[Visa is testing a simplified Ethereum Gas Fee payment method]
Credit card company Visa has noticed that many people are confused about how much it costs to conduct transactions on the Ethereum blockchain.
Visa has successfully tested a new method that allows users to pay the "gas fee" incurred on Ethereum transactions with a credit card, the company revealed in a blog post on Thursday.
The company believes blockchain technology has the potential to shape the future of money flows, but the transaction process is still too complex for many users. Users are required to pay gas fees every time they transact on Ethereum, and Visa says managing users' ETH balances to cover these costs is cumbersome. Visa stresses that streamlining this process will make blockchain-based transactions more accessible and easier to use.
“When the complexity of blockchain transactions is compared to the simplicity of fiat currency payments enabled by the Visa network, the areas for improvement are clear,” Visa said.
To close the gap, Visa proposes to use Ethereum’s ERC-4337 protocol to allow smart contracts to act as wallets on the blockchain and pay the main contract (the smart contract account that pays gas fees on behalf of the user). This service allows users to pay gas fees directly with a Visa card. This test was completed on the Ethereum Goerli testnet.
Visa notes that merchants or decentralized applications can run their payment host system or use an existing wallet to streamline transactions, with a variety of card-based gas fee payment options also available.
As an active player in the cryptocurrency industry, Visa has been exploring different projects. In February this year, the company even studied how to convert digital assets into fiat payment methods.
