The World Wide Web Consortium W3C is going to release an API allowing to choose from a wide range of payment methods, which include bitcoin and other distributed ledger technologies.

The application’s universal programming interface will make it easier for web developers to integrate payment systems into their websites.



With the help of the proposed API, the means of payment will be easily chosen by users, which is particularly important for mobile apps.



The W3C CEO Dr Jeff Jaffe believes that digital wallets are not widespread yet because digital platforms use different and often incompatible interfaces. Therefore, the aim of the project is to propose common standards to make the interfaces interoperable.



The innovation can be seen as another step towards the global adoption of the newest means of payment, such as bitcoin digital currency and blockchain.



The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community consisting of member organisations and full-time staff, which work together on developing Web standards.



The Consortium's working group for the API is going to meet up during the W3C's Plenary week, the meeting to be co-chaired by Ripple's Adrian Hope-Bailie and Worldpay's Nick Telford-Reed.



Maria Rudina