Payment giant VISA is developing blockchain business and is secretly forming an encryption team

According to reports, the American payment services company Visa recently posted a job opening at its San Francisco-based recruitment software company SmartRecruiters, which is related to cryptocurrency and blockchain.

Visa is recruiting for a technical product manager position at its office in Palo Alto, according to information released by the company. According to the job description, the Technical Product Manager is a major player in the cryptocurrency industry and possesses basic knowledge and deep understanding of distributed ledger technology and existing retail payment solutions. Additionally, the job description mentions that the company will give priority to candidates familiar with advanced cryptography.

The Technical Product Manager will be responsible for executing Visa's product strategy within the cryptocurrency ecosystem and will be asked to manage cryptocurrency-related roadmaps. In addition, he will work closely with Visa's research team on the development of new products, ultimately bringing value to Visa's fintech initiatives.

Just last year, Visa CEO Al Kelly announced that cryptocurrencies would not challenge the company's dominance in payments in the short to medium term. Kelly pointed out that cryptocurrency needs to transform from a commodity into a real payment instrument to become a real competitor to the traditional financial system.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported in late 2018 that Visa was acquiring a partner in major cryptocurrency firm Ripple. According to reports, by acquiring Ripple’s international payments company Earthport, Visa intends to integrate Ripple’s protocol into the company’s existing payment network to facilitate smooth cross-border transactions.

Just recently, the founder of cryptocurrency investment company Morgan Creek Digital Assets suggested that major U.S. retailer Kroger should use the blockchain protocol Lightning Network network as its payment system because the brand decided to stop accepting Visa payments in some areas on March 1.

(Source: Babbitt)