Blockchain technology could help prevent a system failure like the one that recently crippled Visa’s payments network, according to eToro’s managing director, Iqbal Gandham.
Visa recently experienced a system failure, which left customers across Europe unable to make purchases.
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Gandham told PBI: “While Visa is centrally controlled and has central points of failure, blockchain removes the middleman in transactions, making it quicker, cheaper and easier to transact. Compared to Visa, the decentralised ledger reduces the likelihood of transactional error and fraud; the distributed ledger technology means every transaction is logged for all to see.”
System failures
He added: “We have seen a number of data breaches and system failures in the financial services industry in recent years and months.
“Customer dissatisfaction with mainstream payments systems and the traditional financial world as a whole has led many people to consider alternatives, which is partially fuelling the surge in demand for cryptocurrencies. “
Gandham, has previously stressed the evolving nature of cryptocurrencies when debating whether cryptocurrency is too volatile to be taken seriously as an investment.
At a networking breakfast, attending by Private Banker International (PBI) publication, Gandham from online trading and cryptocurrency platform, eToro , said cryptocurrency is “an evolution of currency”.
“We started off with gold, to printing money and now we are generating money on computers,” said Gandham.
He then commented on where the problem lies with the volatility of cryptocurrency: “I think the problem is that experts are having conversations about something that has not been developed.”
