VISA Forges New Connection Between Fiat And Cryptocurrency

Payments giant and credit card company VISA, have announced they are providing support for cryptocurrency payments using the USDC stablecoin starting with partner Crypto.com. USDC is an ERC-20 token that runs on top of the Ethereum blockchain network. This makes use of a stablecoin to settle payments using VISA payment products through their partners. At the moment VISA will pilot the payment system with Crypto.com, a cryptocurrency platform and digital exchange, with plans to offer the service to other partners. VISA is going to make using cryptocurrency much more available for payments. This legitimizes cryptocurrency payments for goods and services, since VISA is a financially regulated entity.

This is a bridge between traditional finance with emerging fintechs involved with cryptocurrency and digital assets. VISA had tried to bridge cryptocurrency payments before, but plans fell through. Perhaps VISA is now ready to provide the service with more knowledge and understanding of cryptocurrency. This allows VISA to better understand the new space fintechs are operating from, which involves innovative products that implement digital currency and blockchain technology. Perhaps it is a sign that changes are coming to traditional financial systems. VISA has been warming up to cryptocurrency and other digital currency (non-crypto) as evident from their more recent postings.

Before VISA, payments processors like PayPal and Square have provided support for cryptocurrency. PayPal has paved the way for users to buy cryptocurrency like Bitcoin through their app. Square allows their customers to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency through their platform, including the Cash app. Prior to that, there were not many mainstream apps other than those provided by digital exchanges like Coinbase that allow their users to purchase cryptocurrency. VISA is different in that it is providing a way for customers to make payments with the cryptocurrency they hold. This is a layer that has been missing and it could accelerate utility of cryptocurrency as a payment method. Using the blockchain may also provide faster settlements compared to the current system, but scaling remains to be seen on blockchain networks like that of Ethereum.

While the purpose of cryptocurrency is for open direct payments system (Peer to Peer), VISA is not exactly that type of platform. It still operates under the traditional financial system, which is highly centralized and permissioned. That means VISA is not exactly an open network, it requires a membership for its customers. That is why the product they offer is more of a bridge between the traditional fiat system and cryptocurrency. The decentralized aspect of a transaction still falls under the blockchain layer, but through a VISA payment gateway. In the case of USDC, the payment is from a user’s digital wallet on the Ethereum blockchain or even a custodial wallet that supports USDC. What VISA provides is a way to make that payment possible to retailers who will accept the transaction. VISA has so many partners in the retail space that they work with, this opens opportunities for cryptocurrency companies like Crypto.com to have access to more traditional financial markets.

VISA could also open another bridge, this time to the DeFI space of the blockchain. Most platforms in DeFi run over the Ethereum network, but other platforms like Binance, Polkadot and Cardano offer their own ecosystems that provide DeFi apps. If there is integration to support VISA, that can bring more users to the DeFi space who are using VISA credit cards or payment applications supported by the VISA network. At the moment, VISA and other credit card companies do allow customers to purchase cryptocurrency from digital exchanges. Opening up to support decentralized exchanges in the DeFi space are more challenging due to regulatory compliance. If this can be resolved, it opens up the space to allow interoperability of dissimilar payment networks to become possible.

This is overall good for the Ethereum network. VISA will not only need to have USDC, but also Ethereum’s native token ETH (ether). In order to process transactions using USDC, small denominations of ETH are used to pay for costs called “gas” which are part of the transaction fees paid to the network. This is for processing transactions that have to be verified and secured on the blockchain. It may also be likely that it will be VISA’s partners who hold the USDC and ETH, while VISA just helps bridge the retail merchants with the cryptocurrency payment as the settlement layer. The main issue with Ethereum has been scaling, but the development community is fast tracking efforts to scale the network.

With VISA’s announcement, other payment companies like Mastercard and American Express should take notice. This introduces a business model that brings cryptocurrency native platforms with the traditional retail space. The predominant form of payment in the VISA network is by credit and debit card. By integrating a cryptocurrency method into the network, it opens up new channels for making payments. The choice of using a stablecoin also makes plenty of sense given that cryptocurrency is very volatile. This changes the narrative that cryptocurrency is trying to replace traditional finance. Before that can happen, it must have greater utility. Perhaps VISA can help bring it to more mainstream adoption, to the point where we can buy toilet paper with cryptocurrency.

(Image Credit: Photo by Tom Fisk)

Live Peer – Moving Production Workflows To The Blockchain-based Cloud

When it comes to transcoding video or audio, it was normally done through equipment in an office environment utilizing expensive hardware for commercial quality production. You need to have your own equipment besides the computer in order to transcode. The complexities of the process have been simplified in the age of cloud computing. There are providers who offer transcoding as a service on their platform over the cloud. While this provides convenience to editors and producers, it comes at a cost. Another issue is that if the provider’s service is down, the transcoding service will not be available. Users would surely want reliability and quality for the service they are paying for.

