2021-02-10 MASTERCARD to allow payments in Crypto

[aoluain]

News just posted an hour ago on Coindesk, Mastercard will allow merchants to
receive payments in crypto.

Thats PayPal in, VISA in, Mastercard expanding into the Crypto space,
next Apple Pay and Google Pay perhaps?

Previously, Mastercard supported limited cryptocurrency transactions
through its cryptocard partners Wirex and Uphold. But those programs only cover payment,
not settlement; the coins are converted to fiat currency well before reaching the merchant.

The new initiative promises to upend that dynamic among the store owners and businesses
who opt in. They will be able to conduct their business beyond the bounds of the fiat ecosystem,
assuming, of course, their customers have crypto they’re willing to spend.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/mastercard-accepts-crypto-payments

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[Stalker22]

News just posted an hour ago on Coindesk, Mastercard will allow merchants to
receive payments in crypto.

I just read this. Another big news in the same week?

I guess this won't have such a big echo as Tesla, PayPal or VISA, but still this is great news for the crypto community. I wonder who's next?

[uray]

Thats PayPal in, VISA in, Mastercard expanding into the Crypto space,
next Apple Pay and Google Pay perhaps?

Good news keeps on pouring in on a daily basis and 2020 and 2021 turns out to be the best years for the market where major companies are investing heavily in bitcoin and now major payment processors are allowing cryptocurrency payments and the price keeps on breaking new grounds.

[Lorence.xD]

Good news keeps on pouring in on a daily basis and 2020 and 2021 turns out to be the best years for the market where major companies are investing heavily in bitcoin and now major payment processors are allowing cryptocurrency payments and the price keeps on breaking new grounds.

Hopefully, this good news persist for a long time because cryptocurrency deserves this, years of being painted as a bad thing has definitely taken a toll for the PR of cryptocurrency. This will be good for the customers of Mastercard and other credit card companies that hasn't encountered or doesn't know about bitcoin will definitely get curious about it and that means another one joins the fray.

[bryant.coleman]

This was expected. PayPal started it, and now the other payment processors will follow. What we need is a single trigger and the rest of the batch will follow. Everyone has seen how PayPal benefitted from the decision to allow Bitcoin in their platform. It was beneficial for them, in terms of number of users and revenue. The same is going to happen with Tesla adoption as well. Tesla has started it, and large number of corporations are going to follow suit.

[davis196]

Is this fake news?I don't trust Coindesk articles.
Anyway,this seems like pseudo-cryptocurrency adoption to me.Paypal did the same pseudo-adoption last year.I'm not an optimist about such news,but hey,the Bitcoin price might go up because of this.
The customer will buy goods and services using crypto coins and the seller will get fiat money.
I guess that the only winner from this process will be Mastercard,by getting fees for cryptocurrency/fiat conversion.

[LeGaulois]

I don't get how it will be different?

The card will still be linked to a company like Wirex. From the user's point of view, it doesn't change anything. Only perhaps the fact that before people needed to convert cryptos to fiat but they won't need to do it anymore.
Nothing more.

The fact that Mastercard charges merchants a fee will not change either. In fact, since even with crypto Mastercard will continue to charge merchants a fee (possibly higher), merchants will pass these fees on to what they sell.
This would lead to an increase in selling prices.


Also, how do you differentiate "payment" and "settlement"? It's the same thing to me, when you initiate a settlement you make a payment

...

Recently Paypal released a card (Mastercard IIRC) for business accounts, I wouldn't be surprised if they do the same for individuals, and who knows if later allow people to spend their cryptos with it

[buwaytress]

@LeGaulois: Simply that people now can directly load up their Visas and MCs with crypto I guess by perhaps linking as you say to a company like Wirex. It does change a few things for some people who need to use Visa or MC anyway.

e.g. I need to liquidate my crypto to load my card. That's me losing twice on spreads/fees/exchange commissions. Selling the crypto, and then withdrawing it to my bank. And then spending it (like again incurring the expensive forex). I save on one step. And possibly on one spread/fee/exchange.

Re settlement and payment: I've read about a crypto card that pays on Visa network, and settles with your crypto on Layer 2 (which itself actually "settles" with the main network once the channel closes). Ultimately no difference to the user.

[acquafredda]

They saw the various crypto enhanced debit card and made 2+2. Why leaving profit to many when they can make a huge profit by becoming the biggest crypto payment gateway? It was only about time before a move like this one was made and we know the saying "first they fight you..." gets confirmed again.

[aoluain]

Is this fake news?I don't trust Coindesk articles.
Anyway,this seems like pseudo-cryptocurrency adoption to me.Paypal did the same pseudo-adoption last year.I'm not an optimist about such news,but hey,the Bitcoin price might go up because of this.
The customer will buy goods and services using crypto coins and the seller will get fiat money.
I guess that the only winner from this process will be Mastercard,by getting fees for cryptocurrency/fiat conversion.

I wouldnt imagine it is fake news, it makes sense, some of Mastercards rivals
are already involved in Crypto so they have to compete in the same space to
stay viable.

They saw the various crypto enhanced debit card and made 2+2. Why leaving profit to many when they can make a huge profit by becoming the biggest crypto payment gateway? It was only about time before a move like this one was made and we know the saying "first they fight you..." gets confirmed again.

Correct, Mastercard cannot afford to stay out of the crypto arena any longer
and let VISA and PayPal operate without them.

[Marvelman]

Correct, Mastercard cannot afford to stay out of the crypto arena any longer
and let VISA and PayPal operate without them.

MasterCard has already flirted with cryptocurrency through his Wirex service, so I don't believe this is a fake news.
Of course they don't want to stay in the shadows of their biggest rivals.

