Mastercard Crypto Credentials P2P trial program goes live
MasterCard has launched its P2P pilot program with the aim of streamlining crypto transactions and eliminating user error for customers.
The challenge involves MasterCard exchange partners Bit2Me, Lirium, Mercado and wallet provider FoxBit. Walter Pimenta, Vice President of Product and Engineering for MasterCard Latin America, said:
“With the growing interest in blockchain and digital assets in Latin America and around the world, it is important to continue to deliver trusted and verified communications on public blockchain networks.”
The credit giant's crypto-credential system assigns individuals human-readable ‘aliases', which ensure that MasterCard-verified users no longer rely on sending and verifying long strings of numbers and letters that reveal traditional wallet addresses.
Additionally, the crypto credential program is trying to reduce financial losses by pre-screening transactions to prevent users from sending incompatible crypto assets to recipient addresses.
Related: Breaking Barriers: Platform Aims to Overcome Self-Storage Wallet Challenges
UX, UI problem
Cryptocurrencies and other digital assets have long suffered from complex user interfaces that present technical challenges and can be somewhat overwhelming for the new or unskilled user.
Complex addresses, technical jargon, and the prospect of permanent financial loss from sending assets to the wrong chain are enough to keep users of Venmo, PayPal, and online banking apps away from the crypto space.
Crypto analyst and influencer Miles Deutscher described the problem in 2022 as preventing mass adoption.
Concerns around centralization
Despite MasterCard's initiative to streamline the crypto transaction process, concerns about centralization persist.
The credit company's Crypto Credential program is not a decentralized initiative and acts as an intermediary on MasterCard to verify the user's identity and screen for potential loss of transactions.
Storing your additional customer authentication and confidential information with MasterCard presents risks for security-minded individuals.
MasterCard has been the subject of several high-profile data breaches caused by malicious attacks against its payment processing partners and retail customers.
Since 2005, more than 40 million MasterCard accounts have been exposed to hackers and malicious actors targeting centralized points of failure at MasterCard's extensive range of payment processors, retail customers and information technology partners.
