Bitcoin Global News (BGN)

April 16, 2018 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- On October 20, 2017 Mastercard announced they were releasing Blockchain technology based payment solutions. The payment processor already has existing capabilities to improve on cross-border banking, cross-boarder payments and improved security through virtual cards, Mastercard Send and Vocalink.

Blockchain technology provides a greater capacity for these and other benefits. The Mastercard blockchain was designed to compete in the global landscape, not just improve upon the services they offer by focusing on four key aspects (Source):

• Privacy – Mastercard blockchain provides privacy by ensuring that transaction details are shared only amongst the participants of a transaction while maintaining a fully auditable and valid ledger of transactions.

• Flexibility – Partners can use the blockchain APIs in conjunction with a wider suite of Mastercard APIs to create a range of powerful, new applications. Software development kits are available in six different languages to make the APIs even easier to integrate.

• Scalability – Mastercard blockchain is designed for commercial processing speed and extensibility by reaching consensus between a trusted network moderator and network participants.

• Reach – Mastercard blockchain is integrated into the company’s payment network that includes 22,000 financial institutions to move funds that have been committed on the blockchain.

Pushing For Innovation and Adoption

Mastercard is based in Ireland. The country is home to their R&D facility “Mastercard Labs” in Leopardstown, where the 175 job have been made available. The executive vice president and head of Mastercard Labs highlighted the important of a culture built for innovation to make the benefits of their technology come to life.

“Ireland is the heart of our global innovation efforts – throughout Mastercard, Dublin is admired as a key technology hub – we’re looking to replicate the innovation culture we’ve fostered here in our offices around the world. The vibrant culture we have here makes it the perfect place to recruit for these highly-skilled roles. We need great minds who can look outside of Mastercard’s traditional payments expertise and create solutions to benefit our customers around the world, and I’m excited to grow our business here.” (Source)

Competition

There is heavy competition amongst credit card processors to enter and utilize the Blockchain space. Visa has made partnerships with Monaco and TenX to create a cryptocurrency credit card. These have only been pre-paid cards, rather than true Credit Cards so far.

By: BGN Editorial Staff