The Electronic Transactions Association (ETA), a trade group whose members include Visa, MasterCard, Amazon and PayPal, is taking Bitcoin more seriously. In an interview with CoinDesk, ETA CEO Jason Oxman said the traditional electronic payments industry is beginning to see Bitcoin’s disruptive potential, and partnerships with Bitcoin startups are likely to become more common.
BitPay became ETA’s first Bitcoin payments member
ETA announced in August 2014 that it had accepted BitPay as a member. The Atlanta-based Bitcoin payments solution provider became the first virtual currency company to formally join the association. In its announcement, ETA said it expected more partnerships of this kind in the future.
Oxman cited BitPay’s entry as an example of how ETA is not ignoring innovation. He said the association is shaping an image of being willing to work with startups built around new technologies, and that naturally includes companies tied to Bitcoin. Which companies it works with, he added, depends largely on market demand.
“At its core, our industry is about facilitating electronic transactions, and those transactions will take the form customers or merchants see as most suitable,” Oxman said.
Oxman said the Bitcoin Foundation helped shift ETA’s view
Oxman also said the Bitcoin Foundation played a key role in helping ETA understand Bitcoin’s advantages. He specifically referred to a 2013 presentation at an ETA event by Patrick Murck, then general counsel of the Bitcoin Foundation.
According to Oxman, Murck brought Bitcoin’s commercial case into the association’s field of view, which led members to start seeing Bitcoin as an “interesting development” within the industry. In that context, BitPay’s membership was only a starting point, and the door was opened for more Bitcoin startups to enter.
ETA says it is not favoring Bitcoin, but it is not dismissing it either
Oxman said ETA is not taking a pro-Bitcoin position at the expense of other technologies. The group supports all forms of electronic transactions. Even so, he said the competitive structure of the payments business is changing.
- Traditional payment networks such as Visa, MasterCard and PayPal already operate at large scale.
- Bitcoin payment companies including BitPay and Coinbase Commerce offer instant settlement and lower-friction cross-border payments.
- More payment processors are adopting hybrid models that accept both fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies.
The source article also noted that in Taiwan, convenience stores and supermarkets broadly support e-wallets and mobile payments, while Bitcoin payments are still largely limited to exchange withdrawals. Against that backdrop, ETA’s openness points to a growing possibility that traditional payment rails could integrate Bitcoin in the future.
On regulation, Oxman warned against forcing old rules onto new technology too quickly
Oxman also commented on regulation, including the New York Department of Financial Services’ BitLicense proposal. He said consumer protection is the central concern in regulating any new payment technology, but added that regulators should not apply rules reflexively just because something is new.
He said regulators should first develop a deeper understanding of the Bitcoin system, how blockchain works, and how Bitcoin processors protect both consumers and merchants before deciding how to regulate the sector.
The source article added that this view may also be relevant to policymakers in other jurisdictions developing cryptocurrency rules.