traditional payment networks” and “blockchain currencies” could give to merchants and customers the benefits of decentralized banking while maintaining the security and fraud protection of MasterCard’s trusted payments system. Exactly what the product will look like and when it will be release, remains to be seen.