Walmart CTO: Crypto to Become Major Payment Disruptor

Suresh Kumar, the global Chief Technology Officer of Walmart, has called crypto one of the biggest areas of disruption, specifically in the way clients will pay for digital and physical products eventually.

At the recent Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit on October 17th, Kumar emphasized Walmart’s supportive perspective towards the digital asset market, acknowledging that crypto has the potential to become a pivotal element in how clients carry out transactions for both physical and virtual products.

Kumar said that there are mainly three sites of disruption and cryptocurrency practically falls in the center of it. He also noted that there was a clear difference in how clients are getting influenced and inspired by the products.

In the future, a large amount of marketing will be done through Metaverse and live streams on social media applications, while cryptocurrency will feature as the most prominent payment option in these regions.

Walmart made news last year when the firm pursued several new trademarks that indicated its willingness to create and trade digital assets in the metaverse.

This could explain the company’s indulgence in the Roblox Metaverse inaugurating Walmart Land in September. The company is conducting a series of virtual experiences there like a DJ booth and Ferris Wheel while offering digital merchandise products like verch for the customers’ avatars.

Speculations have also been rife as Walmart’s crypto pursuits have led to the filing of seven distinct trademark applications with the US Patent and Trademark Office in December 2021. The company has also expressed its intentions to provide customers with a digital currency, along with NFTs. Ever since the firm has mainly stayed quiet on how exactly it is planning to go about its decisions.

NFTs and cryptocurrency have not been embedded in the Roblox metaverse at this point, but Walmart had initially suggested in patent filings that it would look closely into creating virtual currencies, tokens, and NFTs in the Metaverse.

According to Kumar, the company wants to ensure that there is no inconsistency in the system for the customers to use. They should have the freedom to be able to easily conduct transactions and obtain value from them. Incorporating all this into one system will cause disruption, with different payment methods and options.

The multinational retail giant is known to have been working on creating and offering crypto payment support quietly, however, no false alarms have been raised as of now.