According to the president of Western Union Global Money Transfer, the company is “ready to adopt any kind of currency.”
And interestingly, this includes cryptocurrencies.
Western Union Ready to Adopt
Odilon Almeida held an interview with Reuters Plus yesterday. Here he stated that there was no big difference between cryptocurrencies and regular digital payments, of which the Western Union has handled for years now.
The president stated further:
“We already operate with 130 currencies. If one day we feel like it is the right strategy to introduce cryptocurrencies to our platform, technology-wise, it’s just one more currency. I think cryptocurrencies may become one more option of currency or assets around the globe to be exchanged between people and businesses. If that happens, we would be ready to launch.”
This is a case of age and experience giving Western Union the potential to launch any type of currency inclusive of those based on the blockchain.
So we know it has the ability to adopt cryptocurrency but will Western Union actually do it?
Volatility
It’s a word that is synonymous with the crypto industry and in this case, it is no different. Volatility is one major problem that the industry needs to sort out first before Western Union could involve itself. The crypto market also needs to take control of governance and compliance.
However, price volatility can be addressed by pegging coins to “strong currencies, such as the dollar,” says Almeida.
>> The Crypto Donations Continue! Vitalik Buterin Donates $300K
In this instance, stablecoins would be a necessity.
Blockchain
The company has already begun exploring blockchain. It has partnered with Ripple to “test whether sending payments by blockchain was faster and less expensive.”
The answers are inconclusive at present and tests are ongoing.
Almeida’s openness regarding cryptocurrencies shows a different stance than what the Western Union’s CEO Hikmet Ersek iterated in June. In his case, he felt that until people were paying “hospital bills in cryptos,” Western Union would not add a cryptocurrency transfer solution to its services.
Featured Image: Depositphotos/© wolterke
