It's Public Now: MasterCard Offically Lobbying on Bitcoin in U.S Congress

[mktrader]

It shows how scared MasterCard is due to the rise of Bitcoin. It's ironical that in their recent risk disclosure statements, MasterCard & Visa did not disclose Bitcoin as a risk! But from deep inside they are totally scared.

Full news story here:
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/204733-mastercard-lobbying-on-bitcoin

I think the community or the Bitcoin foundation need to wear their Lobbying hats NOW!

I think now I can confidently say: Bitcoin to the moon (AKA: $10,000) -- in medium to long term, of course.

[bryant.coleman]

Hmm... bad news.... MasterCard / Visa have billions of $$$ in their hands to do the lobbying. Unfortunately we don't even have 1% of that amount. Now the only realistic option is to align with the enemies of Master / Visa, such as Russia.

[Dannie]

Hmm... bad news.... MasterCard / Visa have billions of $$$ in their hands to do the lobbying. Unfortunately we don't even have 1% of that amount. Now the only realistic option is to align with the enemies of Master / Visa, such as Russia.

True. Bitcoin is just 5 years old and the Bitcoin Core (Bitcoin-qt) is still in beta.
We have very little power at this moment comparing with Mastercard and Visa, and it will be a tough war.

[counter]

time to push Bitcoin on the public hard this year to all willing to listen.  Atlest we can have the ears of everyday people who want to be informed.

[iluvpie60]

It shows how scared MasterCard is due to the rise of Bitcoin. It's ironical that in their recent risk disclosure statements, MasterCard & Visa did not disclose Bitcoin as a risk! But from deep inside they are totally scared.

Full news story here:
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/204733-mastercard-lobbying-on-bitcoin

I think the community or the Bitcoin foundation need to wear their Lobbying hats NOW!

I think now I can confidently say: Bitcoin to the moon (AKA: $10,000) -- in medium to long term, of course.

Are you joking?

http://www.coindesk.com/new-mobile-payment-system-paym-poses-challenge-bitcoin/


Do you know how easy it is for most credit card companies / banks to implement this "Paym" solution(it already exists in some major banks)? Like I have always said, Bitcoin doesn't help the normal average person almost at all in any way shape or form. Most people don't ever pay any fees on any banking services, especially when credit cards give you 5% off on rotational categories and 2% on every day purchases.

The case is closed on how much BTC helps average person, it doesn't.


however, tech people will use it always no matter what, so there is certainly a niche that won't go away.

I gotta say, it has been a good run, but Bitcoin can easily be shoved into the back of the closet.  A few gifted coders did create something that is good yes. But everyone is very entrenched in loans with USD and banks and CCs. Bitcoin taking down the USD as the world reserve currency is a complete joke. That is like saying Apple will gain more market share in operating systems for computers/laptops. Never gonna happen ever.

[franky1]

if a payment system needs to bribe senators, then maybe we should just publicise that it is not winning favours due to being good and having features people want.

then get bitcoin lobbyists not to bribe anyone, but just find the most laymen terms there is to explain why bitcoin is better.

then have the 2 sales pitches laid out side by side for all to see.

EG
Mastercard: "here senator take this $1m and help us make laws to screw 3 hours labour out of everyone monthly minimum wage  (2%= $20 of $1000)

bitcoin: "send any transaction locally or internationally, small or large amount for less then half a cent

[nakaone]

It shows how scared MasterCard is due to the rise of Bitcoin. It's ironical that in their recent risk disclosure statements, MasterCard & Visa did not disclose Bitcoin as a risk! But from deep inside they are totally scared.

Full news story here:
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/204733-mastercard-lobbying-on-bitcoin

I think the community or the Bitcoin foundation need to wear their Lobbying hats NOW!

I think now I can confidently say: Bitcoin to the moon (AKA: $10,000) -- in medium to long term, of course.

