Walmart’s Global Chief technology officer (CTO) Suresh Kumar has suggested that cryptocurrencies are shaping up to be a “major” area of disruption, particularly in how customers pay for virtual and physical products in the future.
Speaking at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit on October 17, Kumar outlined Walmart’s bullish stance on digital assets, noting that “crypto is becoming an important part of how customers transact” for physical and virtual goods.
“I think there are three main areas of disruption. In the middle of that, crypto kind of falls,” he said, explaining that “the way customers get inspired and find products” is changing.
This may explain Walmart’s recent foray into the Roblox Metaverse and the launch of Walmart Land at the end of September. The company hosts various virtual experiences there, such as games, a DJ booth, and a Ferris wheel, and also offers virtual goods called “verch” for user avatars.
NFTs and crypto are not currently integrated into the Roblox metaverse, but Walmart indicated in patent filings earlier in January that it may create digital currencies, tokens, and NFTs in the Metaverse space at some point in the future .
“We want to make sure that the customers can make transactions and purchases and how they can benefit from them.” And from there, “I think a lot of disruption is going to happen in terms of different payment methods and different payment methods,” he said.
For some time, the international retail behemoth has been rumored to be working on introducing crypto payment support, but so far only false alarms have surfaced, such as a bogus Litecoin contract (LTC down $51.5). via a dubious press release last September.
Currently, as of October 2021, Walmart stores in the United States had approximately 200 Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs installed, with 8,000 ATMs planned at that time for an unspecified date.
Kumar also indicated that a significant number of clients are marketed through Metaverse and live streaming on social media, and crypto could be an important payment option in such areas.
“Crypto is becoming an important part of customer transactions. We want to make sure our customers have a smooth transaction and shopping experience and how they can benefit from it. And it’s—I think a lot of disruption is going to happen around different payment methods and different payment methods. “
Crypto continues to play a very important role in this. And of course, we want to be where the customer really needs us. The last part of this is how the products are found and how they are delivered. There are many distractions. But if you’re talking about crypto specifically, it’s about finding the products, whether they’re physical or virtual, from within, whether from the Metaverse or from the beginning, and then how people trade them.
Source: Yahoo Finance
