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MasterCard will give merchants the ability to accept crypto payments this year

48 points by bronak1 6y ago

ilaksh 6y ago
The point of cryptocurrency is that you don't need a private or government middleman. My hope is that Ethereum 2.0 will become popular and there will be point of sale terminals that support it natively.
- 0x008 6y ago
  With everybody using online wallets this particular aspect of crypto is long gone.
  - tal8d 6y ago
    There are over 30 million BTC addresses with a balance. So if everyone used "online wallets", they'd either have to be intentionally leaving dust in their exchange wallets, or there is some Superman 3 salami slicing going on and the exchanges have very patiently held off on sweeping up their ill-gotten gains.
    - 0x008 6y ago
      I was not aware that every single exchange only has 1 wallet for all of its users?
tal8d 6y ago
> To be completely clear, not all of today’s cryptocurrencies will be supported on our network ... What are we looking for? > ...privacy and security of consumers’ information — the same level of security people have come to expect in their credit cards. Well that is a low bar, so OK. > ...strict compliance protocols will be needed, including Know Your Customer... Woops, suddenly we aren't talking about a currency - we're talking about another licensed money transmitter. > To reach our network, crypto assets will need to offer the stability people need in a vehicle for spending, not investment. So some kind of pre-mined and centralized token system... hmmm, I wonder which poison pill they're talking about... could it be anything besides ripple?
- newsbinator 6y ago
  One wouldn’t expect them to use Ripple, given the current SEC investigation. It could be Stellar XLM, but I haven’t heard any specifics in Stellar groups.
  - tal8d 6y ago
    lol, it is oddly comforting to take a break for a few years and then come back to find that ripple is still the Wile E. Coyote of the space. Fingers crossed for some kind of Frankenstein ZuckBuck.
- hi5eyes 6y ago
  mastercard stablecoin
- hulahoof 6y ago
  Definitely a stablecoin, perhaps USDC
exabrial 6y ago
I really hope they don't choose Bitcoin or Ethereum. Something like Stellar XLM is not only environmentally responsible, the protocol settles in seconds rather than minutes.
- hggh 6y ago
  You don't need fast settlements for most payments (cheaper than a car). Bitcoin (BTC) transactions used to be irreversible (the proof-of-work needed to double-spend was too much for such amounts), until they ruined it by implementing return-by-fee (RBF). Fortunately Bitcoin Cash (BCH) keeps the original implementation, usually less than a second zero-conf transactions and no RBF.
- Mindwipe 6y ago
  Given they seem to have a KYC requirement they basically can't use Bitcon or Ethereum as far as I can see.
- paddim8 6y ago
  Or Mina protocol! Apparently their blockchain will always be 22kb. Much faster and smaller and scalable I think?
benjaminjosephw 6y ago
> With 89 blockchain patents granted globally with an additional 285 blockchain applications pending worldwide, we already have one of the payments industry’s biggest blockchain patent portfolios to draw from to make these projects successful. People were sold the crypto vision with decentralization as the key idea which heralded the end of an outdated an inefficient centralized system. Now it looks like the momentum behind that movement has been co-opted by those who see the potential to transform it into one which puts a whole lot more power into the hands of the brokers. It's funny how the support of a group with one ideology has given credibility to the polar opposite ideology for people with very different objectives and principles.
- bronak1 6y ago
  I think it's just the nature of how corporations operate; patents are just another metric to measure success for them.
- rapjr9 6y ago
  Wall Streets dark pools may become blacker.
- ilaksh 6y ago
  Well, they are definitely trying to capitalize on the momentum. But I would really describe it as trickery delaying the inevitable. It is hard for me to believe that people will continue to be fooled into thinking that the way to do cryptocurrency transactions is to not do cryptocurrency transactions and instead give their cryptocurrency to a middleman who will continue charging middleman fees. Especially when Ethereum 2.0 is fully implemented and deployed.. I think that people will finally understand that cryptocurrency is for cryptocurrency payments and that is an alternative to MasterCard and other middlemen.
  - dragonwriter 6y ago
    > It is hard for me to believe that people will continue to be fooled into thinking that the way to do cryptocurrency transactions is to not do cryptocurrency transactions and instead give their cryptocurrency to a middleman who will continue charging middleman fees. The whole mining network are middlemen who charge middleman fees, so you’re pretty much stuck with that, short of deciding to be a miner. And the more currencies are in common use that aren’t locked in essentially exclusive jurisdictional domains, the more demand merchants and consumers will have for middlemen that make dealing with multiple of them and converting them at need as close to frictionless as possible. Sure, partisans of one crypto or another will be happy to transact directly in that crypto without an abstraction layer over multiple currencies, but they will be the exception, not the norm. Crypto idealists may each see their favored coin as the way to get beyond traditional middlemen, but in reality each coin that reaches nontrivial use actually increases the demand for middlemen.