[stompix]

@LeGaulois: Simply that people now can directly load up their Visas and MCs with crypto I guess by perhaps linking as you say to a company like Wirex. It does change a few things for some people who need to use Visa or MC anyway.

e.g. I need to liquidate my crypto to load my card. That's me losing twice on spreads/fees/exchange commissions. Selling the crypto, and then withdrawing it to my bank. And then spending it (like again incurring the expensive forex). I save on one step. And possibly on one spread/fee/exchange.

The only thing that will change will be the direct settlement with merchants accepting the card, you won't have to convert funds you deposit on Wirex for example (as I own one) from BTC to EUR and then transfer it to your card account. The rest will be the same, MasterCard is not issuing card directly to customers, they do this through banks or OFCs, those will have to accept cryptos and they will be the ones charging you fees, the ATMs fees will be the same, transfers to your other bank account will still be the same.

The real breakthrough will be not Mastercard offering this, but Mastercard convincing one really big bank to use those types of cards, which would make the last step (withdrawing fiat to your bank account) completely unnecessary.

[sunsilk]

MasterCard has already flirted with cryptocurrency through his Wirex service, so I don't believe this is a fake news.
Of course they don't want to stay in the shadows of their biggest rivals.

They are in as they can no longer ignore that they can benefit from adopting it. Thus, they are likely have to compete to crypto for a long time.

While getting the publicity because eveything that's being reported and published on the news about acceptance of crypto, it's a free advertisement for them although they're already a known company that don't actually need. But it wouldn't be a surprise if they get a surge in profits once this rolls out.

[Xavofat]

@LeGaulois: Simply that people now can directly load up their Visas and MCs with crypto I guess by perhaps linking as you say to a company like Wirex. It does change a few things for some people who need to use Visa or MC anyway.

e.g. I need to liquidate my crypto to load my card. That's me losing twice on spreads/fees/exchange commissions. Selling the crypto, and then withdrawing it to my bank. And then spending it (like again incurring the expensive forex). I save on one step. And possibly on one spread/fee/exchange.

The only thing that will change will be the direct settlement with merchants accepting the card, you won't have to convert funds you deposit on Wirex for example (as I own one) from BTC to EUR and then transfer it to your card account. The rest will be the same, MasterCard is not issuing card directly to customers, they do this through banks or OFCs, those will have to accept cryptos and they will be the ones charging you fees, the ATMs fees will be the same, transfers to your other bank account will still be the same.

The real breakthrough will be not Mastercard offering this, but Mastercard convincing one really big bank to use those types of cards, which would make the last step (withdrawing fiat to your bank account) completely unnecessary.

When I had a Xapo card I could spend in any shop without a problem, and I don't think I had to convert the BTC to GBP in my account on the website.  I think these Bitcoin deposits for cards though are just a quick fix.  Really what we need is for Bitcoin to scale up enough, whether through the Lightning Network or through block size increases (or block time decreases) to handle small, casual transactions like you would do with contactless on a debit or credit card.

Really, the 'Mastercard accepting payments in crypto' headline is a bit of a red herring.

[Stalker22]

Really, the 'Mastercard accepting payments in crypto' headline is a bit of a red herring.

It could be. It's the same as PayPal and VISA. But, I see this as a good promotion for Bitcoin.
There are still countless uninformed people who think Bitcoin is some ponzi scheme or scam. Some people think it's the currency of choice for drug dealers, pedophiles and other criminals. These big players will make Bitcoin more visible and better accepted in the general population.

[acquafredda]

Really, the 'Mastercard accepting payments in crypto' headline is a bit of a red herring.

It could be. It's the same as PayPal and VISA. But, I see this as a good promotion for Bitcoin.
There are still countless uninformed people who think Bitcoin is some ponzi scheme or scam. Some people think it's the currency of choice for drug dealers, pedophiles and other criminals. These big players will make Bitcoin more visible and better accepted in the general population.

In fact, I tend not to talk in public about bitcoin anymore. I prefer to maintain a low profile and I would rather stay dumb than starting an argument with uninformed noicoiners: I have done that in the past but now I am too old for this shit. Bitcoin pros are out there for everyone to see and recognize them.
When Mastercard, Visa and co. will run their bitcoin business units for these nocoiners will be to late to understand what they missed.

[Marvelman]

In fact, I tend not to talk in public about bitcoin anymore. I prefer to maintain a low profile and I would rather stay dumb than starting an argument with uninformed noicoiners: I have done that in the past but now I am too old for this shit. Bitcoin pros are out there for everyone to see and recognize them.
When Mastercard, Visa and co. will run their bitcoin business units for these nocoiners will be to late to understand what they missed.

I'm not that old, but I agree with you, I gave up on converting non-believers. If they ask me, I'll be happy to explain to them what I know, but I won't nag anyone.

Great movie reference, btw. 

[acquafredda]

In fact, I tend not to talk in public about bitcoin anymore. I prefer to maintain a low profile and I would rather stay dumb than starting an argument with uninformed noicoiners: I have done that in the past but now I am too old for this shit. Bitcoin pros are out there for everyone to see and recognize them.
When Mastercard, Visa and co. will run their bitcoin business units for these nocoiners will be to late to understand what they missed.

I'm not that old, but I agree with you, I gave up on converting non-believers. If they ask me, I'll be happy to explain to them what I know, but I won't nag anyone.

Great movie reference, btw. 

I love that movie, really!
Well deserved merit on your side, as that is the way to go. I am also very open to explain things to those who an open mind but I am no running in the streets trying to save people from noicoinery. A friend of mine called me the other day and since I was sincerely open to know more I had a chat with him where I told basically everything I know in one single hour. I was mind blown, of course, but he said he will do his own research.
That is the right attitude. See you Marvelman

[Marvelman]

That is the right attitude. See you Marvelman

Thanks, I appreciate it.
I am happy to pitch in where I can.