Financial payment giant Mastercard continues to explore the blockchain field and has announced today that it has added five new start-ups to its blockchain and digital asset development program, seeking to launch the next generation of blockchain payments, promote the best user experience, and expand application cases to showcase the power of blockchain technology.
Overview:
Major US banks explore blockchain: Citigroup, JPMorgan, Mastercard…join hands to test tokenized asset settlement platform.
Background:
1inch collaborates with Mastercard to promote Web3 financial card “supporting encrypted payments”: the future of DeFi adoption on a large scale?
In July 2021, financial technology accelerator program “Start Path Blockchain and Digital Assets” was launched by Mastercard to expand innovative solutions and accelerate blockchain innovation. As a result, Mastercard announced today that it has added five new start-ups to this program.
The newly added companies to this program include cryptocurrency payment and card issuing company Kulipa, blockchain software company Parafin, decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePin) company peaq, data platform Triangle, and blockchain developer Venly.
Mastercard stated that the focus of this planning phase will be on application cases and experiments to solve specific problems. According to the press release, the Start Path Blockchain and Digital Assets program collaborates with highly potential blockchain, digital asset, and Web3 start-ups, and the selected companies have the opportunity to “collaborate with Mastercard, receive customized training, and access Mastercard’s customers and channels” during the four-month program.
The Start Path program began in 2014 and has reportedly supported over 400 start-ups from more than 54 countries/regions. Through such programs, Mastercard steadily moves towards the forefront of financial technology and blockchain payment fields.
Frequent layout in the blockchain payment field:
Mastercard has recently made frequent layouts in the blockchain payment field. For example, Mastercard Lab announced a collaboration with Israeli fintech company Kima this month to develop a DeFi credit card. Although not explicitly stated, the main concept seems to be integrating DeFi protocols with credit line applications.
On the 8th, Mastercard also announced an alliance with major US banking giants, including Citigroup, Visa, and JPMorgan, to explore the centralized settlement of various assets on a single platform using distributed ledger technology.
In April of this year, decentralized aggregator platform 1inch Network collaborated with cryptocurrency payment company Baanx and Mastercard to launch a Web3 signature financial card, 1inch Card, allowing users to instantly convert cryptocurrencies into fiat currency for payments.
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