Sam Altman's World Network in Talks with Visa to Bring Functionality to World Wallet

CoinDesk reports that Sam Altman's World Network is in talks with Visa to bring Visa card functionality to the World Wallet, turning it into a “mini bank account” and enabling stablecoin-based payments

CoinDesk reports that Sam Altman’s World Network is in talks with Visa to bring Visa card functionality to the World Wallet, turning it into a “mini bank account” and enabling stablecoin-based payments to thousands of merchants around the world.

The report quotes “a source familiar with the plans,” who says “the plan is to build up a whole connected wallet strategy so that you can trade in all kinds of things, from FX to crypto, load to wallet, send to wallet, spend from card.”

World Network recently announced the World Chat application, which includes functionality for crypto-based transactions between users on the network. The chat app is designed to be a decentralized social network, in contrast to the centralized models of existing chat applications.

According to CoinDesk, World Network is aiming to integrate the World Wallet with Visa's vast merchant network, allowing users to make stablecoin payments at any of the millions of businesses that accept Visa. This integration would be a significant step forward for both World Network and the broader cryptocurrency industry.

Meanwhile, both Visa and Mastercard have been wading deeper into crypto – Visa with its Tokenized Asset Platform and Mastercard with its own tokenized payments system. Last month Visa partnered with crypto payments provider RedotPay and StraitsX to roll out a crypto-backed credit card program in Singapore.

The integration of Visa card functionality into the World Wallet would create a hybrid ecosystem of traditional finance and cryptocurrency, potentially attracting a broader user base to both domains.