A notable player in the traditional financial sector is edging closer to crypto adoption in Japan – as credit card giant JCB published that it would be working on a crypto-related pilot.
In a press release, the Japanese card firm announced that it had begun accomplishing a pilot with Cowry, Tokyo-based payments, and a blockchain startup set up in 2017.
They discussed the companies’ beginning presentation research concerning compatibility solutions for tokens, using “existing cryptocurrencies and other blockchain networks” on Cowry’s blockchain platform.
The two companies closed an initial partnership deal back in August 2019 and agreed to work on token economies such as local currencies, stablecoins, and more.
Nevertheless, it seems this partnership has finally borne fruit. Another conventional business giant, the IT behemoth Fujitsu, is also aboard – the pilot will use interoperability solutions developed by Fujitsu Laboratories, a research arm of the tech firm.
JCB and Cowry declare that they have generated solutions that will allow them to settle payments immediately using technology that “partially centralizes” when confirming new transactions – rather than force buyers and merchants to wait for blocks to be mined on their respective blockchain networks.
In hypothesis, this discovery could allow merchants and buyers to receive or make transactions even if they were using several tokens to do so – for instance, and a token X-holding customer could spend at a store whose owner only has a token Y wallet.
The new solution, they told, will serve as “token exchange distribution between different economic” zones, sectors, or groups “increases” in the future, and tokenization eclipses fiat in regional and community scenarios.
JCB and Corwry stated they would target “regional revitalization” with the new project, suggesting that it could be used as part of forthcoming local stablecoin or token projects.
The firms did not reveal which tokens they would seek to use in the new pilot, nor did they mention where the pilot would occur.
JCB has been researching several ways it could potentially move into crypto and blockchain-powered business sectors of late, and last year disclosed that it was working with Fujitsu on a new payment platform that could make use of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.
The card giant is also working with another crypto-keen IT giant, the chat app operator Line, on e-pay-related solutions.
According to its reckoning, JCB announced it had issued cards to 130 million customers in 23 countries.
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