Ask ten people what the world of fintech (financial technologies for the uninitiated) will look like ten years from now, and you’ll get ten different answers, all ten of which will be little more than educated guesses. Despite what anyone says, nobody really knows what the future holds.

The solution for corporations to prepare for the unknowable future?

Prepare for all contingencies.

That’s something easier said than done, particularly in the shadow of the rise of cryptocurrencies, in an environment that’s increasingly global and in an era where technologies change fast. Credit card companies and payment middlemen like Visa Inc (NYSE:V) and Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) are not immune to the uncertainty of fintech.

Thing is, owners of V stock don’t have too much to be worried about in terms of Visa’s preparedness. It’s gearing up for a future it can’t even see by building the tools and relationships for all sorts of possibilities that will matter ten years from now.

Two developments this week underscore the forward-thinking mindset of Visa, even though neither of them made an immediate impact on the Visa Inc stock price.

Visa Stock Is Adding to Its Toolbox

Gone are the days when consumers simply typed in an account name and a password to complete some sort of financial transaction. The rise of wearables and mobility have not only changed what’s possible, but what’s expected.

Visa stock’s solution? The launch of what it calls Visa ID Intelligence. This technology allows for a financial payment using unique factors like facial recognition, fingerprints or voice recognition. It will make passwords a thing of the past. The demand for such tools is not yet widespread. That’s the point. If V stock waits until the need is rampant, another player will already own that space.

The other noteworthy project is a newly forged partnership with Billtrust to develop an effective way to automate business-to-business (B2B) payments.

With greater globalization, comes greater complexity and greater risk in making these payments — payments that are still ultimately overseen manually. Visa’s Straight Through Processing capabilities coupled with Billtrust’s Virtual Card Capture solution make sending and receiving payments a much simpler and safer process, lowering the cost and increasing the speed of that payment processing.

Both efforts are just a microcosm of things Visa has taken on, and both are a nod toward something else that V stock owners have seen off and on the radar for the past few months. That is, the blockchain technology that’s laid the foundation for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

A clarification is in order. Blockchain isn’t cryptocurrency. Blockchain is the underlying coding that makes digital money like Bitcoin or Ethereum possible, as it essentially assures the digital security of those cryptocurrencies. It could work, and would work, just as well for actual fiat currency. More importantly, digital currency is the future, whereas paper and coins are fading away. As we live increasingly digital lives, secure storage of our digital dollars will become a must.

To that end, Visa is the only payment middleman thus far that’s taken a deliberate effort toward incorporating the power of blockchain into its platforms. As Jack Forestell, Visa’s Head of Global Merchant Sales and Solutions, recently explained of the company’s view of the digital currency frontier:

“This type of digital solution has helped open doors for people who were previously off-the-grid or unbanked, which in turn has created entrepreneurial opportunities and reduced friction in how people pay and get paid… As the world’s largest payments technology company, no one embraces the benefits of digital currency more than we do.”

To be clear, however, neither Forestell nor any other Visa stock executive really knows what the future holds when it comes to cryptocurrency. But all of them believe digital money will be the future one way or another, and that now’s the time to do the groundwork.

Looking Ahead for V Stock

Don’t hear the wrong message. Other players, including rival Mastercard, are working on similarly compelling projects. International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), of all companies, is thinking about how to be a facilitator of blockchain platforms. Paypal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) is currently the commanding king of mobile payments. The payments market isn’t simply going to roll over and give the changing market to Visa.

However, current and would-be owners of V stock can take solace in knowing it’s ensuring it’s ready for what’s coming down the pike, even if the company doesn’t actually know what that is.

As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. You can follow him on Twitter.