The latest developments in the field of digital assets make crypto payments more scalable and cost-effective.
The co-founder of the multinational financial services company Stripe, John Collison, said that the company has not completely ruled out the possibility of re-introducing cryptocurrency as a means of payment on its platforms.
Stripe ended its approval of cryptocurrencies three years ago on the grounds that the inherent volatility of the currency makes it inefficient for payments.
In a panel moderated by CNBC at the Fintech Abu Dhabi Festival, Collision explained that different aspects of cryptocurrencies appeal to individuals and institutions from different industries. For Stripe, the use of cryptocurrency as a speculative investment was not relevant to the company’s vision.
However, the company has not completely ruled out the reintroduction of crypto transactions on the online payment platform, according to Collision:
“Recently, there have been many developments with the aim of making cryptocurrencies better and, in particular, scalable and acceptable cost as a payment method.“
The Stripe manager quickly clarified that the company was not yet considering accepting crypto payments again, but it was not implausible to investigate the question.
After being the first major payment company to offer Bitcoin payments in 2014, Stripe announced in 2018 that it would discontinue support for Bitcoin payments, stating that Bitcoin is better suited to be an asset than a medium of exchange. However, the company clarified that it continues to support innovations in this area.
“Overall, we remain very optimistic about cryptocurrencies. There are many efforts that we see as promising and that we can certainly imagine being able to support you in the future.“
Collison also stressed the importance of emerging projects such as Solana for innovation in the field of digital assets. Solana, a competitor of Ethereum, is developing layer 2 systems such as Bitcoin’s Lightning Network to improve transaction speed and reduce transaction costs.
Stripe recently formulated a team to explore opportunities in crypto and Web3, a collective term referring to the decentralized version for the Internet.