Paying Ethereum Gas Fees Made Easier with Visa Credit Cards

Transaction fees on the Ethereum blockchain can be daunting for many, a viewpoint shared by credit-card giant Visa. Announcing its latest innovation in a recent blog post, Visa shared the completion of trials for a novel approach, letting users settle Ethereum’s “gas fees” using traditional currency via their credit cards.

In recent times, blockchain technology has garnered substantial traction, with many seeing its potential to revolutionize financial transactions. However, Visa acknowledges that on-chain operations are often intricate for the everyday user. With every Ethereum transaction, users incur a gas fee, even when simply sending or receiving ether (ETH), Ethereum’s inherent cryptocurrency. Keeping sufficient ETH to offset these charges is a challenge, Visa noted. “When comparing the complex nature of blockchain transactions with the simplicity of fiat-based payment transactions supported by the Visa network, it becomes evident that improvement is needed,” the company stated.

Visa’s proposed solution integrates Ethereum’s ERC-4337 standard, which facilitates smart contracts on the blockchain to function as wallets using “account abstraction.” It also incorporates a paymaster contract, which can defray gas fees for users. Consequently, individuals could directly pay gas fees via their Visa cards. This initiative underwent rigorous testing on the Ethereum Goerli “testnet”, an experimental platform for Ethereum.

Additionally, Visa highlighted that merchants or decentralized apps might adopt their paymaster mechanism or utilize a pre-existing wallet to simplify transactions. These providers may even present card-based gas fee payment as one of several options.