Visa's payment system has collapsed, preventing the use of credit cards and processing of payments across the EU and Ireland, even in the United States. Although the issue has been said to have been resolved, the incident serves to highlight the need for a stable decentralized alternative as the probability of such things simply does not exist.
In an official statement to "Twitter", Visa announced that its payment processing service was facing a "disruption in service"
"We are currently facing a service disruption that stands in the way of processing some Visa transactions in Europe. We are investigating the underlying causes and working as quickly as possible to resolve the situation. We will tell you the latest developments. "
Visa users reportedly faced real problems with payments via cards. So they received messages saying there was a "service failure", which prevented payment providers from receiving or sending money.
Warning of basic risk
Credit card payments were not the only service affected by the interruption of Visa services. So that this fact prevented many European clients from conducting transactions with funds deposited in their bank accounts. The Irish Times reported that Irish tourists who arrived in the United States were unable to access their money.
By putting personal troubles aside, service disruptions could be a major problem for banking institutions as well. The reports appeared to show people lined up in front of ATMs to withdraw as much money as possible, fearing a prolonged interruption.
Banks such as HSBC began tweaking Twitter about the problem almost immediately, saying:
"We are aware of the wide industry problem affecting Visa payments, which is now being investigated and scrutinized. But ATM and MasterCard transactions were not affected. Visa works hard to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. We will continue to support influential customers as much as we need to. "
Solve the current problem, and overlook what is behind it
After almost 20 hours of "Visa" awareness of the holidays, the company published a statement on its official website, claiming that the problem had been resolved, she said:
"Europe's Visa payment system is now fully functional, and Visa account holders can now use their cards for purchases or at ATMs, as they usually do."
However, a certain point must be emphasized. Visa is, of course, one of the leading payment solution providers, with millions of people using its services worldwide. While it is not clear how many of these are affected by the problem, one thing is very clear - that the problem with one central service provider could deprive millions of people of access to banking services.
Can a digital currency solution provide this problem?
In its official announcement, Visa explained that the interruption was the cause of some kind of "system failure". The question is - can we afford to leave the "regime" and its support team determine whether millions of people from all over the world will be able to access their money or not?
The problem, of course, goes far beyond "Visa", as this particular incident clearly identifies the need for an alternative - like the Pitcuen - immune to things such as "system failure."
Decentralization can solve all these problems, ironically that "Visa" is not strange to this technology. In October 2016, Visa announced that it was working on a solution based on the Biloxin for business transboundary movements. Similarly, just last month, MasterCard filed a patent for a faster contract verification system.
Can all of this hint that we are closer to the widespread dependence of digital currencies and the technology behind them?
One simple truth emerged amid all the chaos caused by the interruption of Visa services:
"Visa services are collapsing today, while Bitcoin has never collapsed."
