Visa has proposed an offline payment system for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in a new research paper. The payments giant’s paper, “Towards a Two-Tier Hierarchical Infrastructure: An Offline Payment System for Central Bank Digital Currencies,” acknowledges the benefits of CBDCs—but says they should, when they finally become available, be able to be made without an internet connection. CBDCs are digitalized forms of fiat currencies that could run on a blockchain, but don’t necessarily have to use distributed ledger technology. Unlike cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Litecoin, a CBDC would likely be ... (full story)