Visa has begun hiring for what one executive calls the company’s “ambitious crypto product roadmap.”
Cuy Sheffield, who oversees the payments giant’s cryptocurrency operations, said on Twitter Monday (April 24) that the company had just posted new openings for senior software engineers “to help us drive mainstream adoption of public blockchain networks and stablecoin payments.”
He added that Visa is particularly interested in candidates with background in Github Copilot and other AI-assisted engineering tools used to write and debug smart contracts.
“The Visa crypto team is building the next generation of products to facilitate commerce in everyone’s digital and mobile lives,” the job posting reads.
“We are hiring for experienced Software Engineers who are proficient programmers, have experience in building highly available & scalable backend systems and are passionate about the Web3 stack of technologies.”
It adds that Visa is seeking applicants who can help “improve engineering productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of software; write good quality code across various programming languages; and document design tradeoffs and long-term architecture decisions.”
This is happening against a backdrop of increased debate about stablecoins and cryptocurrency. As noted here earlier this week, it may be tokenized deposits that wind up gaining ground in that debate.
These deposits are tied to existing bank deposits, “the digital representations of existing bank liabilities are held by licensed depository institutions and are recorded on distributed ledgers,” PYMNTS wrote.
The tokenized deposit is gaining traction around the world. In a speech given to the Innovate Finance Global Summit last week in Great Britain, Bank of England Deputy Governor Sir Jon Cunliffe said that stablecoins-as-payments might need limits.
He argued, “It is extremely unlikely that any of the current offerings would meet the standards for robustness and uniformity we currently apply both to commercial bank money and to the existing payment systems.”
Meanwhile, PYMNTS wrote Wednesday (April 26) that stablecoins could help chart a path forward to regulating cryptocurrency.
Republican lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee unveiled their version of a new draft stablecoin bill this week after a heated debate April 19 over an earlier proposal.
The GOP document makes several alterations, including giving state regulators more power to charter stablecoin issuers, something which New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) Superintendent Adrienne A. Harris had been advocating.
It also narrows the bill’s focus, including excluding algorithmic stablecoins. The original bill required stablecoin issuers, banks and non-banks alike, to register with the Federal Reserve even if they had received state approval. The new version still allows for the Fed to take ultimate enforcement action against issuers if states fail to do so upon its recommendation.