Stable coins for Walmart, Amazon?

Walmart and Amazon are said to be exploring the creation of their own stablecoins,  cryptocurrencies whose value is pegged to that of another currency, commodity, or financial instrument such as gold, Treasury bills or the U.S. dollar.

For those of us who do not buy and sell crypto as an investment or store of value, such stablecoin payment methods are a practical application of crypto in our daily lives.

New proposed legislation passed by the U.S. Senate to create a regulatory framework for stablecoins arguably will help clear the way, pegging stablecoin value to the U.S. dollar. The U.S. House of Representatives already has passed similar legislation. 

Most of the value seems tied to the ability to reduce interchange payments (usage fees, essentially) paid to credit card processors Visa and Mastercard, for example. By leveraging stablecoins, they can process payments at lower cost, with faster settlement, and maintain greater control over their transaction cost infrastructure. 

Feature	Credit Card Payments	Stablecoin Payments
Typical Fee	2-3%+ per transaction	1.5% or lower
Settlement Time	1-3 business days	Real-time or near real-time
Network Intermediaries	Banks, Card Networks	Minimal (blockchain only)
Retailer Control	Low	High
Volatility Risk	None (fiat)	Low (fiat-pegged)

Such retailer stablecoins might be considered a major boost for use of cryptocurrencies as a payment mechanism or currency. Over time, if consumers embrace the method, it also has implications for the fortunes of credit card processing networks as well as the major retailers who use the stablecoins. 

Banks presumably also will have to adjust, as they are the processing network partners and actually issue credit cards, authorize and receive payments consumers make with retailers.