QR payments aren’t theoretical. They aren’t emerging. And they certainly aren’t new.
They are already the default way people pay across China, Brazil, Argentina, India, Nigeria, and much of Southeast Asia. Billions of people use QR code payments every day, for groceries, taxis, street food, rent, utilities, and ecommerce.
In many of these markets, QR payments didn’t supplement cards.
They replaced them.
So when crypto payments are framed as “too early,” the disconnect isn’t user behavior. It’s infrastructure.
Payments Don’t Change Overnight. They Compound
Every major payment rail follows the same arc:
- It starts as expensive, awkward, and unfamiliar
- Early adopters tolerate friction because the upside is obvious
- Infrastructure improves
- UX stabilizes
- Adoption compounds
We’ve seen this exact pattern before.
- Cards were once slower and more expensive than cash or cheques
- Merchants had to manually record details and settle later
- The internet turned cards into a universal remote for commerce
- Visa and Mastercard became dominant rails in developed markets
But in many emerging markets, cards never fully crossed the gap.
Instead, QR payments did.
They were cheaper, easier to deploy, and better suited to local realities. No terminals. No contracts. No new hardware. Just a phone, a QR code, and money moving instantly.
QR Payments Already Power Trillions
QR-based payment systems now process trillions of dollars in annual transaction volume, forming the primary payment rail across some of the world’s largest economies. Platforms such as Alipay and WeChat Pay in China, Pix in Brazil, UPI in India, Mercado Pago in Latin America, and GrabPay in Southeast Asia have embedded QR payments directly into everyday commerce at a national scale.
Across much of South America, Africa, and Asia, QR payments exceed card usage both online and in-store, driven by lower costs, faster settlement, and minimal infrastructure requirements. The behavior is well established, the user experience is standardized, and consumer trust is proven at scale, making QR payments one of the most successful payment adoptions of the past two decades. Crypto remains the only payment category still acting as if this adoption curve hasn’t already been completed.
The Real Barrier to Crypto Payments Isn’t Users
It’s easy to blame hesitation on the word “crypto.”
And yes, people associate it with:
- Volatility headlines
- New terminology
- Too many chains, tokens, and protocols
But those aren’t the real blockers.
People already use digital wallets.
They already scan QR codes.
They already expect instant confirmation.
What they don’t want is a payment experience that feels separate from how commerce already works.
That’s not a user problem. That’s a rails problem.
A Personal Perspective: Argentina and Mercado Pago
I saw this shift firsthand in Argentina.
In the early 2010s, payments were simple, but deeply limiting:
- Cash dominated everyday commerce
- Cards weren’t widely accepted, especially by small merchants
- Global platforms like PayPal didn’t work for most local businesses
If you reached checkout without enough cash, there was no workaround. You didn’t negotiate; you walked away.
I was one of the first users of Mercado Pago when QR payments began appearing in small shops and neighborhood kiosks. At the time, it didn’t feel revolutionary. It felt practical, and that’s exactly why it worked.
Mercado Pago didn’t try to replace cash overnight. They didn’t talk about the future of money.
They focused on something simpler: offering merchants and users a better alternative.
That meant:
- A simple QR code anyone could scan
- Instant confirmation at checkout
- No new hardware or operational change
- A clear, familiar cash alternative
Merchants adopted it because it fit how they already operated. Users adopted it because the experience felt natural.
The outcome wasn’t theoretical; it was measurable:
- In 2017, Mercado Pago’s off-marketplace QR payments reached $2.7B
- By 2024, that number had grown to $142B
No hype. No behavioral re-education. Just better payment rails, aligned with how people already pay.
What Every Stakeholder Actually Wants
Despite all the noise, payment requirements haven’t changed.
- Users want familiar checkout flows that don’t require learning something new
- Merchants want lower fees, faster settlement, and fewer intermediaries
- PSPs want predictable, secure payment flows that fit their existing stack
This is exactly where stablecoin payments shine.
Stablecoins enable:
- Near-instant settlement
- 24/7 global availability
- Predictable value
- Lower transaction costs
These aren’t crypto-native benefits.
They’re business fundamentals.
From Connectivity to Payments: Where WalletConnect Fits
WalletConnect built the connectivity layer that made wallets interoperable at scale.
Now it’s time to unlock the next step: payments.
WalletConnect Pay makes crypto wallets compatible with existing PSP payment flows, without asking PSPs or merchants to adopt new systems. There’s no need to integrate wallets, chains, or crypto businesses one by one. WalletConnect already connects the global wallet ecosystem, spanning chains, stablecoins, regions, and use cases. The result is simple: any wallet, any asset, anywhere; through a single, familiar payment integration.
The idea is simple:
- Let users pay with the wallet they already trust
- Let merchants and PSPs accept crypto without changing how payments operate today
WalletConnect Pay isn’t limited to QR code, but QR is a powerful example because the behavior already exists.
Same QR experience users expect. New settlement rails underneath.
Infrastructure, Not a Standalone Product
WalletConnect Pay is not a consumer app. It’s not a new checkout brand. It’s a payments infrastructure, compliant by design, built to plug into any existing stack, whether online, in-store, POS, or P2P. It fits where payments already happen and delivers predictable, reliable behavior at scale.
You don’t need to ask, “Is this supported?” In most cases, it already is.
Just like card networks, POS terminals, or alternative payment methods, it fits into existing systems rather than replacing them.
PSPs and merchants can:
- Whitelabel it
- Power their own QR or wallet-based payment flows
- Embed it into POS, ecommerce, or in-person checkout
- Extend existing payment offerings without operational disruption
That’s how real payment adoption happens.
Crypto Cards: A Step Forward, Still on Old Rails
We actually like crypto cards. They’re a step in the right direction. They helped normalize the idea that crypto can be spent, not just held, and that matters.
But most crypto cards today are still Visa with extra steps.
What usually happens is simple:
- A user pays with something like USDC, using a card issued by an exchange
- Funds are converted behind the scenes
- The transaction runs on traditional card rails
- The merchant receives fiat days later
From the user’s perspective, it feels like a crypto payment.
From the merchant’s perspective, crypto never entered the flow.
It’s familiar UX on top of old infrastructure.
WalletConnect could technically power crypto cards, but in a very different way, using WalletConnect infrastructure designed for direct settlement, not just wrapping existing card rails. That’s an area we’re actively working toward
What native crypto payments actually change
A native crypto payment flow removes those extra layers:
- The user pays with a stablecoin like USDC
- WalletConnect Pay powers the transfer
- The merchant receives the same asset, often within minutes
No forced conversions. No delayed settlement. No pretending it’s something new.
WalletConnect Pay
WalletConnect Pay is built for how payments operate at scale:
- Real-time, onchain settlement
- No new hardware required
- Embedded directly into e-commerce and in-person flows
- PSP-grade reliability by design
Online. In-store. Globally.
WalletConnect Pay is ready to be added to your stack, not as an experiment, but as infrastructure.
The Takeaway
QR payments aren’t new. Stablecoins aren’t the blocker. And users don’t need to be re-educated.
What’s been missing is a payment infrastructure that fits reality.
WalletConnect Pay delivers exactly that.
The world already uses QR payments. Crypto is the only one pretending it’s “too early.” Crypto keeps chasing new narratives while ignoring the most obvious one: payments. Stablecoins aren’t the problem. Rails are.
People want to spend crypto. Businesses want to accept it. PSPs want to offer it without complexity. That’s exactly the gap WalletConnect Pay is built to close.
Want to offer Crypto Payments in your stack? Speak to our team!