The Influence of Visa Founder Dee Hock on Crypto and DAOs
Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin recently pointed out the similarities between Visa founder Dee Hock’s original vision and the main principles of cryptocurrency and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).
Buterin noted, “Certainly some good insights to learn from there.”
Hock’s Vision for Visa
When Visa was first conceptualized, it was meant to be based on principles of equitable ownership, power distribution, diversity, and distributed governance. The idea was to create a non-stock membership organization without a stock price. However, after Visa’s IPO in 2007, it transformed into a for-profit public company with significant governance changes.
This shift in direction from its original vision towards centralization mirrors the core philosophies behind DAOs, which operate without a central authority.
Today, Visa is seen by some cryptocurrency proponents as “extractive” and “oppressive,” particularly due to high transaction fees and the ability to block transactions to please shareholders.
Visa’s Adoption of Cryptocurrencies
Despite initial skepticism towards cryptocurrencies as potential competitors, Visa has embraced the sector and started piloting Circle’s USDC stablecoin for settlements powered by Ethereum. The company has also expanded its pilots to include Solana.
In addition, Visa has launched stablecoin-linked cards and integrated Web3 infrastructure to facilitate seamless crypto-to-fiat withdrawals.