Walmart CTO says crypto will become major payments tool

Chief Technology Officer at Walmart, Suresh Kumar, believes that crypto will be used in the future by customers to pay for virtual goods and services.

Crypto gives customers more payment options

Speaking at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit yesterday, Kumar explained Walmart’s positive stance on crypto, saying that crypto will gain more importance as customers utilise it to transact both physical and virtual goods across the metaverse and social media.

He stated:

“I think that there are three major areas of disruption. Crypto falls in sort of the middle of it,” he said, explaining that “the way in which customers are getting inspired and discovering products” is going through a period of transformation.”

Kumar feels that customers want more payment options and they don’t want any barriers to fast, secure transactions. He affirmed:

“Crypto will become an important part of how customers transact. We want to make sure that we make it as friction free for customers to be able to transact, and to be able to buy, and how they are able to derive value out of it.”

The Walmart CTO believes that the future will see a significant amount of marketing to potential customers in the metaverse and across social media. He sees crypto playing an important part in this as a major alternative to traditional forms of payment.

Kumar said that for him it’s about: 

“how products get discovered, products get delivered. A lot of disruption going on over there. But when you specifically talk about crypto, it is going to be about discovery of products, whether it is physical or virtual inside, either the Metaverse or upfront, and then how people transact.”

Walmart’s presence in the Metaverse

The shopping giant began its journey in the metaverse when it launched “Walmart Land” in the Roblox metaverse in late September. It is also looking to create digital currencies and NFTs, following a patent filing last January.

What turned out to be a fake alarm was when Walmart was erroneously reported to have struck a deal to use Litecoin for payments.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.