Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Close observers of the payments business may have noticed lately that while Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have failed to live up to their promises, some pretty big and important players are nonetheless climbing on the blockchain bandwagon.
Perhaps the most prominent of these arrivistes is, of course, Facebook. The social-media giant’s Libra coin, announced in June, has caught the imagination of a wide range of crypto enthusiasts—as well as plenty of heat from suspicious regulators and central bankers both here and abroad. Most of the payments companies that initially signed on to support Libra have since dropped out, but more than 20 supporting companies remain and seem determined to see this thing through.
Before that, banking titan JPMorgan Chase & Co. lent its considerable prestige to the crypto cause. In February, it said it was testing JPMCoin, a dollar-tethered token aimed at business-to-business transfers between corporate clients of the bank. Chase is far from a wild-eyed fintech willing to dive into the latest payments craze.
Now, as we report in this issue, comes Walmartcoin. That’s what our new Payments 3.0 columnist, Ben Jackson, calls this latest crypto venture, which of course comes courtesy of the retailing giant. As Ben reports, Walmart filed for a patent on Aug. 1 for a “system and method for a digital currency via blockchain.” Walmart won’t talk about the application, but Ben speculates the new coin could allow the merchant to tie customer spending data to specific users, attach gift card features, pay for gig work, and perform a wide range of other functions.
What to make of these ventures by big, established players into the Wild West of cryptocurrency? The reasons vary, but one thing seems certain: The field of play here is offering far more opportunity these days than may have been the case earlier with ventures like Bitcoin (for more on this, see our Endpoint column in this issue).
Speaking of Payments 3.0, we want to extend our warmest welcome to Ben as its new author. We’ve known Ben since the early 2000s when we were running the Chicago office for Thomson Media and he was the local correspondent for the American Banker, a sister publication. We let Ben use some of our office space and were immediately impressed with his professionalism.
He’s chief operating officer now with the Innovative Payments Association, a perch from which we expect he will bring plenty of informed analysis to readers of Digital Transactions. We’re also pleased that Ben’s arrival allows us to revive Payments 3.0, which has been on an 18-month hiatus. We look forward to the columns to come.
—John Stewart, Editor, john@digitaltransactions.net