LivePeer is a project that builds on the cloud provisioning service for transcoding, but is also blockchain-based. It provides a decentralized network of nodes that provide their GPU to help transcode data on the network. Decentralization aims to guarantee up time. A user who needs to transcode can then send the job to the Livepeer network and pay the fees in Livepeer’s own ERC-20 token called LPT. The LPT token is also the reward given to “video miners” who help transcode and secure the network.

The LPT Token is:

ERC-20 token built on the Ethereum blockchain

Originally distributed via a “Merkle Mine”, an algorithm for decentralized distribution of token during the genesis state

Inflationary according to algorithmically programmed issuance over time

LPT is available from digital exchanges, including DEXes like Uniswap. Token holders have the following capabilities when using LPT:

Earn the right to perform or delegate work on the Livepeer network and vote on protocol proposals
Routes work through the network in proportion to the amount of staked and delegated token, serving as a coordination mechanism
Secures the network against a number of attacks via slashing that occurs due to protocol violation

Why transcode over the cloud?

When streaming video online, as is with OTT, various formats need conversion. The original format is the highest quality, often uncompressed and very large when it comes to file size. That is a problem when delivering the content to viewers. The format needs to be changed or transcoded to a smaller sized format that preserves most of the quality of the original. The formats can be made available in different quality and bit rates, depending on the service level. Since it can also be adaptive, the bit rate (adaptive bit rate) can change depending on the Internet connection of a viewer. The cloud can streamline the process efficiently, allowing producers and content creators full transcoding service.

Why use a blockchain?

It has nothing to do with speed. It is more about setting up a system that makes use of a decentralized network that is market driven and incentive based. There are users who want to transcode video/audio so there will be providers willing to transcode for a fee. The LPT token is used to pay for transactions and the records (not the content of the transcoding) are stored on the blockchain as verification of the process. This proves that a transcoding was performed to assure service fulfillment to a customer. The network will make sure that there is more than 1 transcoding service available. The blockchain is there to record the transaction and act as platform to enable trust between two parties that do not need to know each other.

For example you do not need to personally know who is transcoding your video. How can you trust them? That is where the blockchain comes in. It makes sure that the service fulfills its duty to process your job request. Conditions written in smart contract can make sure that the job is fulfilled or else there will be no payment made to the provider (i.e. Livepeer). The blockchain also prevents any form of cheating, so that once content has been transcoded, the system prevents a user from trying to get their payment back or canceling the payment. Once completed, a transaction is final when both parties are satisfied.

Synopsis

How Livepeer will change the broadcasting and production world is through a decentralized architecture that uses a blockchain. As streaming OTT content continue to gain a larger market, the demand will be there for transcoding service over the cloud. Average Internet speeds are also increasing, and with the implementation of high bandwidth networks like 5G and Gigabit Internet, more demand for high quality streaming will be there. This will push the demand for transcoding services as well, and there are many players available, but if they are too centralized they may not be able to provide guaranteed up time.

Users who need to stream video, online gaming, coding, entertainment, education content and other types of content can use Livepeer applications. Broadcasters can also use Livepeer to decrease infrastructure costs when it comes to delivering content. The use of a token to provide service records it on a blockchain. It makes it secure, protecting the transaction’s integrity. This allows users to know that they are using a safe and reliable network when it comes to transcoding requirements.

EIP 1559 And Ethereum As A Deflationary Currency

An issue with Ethereum is about to be addressed regarding its non-capped supply of ETH (Ether) with EIP 1559. The proposal aims to introduce a new protocol for addressing the transaction fees on the network targeted for release in July/August 2021. In the proposed change, during a transaction a small amount of Ether (ETH) is “burned” every time it is used to pay for gas fees. This token burn can somehow control the circulating supply of ETH as well, leading to a more deflationary money supply. The burned tokens are removed from circulation forever but new ones can still be created. Overall, this can add some controls on the amount of ETH being put out in circulation as form of inflation control.

Transaction fees are not consistent on the Ethereum network. They fluctuate every so often, but when there is high network demand the fees surge to sometimes ridiculous levels. For the seasoned trader it may not matter, but for retail and new traders it can be too much for smaller sized transactions. More experienced traders may deal with large transactions where the cost of gas does not matter as much. The prices are still high and there needs to be some improvement in which issues like scaling and layer 2 solutions aim to resolve.

