Mastercard, one of the leading global payments firms, has announced a new program to establish common standards and infrastructure for blockchain and Web3 ecosystems. The program, called Mastercard Crypto Credential, aims to enhance trust, compliance and verification among consumers and businesses using blockchain networks.
What is Mastercard Crypto Credential?
Mastercard Crypto Credential is a set of common standards and infrastructure that will help verify interactions among consumers and businesses using blockchain networks. The program will:
Define verification standards and levels for different types of activities on Web3 environments.
Provide enabling technology to support various use cases such as NFTs, ticketing, enterprise and payments solutions.
Create easy-to-remember aliases for wallet addresses to improve user experience and reduce errors.
Add metadata to blockchain transactions to define attributes of a wallet and ensure transactions are completed as intended.
Utilize CipherTrace’s suite of services to verify addresses and support Travel Rule compliance for cross-border transactions.
Who are the partners?
Mastercard has partnered with several blockchain platforms and crypto wallet providers to implement and apply the Crypto Credential program. The partners are:
Blockchain platforms: Polygon, Solana Foundation, Aptos Labs and Ava Labs. These platforms will collaborate with Mastercard to introduce the Crypto Credential application to developers in their ecosystems and enhance verification in NFTs, ticketing and other payments solutions.
Crypto wallet providers: Uphold, Bit2Me, Lirium and Mercado Bitcoin. These providers will leverage the Crypto Credential standards for their cross-border transfers between the U.S. and Latin America and the Caribbean corridors.
Why is it important?
Mastercard Crypto Credential is an important initiative for the blockchain industry as it seeks to bring more legitimacy, trust and security to the Web3 space. By defining common standards and infrastructure for verification, compliance and user experience, Mastercard Crypto Credential can help foster more adoption and innovation in the blockchain ecosystem. Raj Dhamodharan, the head of crypto at Mastercard, said in a statement:
“With Mastercard Crypto Credential, we can help ensure that those interested in interacting across Web3 environments are meeting defined standards for the types of activities they’d like to pursue. Mastercard Crypto Credential will not only define verification standards and levels, but also provide necessary enabling technology to help bring more use cases to life”.
This new program is part of Mastercard’s broader efforts to support the crypto industry and provide more choices and opportunities for its customers. In recent months, Mastercard has also launched Crypto Secure, a crypto service desk to help banks prevent fraud on crypto merchant platforms, and Crypto Source, a program that enables financial institutions to offer secure crypto trading services to their customers.