Visa to test an easier way to pay ETH gas fees

According to the company, paying fees for transactions on the Ethereum blockchain is a complicated business for most customers, even though the blockchain technology could shape the future of money movement, so Visa is testing a way to make transactions easier.

How does it work?

Customers who conduct a transaction using the Ethereum blockchain must pay a fee, which is also known as a gas fee, and this includes sending or receiving ETH, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain. As managing a user’s ETH balance to cover these costs is complicated, Visa claims that eliminating the complexity could boost blockchain-based transactions and make them more attractive, accessible, and user-friendly. 

To bridge the gap and make blockchain transactions as easy as fiat ones, the US-based card issuer suggests leveraging Ethereum’s ERC-4337, the current standard that allows smart contracts on the blockchain to serve as wallets through a process called account abstraction, and a paymaster contract. The latter is described as a smart-contract account that can sponsor these gas fees on behalf of the user. 

This Ethereum feature would allow customers to use a regular Visa card to pay directly for their Ethereum transaction fees. The testing of the process was performed on a test network for Ethereum called testnet. 

What are the benefits of it?

According to the card issuer, merchants and decentralised applications could run their paymaster system or use an existing wallet to make crypto transactions easier and faster. At the same time, the paymaster service providers could offer card-based fee payments, along other flexible options.

Visa’s take on the crypto world

Visa remains committed to investing in the crypto sector and finding new ways to attract customers through flexible payment options, despite the crypto winter, and the new testing on the Ethereum blockchain reaffirms the company’s take on alternative payment methods, including cryptocurrencies. 

Visa has been active in the crypto sector for a while and, back in February 2023, considered a way of converting digital assets into fiat payments, as part of its strategy to remain a pillar in the global payments innovation market and expanding its client based by looking into customer-oriented, tailored payment solutions.