Ethereum has demonstrated (again) that in a decade, blockchain grew into a power to be reckoned with while being far younger than traditional payments giants like Visa.
Blockchain has made significant strides as a payment technology, positioning itself as a viable competitor to major corporations. Recent data from Coingraph reveals that Ethereum, for example, facilitated transactions worth $3.01 trillion, whereas Visa processed $3.08 trillion in transactions.
It is evidence of how widely used a new technology is becoming, even though it is frequently viewed as a tool for scammers, drug traffickers, and hackers.
The second-largest network is Ethereum, with a market cap of $227.8 billion as of this writing, trailing only Tether ($82.8 billion) and Bitcoin ($538.06 billion) in size.
Notably, Ethereum underpins some financial technology solutions that aim to challenge the worldwide, established finance system. Ethereum is the second-largest blockchain in the world. Decentralised finance (DeFI), staking, lending, and flash loans are only a few examples of these solutions.
One advantage compared to traditional financial systems is that it has evolved into a robust and varied ecosystem, offering ample room for future growth and development.
According to a report from the previous year, 2021, Ethereum handled 4.5 times as many transactions as Visa.
Additionally, according to a report by Josh Stark of the Ethereum Foundation, the trade volume of Ethereum surpassed that of Visa in 2021. “Roughly $11.6 trillion worth of Ethereum was transferred. According to the research, that is more than double the value of Bitcoin and more than Visa ($10.4 trillion).
According to Etherscan’s analysis of the most recent Ethereum daily transactions, there were 968,996 on May 28 and an all-time high of 1,932,711 on December 9, 2022.
Ethereum Already Entered TradFi
Many reputable companies wishing to use cutting-edge technology have already chosen the well-known blockchain as their platform of choice, including Visa.
As mentioned in mid-May, Visa used Ethereum’s Goerli testnet to test out transaction-free payments using account abstraction and just writing about Ethereum’s economics.
It took advantage of account abstraction to carry out difficult tasks on behalf of accounts and control transaction costs using a smart contract called Paymaster.
Cuy Sheffield, who leads Visa’s Crypto division, expressed his enthusiasm for the deployment of Visa’s initial paymaster smart contract on a test network. He emphasized Visa’s ongoing dedication to exploring and testing account abstraction and ERC-4337.
The Ethereum standard ERC-4337 enables users to bundle and automate network transactions by achieving account abstraction without altering the consensus layer.
With the help of a self-custodial smart contract wallet, ERC-4337 “lays down interesting future possibilities for improving on-chain user payments experience, which can in turn transform how users interact with digital currencies and digital assets,” according to Visa.
In December of last year, Visa initially unveiled a plan that would let Ethereum users send automatic, programmable payments without the aid of a third party.
The business also reaffirmed its dedication to cryptocurrencies in March of this year, denying rumours that it planned to halt its drive into the space because of hazy market conditions.
To develop new solutions that can support stablecoin payments safely, legally, and practically, Sheffield noted that “we continue to partner with crypto companies to improve fiat on and off ramps as well as progress on our product roadmap.”
He continued that the previous crypto-crash did not alter their opinion of digital assets, and “[now] is the time to build!”
ETH was trading at $1,898 at the time of writing (Monday noon UTC), up 3% over the previous day and 4.5% for the previous week.
