Visa is one of the few payment companies continuously bullish on creating solutions for the crypto industry. Another company that comes close is PayPal. But right now, PayPal is focused on developing its stablecoin. On that note, Visa concentrates on making transaction fees easier.
The company is developing a new product line to help pay on-chain fees using a credit card. This new development has the potential of being a breakthrough product due to the objectives it sets to achieve. For instance, assuming you don't have enough balance to pay your transaction fees, a quick connection to your Visa credit card will help you make payment quickly.
Visa confirmed through Mustafa Bedawala, a product manager at the company, that the service will be launching on the Ethereum network. Apparently, the payment company said they recognize the challenges crypto users face with paying transaction fees. Sometimes when transacting in the blockchain, the worry is always on the gas fees and how it will affect the wallet balance.
"Consumers transacting in Ethereum find themselves constantly managing their ETH balance to cover gas fees, which is a burdensome process that distracts them from their primary blockchain activities," VISA said.
So to solve this issue, they devised a plan to integrate gas fee payments on the Ethereum network into their credit card.
"Recognizing this challenge, we explored an option of how to allow users to pay their on-chain gas fees directly in fiat money through card payments, thereby simplifying blockchain transactions," Visa added.
This innovation from Visa is highly welcomed in the crypto industry, as it will help solve many issues. When a crypto user buys Ethereum to make a transaction and is short of gas fees, the next step is to buy more Ethereum. In the process of buying and transferring it to their wallet, it can incur additional costs and trigger minor losses.
Despite Ethereum gas fees declining to a new low, the cost of these fees is still a huge worry for small traders.
With Visa's new proposal and service, these minor details and losses won't matter anymore. But how do you pay gas fees with a credit card?
How To Pay Gas Fees With Credit Card
The process of using Visa to pay transaction fees is relatively straightforward with the steps.
Visa is implementing these services in line with Ethereum's ERC-4337 account abstraction standard. Furthermore, a feature known as the "paymaster" smart contract will help facilitate these services.
- The first step to using a Visa credit card to pay for crypto gas fees is to make a transaction that requires such. Once you are midway through the transaction, you will be required to send the payment details to the paymaster's web service.
- With Visa's Cybersource system, the paymaster will calculate the total cost of the transaction fees and then charge from the credit card.
- The web service will still have to return the transaction's digital signature to the wallet. This is where it gets approved as a successful transaction.
- When the digital signature is sent to Ethereum, it validates it and automatically covers the cost of the crypto gas fees.
At present, this innovation from Visa is still in the experimental stage and will need several modifications to reach its highest potential.