Mastercard Creates Blockchain Alliances to Secure the Future of CBDCs
Date: 2023-08-18 Author: Karina Ziganova Categories: BLOCKCHAIN, IN WORLD
Mastercard is partnering with Ripple, Consensys and other blockchain companies as part of the central bank's digital currency program.
On August 17, the payments giant announced its CBDC partner program, which included other early partners such as tokenization company Fluency, digital asset platform Fireblock, Consult Hyperion and Idemia.
Mastercard wants the private sector to be involved in the development of the CBDC
All of the program's partners have experience working on CBDC infrastructure or payment services. Mastercard said the program will allow collaboration between key players in the field.
While the company did not specify its plans, it wants its partners to contribute to the development and future of CBDC. Mastercard has been interested in digital fiat currencies since 2020, when it launched a sandbox for central banks to test its CBDC systems.
The company has also launched prepaid cards for CBDC in the Bahamas.
Through this program, the company wants to join forces with other leading companies developing CBDCs. According to the blog post, the program will explain the benefits and limitations of CBDC and how they can be safely implemented.
Speaking about the partnership, Mastercard's head of digital assets and partnerships Raj Dhamodharan expressed the company's commitment to ensuring that digital assets are as easy to use as other forms of money. He said this will be made possible through interoperability.
Partner executives also touched on issues ranging from the need for privacy as the most important concern for users to the different needs of countries requiring CBDCs.
However, Mastercard noted that CBDC is not yet widely accepted due to several challenges. But it expects the work of its partnership program to help central banks develop national digital currencies that address these challenges properly.
"By combining the strengths, deep expertise and diverse capabilities of these partners, we can drive innovation within the central banking community and across the CBDC value chain as the space continues to evolve," Dhamodharan said.