Are you joking?

http://www.coindesk.com/new-mobile-payment-system-paym-poses-challenge-bitcoin/


Do you know how easy it is for most credit card companies / banks to implement this "Paym" solution(it already exists in some major banks)? Like I have always said, Bitcoin doesn't help the normal average person almost at all in any way shape or form. Most people don't ever pay any fees on any banking services, especially when credit cards give you 5% off on rotational categories and 2% on every day purchases.

The case is closed on how much BTC helps average person, it doesn't.


however, tech people will use it always no matter what, so there is certainly a niche that won't go away.

I gotta say, it has been a good run, but Bitcoin can easily be shoved into the back of the closet.  A few gifted coders did create something that is good yes. But everyone is very entrenched in loans with USD and banks and CCs. Bitcoin taking down the USD as the world reserve currency is a complete joke. That is like saying Apple will gain more market share in operating systems for computers/laptops. Never gonna happen ever.

yeah banks are giving us money for using their services... best business model ever. seriously... you are aware that they are massively charging merchants for using their services. I do not know if you are familiar with poker, but your 5% or 2% are at best a rakeback from the rake you pay to the provider. it is obviously more cost efficient not to pay rake at all.

my thesis is that systems without a middlemen are always more cost efficient than systems with a middle men - that is for me the most convincing reason why crypotcurrencies will succeed

[5flags]

Are you joking?

http://www.coindesk.com/new-mobile-payment-system-paym-poses-challenge-bitcoin/

The banks could devise a system of using small elves to transport fiat around. But it would still be fiat.

[Jungian]

First they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.

The technology behind the blockchain is so good it will come out victorious.

[Malin Keshar]

1)Try move your money outside your country and see if it is easier and cheaper with btc or with fiat. Commom people sometimes goes to other countries too, or just wanna import stuff for personal use without the importer's man in the middle and taxes.

2)The costumers might does not pay for the credit card service(what is not really true where I life, but ignore that), but the service providers pay a % for each credit card transaction, and that ammount is transfered to the customer. So with the man-in-the-middle credit card system, the customer either pays more or get less discounts, and bitcoin can solve that.  

3) You need really few cash to start investing in bitcoin, and bitcoins returns are far better than any other investiments. Others top return investiments, like gold, silver, markets, options, foreign currencies, etc... have too high fees, and many fixed fees, so you need already a good amount of money for them to be profitable. Investiments for low initial capital gives ridiculous returns that are almost an offense.

4) The wire international transfer system sucks really hard. Anyone used to use it can tell you about that. That might be  why some companies like Mastercard are defending btc.



So, still btc can't benefit the common guys?

[iluvpie60]

1)Try move your money outside your country and see if it is easier and cheaper with btc or with fiat. Commom people sometimes goes to other countries too, or just wanna import stuff for personal use without the importer's man in the middle and taxes.

2)The costumers might does not pay for the credit card service(what is not really true where I life, but ignore that), but the service providers pay a % for each credit card transaction, and that ammount is transfered to the customer. So with the man-in-the-middle credit card system, the customer either pays more or get less discounts, and bitcoin can solve that.  

3) You need really few cash to start investing in bitcoin, and bitcoins returns are far better than any other investiments. Others top return investiments, like gold, silver, markets, options, foreign currencies, etc... have too high fees, and many fixed fees, so you need already a good amount of money for them to be profitable. Investiments for low initial capital gives ridiculous returns that are almost an offense.

4) The wire international transfer system sucks really hard. Anyone used to use it can tell you about that. That might be  why some companies like Mastercard are defending btc.



So, still btc can't benefit the common guys?

NO one said it cannot benefit the common guy, it is that the common average person has no need of it at all and won't use it EVER.

[indiemax]

1)Try move your money outside your country and see if it is easier and cheaper with btc or with fiat. Commom people sometimes goes to other countries too, or just wanna import stuff for personal use without the importer's man in the middle and taxes.

