Credit card giant Visa is reportedly researching Bitcoin and blockchain technology

Visa, the world’s leading credit card processing company, will soon begin researching Bitcoin and blockchain technology, according to a report by India’s second-largest newspaper LiveMint.

Rajat Taneja, executive vice president of technology at Visa, told LiveMint that the research will be conducted at Visa’s innovation lab and will focus on improving two products: Visa Checkout and mVisa.

Interestingly, the credit card giant previously believed that Bitcoin and blockchain technology would not pose a threat to Visa. As early as August last year, there were reports that the company might support Bitcoin as a payment method.

Taneja told LiveMint:

“There will soon be a team in India working with our research labs in the US and Singapore to work on blockchain.”

Taneja said Visa's office in Bangalore, India, currently has 400 engineers and will soon expand to 1,000, but not all of them will study Bitcoin and blockchain.

The article goes on to state that Visa is considering collaborating with Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services, which will also focus on blockchain projects.

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