48 points by bronak1 6y ago

The point of cryptocurrency is that you don't need a private or government middleman. My hope is that Ethereum 2.0 will become popular and there will be point of sale terminals that support it natively.

0x008 6y ago
With everybody using online wallets this particular aspect of crypto is long gone.
- tal8d 6y ago
  There are over 30 million BTC addresses with a balance. So if everyone used "online wallets", they'd either have to be intentionally leaving dust in their exchange wallets, or there is some Superman 3 salami slicing going on and the exchanges have very patiently held off on sweeping up their ill-gotten gains.
  - 0x008 6y ago
    I was not aware that every single exchange only has 1 wallet for all of its users?

tal8d 6y ago

> To be completely clear, not all of today’s cryptocurrencies will be supported on our network ... What are we looking for? > ...privacy and security of consumers’ information — the same level of security people have come to expect in their credit cards. Well that is a low bar, so OK. > ...strict compliance protocols will be needed, including Know Your Customer... Woops, suddenly we aren't talking about a currency - we're talking about another licensed money transmitter. > To reach our network, crypto assets will need to offer the stability people need in a vehicle for spending, not investment. So some kind of pre-mined and centralized token system... hmmm, I wonder which poison pill they're talking about... could it be anything besides ripple?

newsbinator 6y ago
One wouldn’t expect them to use Ripple, given the current SEC investigation. It could be Stellar XLM, but I haven’t heard any specifics in Stellar groups.
- tal8d 6y ago
  lol, it is oddly comforting to take a break for a few years and then come back to find that ripple is still the Wile E. Coyote of the space. Fingers crossed for some kind of Frankenstein ZuckBuck.
hi5eyes 6y ago
mastercard stablecoin
hulahoof 6y ago
Definitely a stablecoin, perhaps USDC

exabrial 6y ago

I really hope they don't choose Bitcoin or Ethereum. Something like Stellar XLM is not only environmentally responsible, the protocol settles in seconds rather than minutes.

hggh 6y ago
You don't need fast settlements for most payments (cheaper than a car). Bitcoin (BTC) transactions used to be irreversible (the proof-of-work needed to double-spend was too much for such amounts), until they ruined it by implementing return-by-fee (RBF). Fortunately Bitcoin Cash (BCH) keeps the original implementation, usually less than a second zero-conf transactions and no RBF.
Mindwipe 6y ago
Given they seem to have a KYC requirement they basically can't use Bitcon or Ethereum as far as I can see.
paddim8 6y ago
Or Mina protocol! Apparently their blockchain will always be 22kb. Much faster and smaller and scalable I think?

benjaminjosephw 6y ago

> With 89 blockchain patents granted globally with an additional 285 blockchain applications pending worldwide, we already have one of the payments industry’s biggest blockchain patent portfolios to draw from to make these projects successful. People were sold the crypto vision with decentralization as the key idea which heralded the end of an outdated an inefficient centralized system. Now it looks like the momentum behind that movement has been co-opted by those who see the potential to transform it into one which puts a whole lot more power into the hands of the brokers. It's funny how the support of a group with one ideology has given credibility to the polar opposite ideology for people with very different objectives and principles.

bronak1 6y ago
I think it's just the nature of how corporations operate; patents are just another metric to measure success for them.
rapjr9 6y ago
Wall Streets dark pools may become blacker.
ilaksh 6y ago
Well, they are definitely trying to capitalize on the momentum. But I would really describe it as trickery delaying the inevitable. It is hard for me to believe that people will continue to be fooled into thinking that the way to do cryptocurrency transactions is to not do cryptocurrency transactions and instead give their cryptocurrency to a middleman who will continue charging middleman fees. Especially when Ethereum 2.0 is fully implemented and deployed.. I think that people will finally understand that cryptocurrency is for cryptocurrency payments and that is an alternative to MasterCard and other middlemen.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > It is hard for me to believe that people will continue to be fooled into thinking that the way to do cryptocurrency transactions is to not do cryptocurrency transactions and instead give their cryptocurrency to a middleman who will continue charging middleman fees. The whole mining network are middlemen who charge middleman fees, so you’re pretty much stuck with that, short of deciding to be a miner. And the more currencies are in common use that aren’t locked in essentially exclusive jurisdictional domains, the more demand merchants and consumers will have for middlemen that make dealing with multiple of them and converting them at need as close to frictionless as possible. Sure, partisans of one crypto or another will be happy to transact directly in that crypto without an abstraction layer over multiple currencies, but they will be the exception, not the norm. Crypto idealists may each see their favored coin as the way to get beyond traditional middlemen, but in reality each coin that reaches nontrivial use actually increases the demand for middlemen.