2)The costumers might does not pay for the credit card service(what is not really true where I life, but ignore that), but the service providers pay a % for each credit card transaction, and that ammount is transfered to the customer. So with the man-in-the-middle credit card system, the customer either pays more or get less discounts, and bitcoin can solve that.  

3) You need really few cash to start investing in bitcoin, and bitcoins returns are far better than any other investiments. Others top return investiments, like gold, silver, markets, options, foreign currencies, etc... have too high fees, and many fixed fees, so you need already a good amount of money for them to be profitable. Investiments for low initial capital gives ridiculous returns that are almost an offense.

4) The wire international transfer system sucks really hard. Anyone used to use it can tell you about that. That might be  why some companies like Mastercard are defending btc.



So, still btc can't benefit the common guys?

NO one said it cannot benefit the common guy, it is that the common average person has no need of it at all and won't use it EVER.


Well,most common guys go on vacation and exchange money,so you must have picked EVER out your arse

[Bitcoinpro]

Hmm... bad news.... MasterCard / Visa have billions of $$$ in their hands to do the lobbying. Unfortunately we don't even have 1% of that amount. Now the only realistic option is to align with the enemies of Master / Visa, such as Russia.

you gotta be kidding right we would have a 10 times between us what visa and mastercard have

could you please make a breakdown of your estimations

for example say their is a million of us and our lifetime net worth is 1 million dollars we are looking at 1 Trillion

id say their would be possibly a 100 Million people at the very least interested in Crypto

[troy112]

Hmm... bad news.... MasterCard / Visa have billions of $$$ in their hands to do the lobbying. Unfortunately we don't even have 1% of that amount. Now the only realistic option is to align with the enemies of Master / Visa, such as Russia.

you gotta be kidding right we would have a 10 times between us what visa and mastercard have

could you please make a breakdown of your estimations

for example say their is a million of us and our lifetime net worth is 1 million dollars we are looking at 1 Trillion

id say their would be possibly a 100 Million people at the very least interested in Crypto

it doesnt matter how many people are intrested in crypto. What matter most is many are willing to go and fight for it. And how many resources the would like to spend on it. Even if one has a net worth of 1 trillion, I dont think any one Is crazy enough to put it on for bitcoin.

[_smudger_]

http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/mastercard-pays-lobbyists-focus-bitcoin/2014/04/30

A few days ago,  Coindesk reported on the first Bitcoin debit card being made by Bitcoin startup Xapo. In the article, it was rumored Xapo was tied to Mastercard in this venture. Soon after publishing, the article was updated with an official notice from Mastercard stating the credit card company had no ties to Xapo or Bitcoin whatsoever. It seems this story is not entirely true, at least not when it comes to the Bitcoin part.

Paying for lobbyists

As most of you will know, United States politics are full of lobbyists. These people are paid by political parties or big companies to help tip the scales in favor of a certain ‘need’. Mass example, the democrat party will probably have paid many lobbyists to help President Obama secure his Obamacare system. It’s not always very transparent, but many times there will be a lobbyist report filed. This report shows how much was paid to lobbyists and what that money was for. Lobbyists are usually hired through lobbying firms. Peck Madigan Jones is one of these firms and their quarterly report was interesting…

In this quarterly report, which was filed this month, Peck Madigan Jones said that five of its lobbyists were concentrating on “Bitcoin and mobile payments”, on behalf of Mastercard. This proves that MasterCard is actively paying lobbyists to focus on the virtual currency, making MasterCard the first company to officially lobby on Bitcoin, according to federal disclosure records.

Of course, MasterCard knew this was going to come out soon after the report was made public. In a statement regarding this news, the credit card giant said that it was “gathering information in connection with recent congressional hearings to better understand the policy issues around virtual and anonymous currencies.”A company like MasterCard will always remain vague about sensitive matters like this. However, the importance of this report does not lie in the fact that MasterCard is investigating Bitcoin opportunities. It would be naive to think that MasterCard (or Visa for that matter) have not been looking into virtual currencies before. If not to understand the advantages of Bitcoin, surely to know their ‘enemy’. The real deal about this is the fact that MasterCard knew this news would go public. A credit card company that publicly expresses its interest in virtual currencies, it’s a rather odd picture.