TxFee = Total Gas Used * Gas Price Paid

As of March 7, 2021, the average cost of a transaction is $15.53. Just a few months earlier on January 17, 2021 the transaction fee was only $5.41. That goes to show a sudden increase of 187%, which could have been worth at least 2 transactions back in January or earlier in 2021. The demand for ETH in the DeFi space and hodling portfolios due to the good news coming out about ETH2.0 is helping to drive prices and at the same time increasing network activity. The congestion is expected, as the same thing happened back during the cryptokitties and ICO era. This puts plenty of strain on the network, but it has problems scaling since it can do at most 15 tps (transactions per second). The promise of ETH2.0 is a bring faster consensus with more efficiency through a staking protocol (i.e. Proof-of-Stake) to scale the network.

EIP 1559 is an improvement proposal to help make transaction fees more consistent and prevent it from getting to such high levels that many are not willing to pay. Currently with Proof-of-Work, the miners can determine the fees and increase it in order to prioritize a transaction. Nodes called miners set the price of gas used to process transactions, based on the supply and demand of computational resources available from the network. It is in units called Wei or Gwei, just smaller denominations of ETH. The proposal is to use what is called a BASEFEE, that is set based on the network’s level of transactions. What it aims to provide is a market rate rather than a reference based on prices that users are paying for. This structure eliminates the guess work often involved in calculating the transaction fees.

Some see this as adding deflationary measures because of the token burning feature. As tokens are created, they are also destroyed. That keeps the circulating supply in check and prevents any inflationary pressure, according to some analysts. This form of negative inflation could lead to less ETH in circulation, thus increasing market price. While this looks good to traders and core developers, some miners don’t exactly agree with the proposal. They don’t derive the same benefit as much since the token burn benefits token holders more than miners. The miners lose out on their profits that would have been the burned tokens.

The outcome may push for EIP 1559 despite the protests. Ethereum plans on moving away from mining and into staking, so it does make more sense to implement the protocol rather than continue with the current system. Mining will also become more difficult as specified in the protocol for ETH2.0 (e.g. difficulty bomb), that nodes would rather switch to staking since mining will be less profitable until it is totally no longer possible due to the increase in difficulty level. That leads to questions about whether the miners will hard fork Ethereum, but that may be a horrible idea. If no one supports the fork then the miners have a lot to lose, while the mainnet remains profitable with new nodes entering the network. EIP 1559 will surely be activated with > 50% consensus, but the miners can signal a no to the network and not activate it. What is important that still needs to be addressed are the high transaction fees, The hopeful resolution is that the miners and developers come to some agreement to determine transaction fees which really needs to be addressed to further the momentum of growth on the network.

Would You Buy Bitcoin For $6,000 In 2021? In The Philippines It Happened

A digital exchange in the Philippines called PDAX sold Bitcoin (BTC) for $6,000 or roughly worth PHP288,000 (in Philippine Pesos). This comes from a report from Bitcoin.com (link here) about an incident that occurred in the middle of February 2021, amidst Bitcoin reaching new all time highs. Some users on the PDAX exchange noticed that BTC was selling for $6,000. That was at a time the rest of the market was selling BTC at prices over $50,000, so this was almost like a steal. Perhaps that was the way PDAX saw it because they are now asking for their Bitcoin back. It appears that there was a system glitch that caused an error when listing BTC prices. The exchange had also experienced an outage due to a surge in volume of network activity.

It sounds crazy to think that you can reverse transactions with Bitcoin. You won’t be able to because the blockchain is immutable and not modifiable. You cannot undo a transaction once it has been committed on a blockchain. According to the report, the exchange is requesting the users to return their BTC or else they will face legal action. Some accounts were even locked to prevent them from further activity. How can you force the users to return something they bought legally, which by all means was compliant to the rules and regulations set forth?

In all of this, the one thing that has been proven is that the blockchain does work the way it was intended. If the blockchain could be manipulated, then PDAX would have reversed the transactions already and this would probably not be reported. Users will lose the BTC they bought at $6,000 but will get a refund from the exchange. Instead, the blockchain secured the transaction and proved that it was allowed by PDAX. The BTC the users purchased can also not be confiscated by any entity because BTC requires the private key of the owner. It can be forcibly taken, but that would still require a user to grant access to their BTC through a digital wallet.

The users merely used the exchange to make their purchase and go about their way. This is how a blockchain is supposed to work and to think otherwise goes against the basic principles of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. How this case ends up is something to follow because we shall see how things unfold. Can an exchange require users to return digital assets due to unusual activity or are transactions on the blockchain final? I would like to think the latter but we shall see if further investigations reveal anomalies or will the ruling be in favor of the users.