Who will be first?

Does this mean we will see MasterCard credit cards with a Bitcoin logo on it soon? While some may rejoice upon reading this news and start planning their holiday on the moon, we tend to be a bit more careful when analyzing this. To me, this is a first step. MasterCard realizes virtual currencies will not be disappearing anytime soon (and believe me; that was what they were hoping for). Rather than ignoring their existence, they saw a potential market. This change in approach brings in a whole new world of fear. No longer are they just scared of Bitcoin. They are more afraid of other companies finding a way to embrace Bitcoin before them. That might be their biggest fear.

I can imagine Bitcoin giving credit card companies sleepless nights. The rise in popularity does not stop, even though authorities have been going out of their way to discredit the cryptocurrency. Which credit card company will be the first to embrace Bitcoin? Xapo already said it is working together with an undisclosed banking company to manufacture its Bitcoin debit cards. The hunt for Bitcoin adoption is open!

[SirWilliam]

NO one said it cannot benefit the common guy, it is that the common average person has no need of it at all and won't use it EVER.

Um you just did:

"The case is closed on how much BTC helps average person, it doesn't."

Do you happen to be suffering from a bit of transient global amnesia? Or are you just as damn ignorant and dishonest as you appear to be? Go back to one of your other personalities, finger puppet.

[beetcoin]

felt that this would eventually happen. i really hope they don't have enough bargaining power to make a dent.. but who knows? if they can buy out enough of our politicians, bitcoins could be in for a big surprise.

[murraypaul]

my thesis is that systems without a middlemen are always more cost efficient than systems with a middle men - that is for me the most convincing reason why crypotcurrencies will succeed

Bitcoin has thousands of middlemen, anyone running a full node and processing transactions. Could even stretch that to anyone mining at a pool.

[murraypaul]

1)Try move your money outside your country and see if it is easier and cheaper with btc or with fiat. Commom people sometimes goes to other countries too, or just wanna import stuff for personal use without the importer's man in the middle and taxes.

2)The costumers might does not pay for the credit card service(what is not really true where I life, but ignore that), but the service providers pay a % for each credit card transaction, and that ammount is transfered to the customer. So with the man-in-the-middle credit card system, the customer either pays more or get less discounts, and bitcoin can solve that.  

3) You need really few cash to start investing in bitcoin, and bitcoins returns are far better than any other investiments. Others top return investiments, like gold, silver, markets, options, foreign currencies, etc... have too high fees, and many fixed fees, so you need already a good amount of money for them to be profitable. Investiments for low initial capital gives ridiculous returns that are almost an offense.

4) The wire international transfer system sucks really hard. Anyone used to use it can tell you about that. That might be  why some companies like Mastercard are defending btc.



So, still btc can't benefit the common guys?

NO one said it cannot benefit the common guy, it is that the common average person has no need of it at all and won't use it EVER.

Well,most common guys go on vacation and exchange money,so you must have picked EVER out your arse

More than half of Americans have never left the US.
Between the 'USD zone' of the US, and the Euro zone of Europe, a very large number of people (and proportionally much higher number of middle-class to well-off people) can travel without ever needing to exchange currency.

[BitChick]

Hmm... bad news.... MasterCard / Visa have billions of $$$ in their hands to do the lobbying. Unfortunately we don't even have 1% of that amount. Now the only realistic option is to align with the enemies of Master / Visa, such as Russia.

I am not sure we need to be too concerned.  The lobbying may be just to clarify legal use for partnering with Xapo for instance.  If Xapo wants to use Mastercard's platform then Mastercard would need to make sure there was no issues with that.