MasterCard to Support Crypto Payments Sometime This Year

[mlawson71]

MasterCard is developing plans to launch cryptocurrency payments on its network sometime this year. The company has stated that cryptos are becoming an important part of the financial world.

Raj Dhamodharan, EVP blockchain and digital partnership at the company has made a statement that the focus will be on protecting customers and complying with regulations before picking crypto assets. That said, MasterCard has already begun integrating some digital coins on its Network and it has partnered with BitPay and Wirex to create cryptocurrency cards.

Right now MasterCard owns 89 blockchain patents and 285 blockchain applications are waiting for approval.

Considering how Tesla’s investment in Bitcoin caused its price to soar, I wonder how much the chosen cryptos will rally once MasterCard reveals which are the ones it has chosen.

 

[Scataphagos]

Wow. Seems to me that anybody with a sense of "money history" (where the first money in modern times was gold and silver coin) has a hard time accepting crypto assets.

At $50K, 10 of those "strings of numbers written upon a page of paper" could buy a 2 1/2 acre home lot in my neighborhood... or 10,000 barrels of oil (what could one do with that?) Or 10 Mercedes Benz cars. A string of numbers for a luxury car??

Hard for me to wrap my mind around it all. It's like the greatest of all time, "Emperor's clothes".

I get it... I'm an old guy.. not "with the times" and all. But still....

 

[RedDuke]

Wow. Seems to me that anybody with a sense of "money history" (where the first money in modern times was gold and silver coin) has a hard time accepting crypto assets.

At $50K, 10 of those "strings of numbers written upon a page of paper" could buy a 2 1/2 acre home lot in my neighborhood... or 10,000 barrels of oil (what could one do with that?) Or 10 Mercedes Benz cars. A string of numbers for a luxury car??

Hard for me to wrap my mind around it all. It's like the greatest of all time, "Emperor's clothes".

I get it... I'm an old guy.. not "with the times" and all. But still....

You get it. When all said and done, it will be exactly what you said, "Emperor's clothes".

50K is a fake, manipulated with monopoly money aka Tethers.

 

[johnarb]

Wow. Seems to me that anybody with a sense of "money history" (where the first money in modern times was gold and silver coin) has a hard time accepting crypto assets.

At $50K, 10 of those "strings of numbers written upon a page of paper" could buy a 2 1/2 acre home lot in my neighborhood... or 10,000 barrels of oil (what could one do with that?) Or 10 Mercedes Benz cars. A string of numbers for a luxury car??

Hard for me to wrap my mind around it all. It's like the greatest of all time, "Emperor's clothes".

I get it... I'm an old guy.. not "with the times" and all. But still....

I'm going to assume you are open to a discussion.

Let's say you have a bar of gold that weighs 1 kilo, quick google says it's worth $56,915, what gives it that value?

If you say it has industrial uses, that would not be accurate since that bar of gold will probably stay in your safe and do nothing industrial. If you say it can be used for jewelry, fine, I don't think you'll look good wearing it around your neck at parties and it might be a bit heavy, no?

So, let's now examine bitcoin, I'm going to assume that you're referring to the private key when you say string of numbers. That by itself does not have value, but the ledger entry associated to the address it controls which let's assume contains 1 bitcoin btc. That private key has the ability to sign and broadcast a transaction that transfers a portion or all of the market value associated with that bitcoin to another bitcoin address

It's money for the internet

And bitcoins are a scarce digital asset. All bitcoins that have been mined are accountable in the blockchain. No one can double spend 1 bitcoin or make multiple copies, yea, that public ledger system called the blockchain ensures that.

And bitcoins can be transferred across long distances, across borders, any time, any day, and no holidays in practically an instant (final settlement usually an hour with 6 block confirmations). Can't do that with Gold

And bitcoins are easily used for collateral, without leaving your home, Can't do that with gold

And bitcoins can be transferred to the exchange and traded for other digital assets like Ethereum (this is Elite Trader after all). Can you do that with gold? I guess you can ship your bar of gold to Kitco and trade for silver, platinum and copper? long delays, though. And cutting that bar of gold into pieces that you wish to trade may be cumbersome.

https://pomp.substack.com/p/gold-bugs-are-capitulating?

 

[Scataphagos]

I'm going to assume you are open to a discussion.

You assume much, Grasshopper.

I see what you're saying... and maybe has something to do with my gold's languishing lately.. ??

If the whole world is willing to accept cryptos like they do the fiat created by the Fed, it will stick as a "thing". My view had been that it wouldn't stick.

 

[mlawson71]

What bothers me here is that Mastercard has decided to do so with currencies over which there is no regulation. No government control.

 

[johnarb]

What bothers me here is that Mastercard has decided to do so with currencies over which there is no regulation. No government control.

A couple of things.

1. Bitcoin is not a fiat currency

2. Bitcoin is heavily regulated. All the exchanges and custodial platforms and investment funds that deal with bitcoin are regulated and licensed (i.e. Coinbase, Kraken, CME, Fidelity, Stone Ridge, Bakkt, PayPal, Square, Microstrategy, Tesla, Guggenheim, Blackrock, Goldman Sachs, Visa, BNY, Mastercard, etc. etc.)

You're listening to some fud from the media talking points

I heard on CNBC one of the hosts says that regulations are coming to bitcoin. See my point 2. Retail investors are waiting for regulations and staying out as a result of the media fud.

You know who's not staying on the sidelines now and jumping on the bitcoin bandwagon?

Now you realize you've been played

 

[RedDuke]

Bitcoin has never been the issue, Tethers are. They have 0 regulation and just created out of thin air. Think about it for a moment 80 percent of Bitcoins are traded in Tethers. Remove Tethers are price will drop like a rock. So what's Bitcoin real value is???

 

[NoahA]

Bitcoin has never been the issue, Tethers are. They have 0 regulation and just created out of thin air. Think about it for a moment 80 percent of Bitcoins are traded in Tethers. Remove Tethers are price will drop like a rock. So what's Bitcoin real value is???

You know, I don't know anything about Tether, but I have been following this discussion. And when I look over at this website which tracks the volume between different pairs and exchanges, it is astonishing how much volume difference there is between tethers and USD.

Perhaps @johnarb can explain because its obvious he is well educated.

 

[johnarb]

You know, I don't know anything about Tether, but I have been following this discussion. And when I look over at this website which tracks the volume between different pairs and exchanges, it is astonishing how much volume difference there is between tethers and USD.

Perhaps @johnarb can explain because its obvious he is well educated.

View attachment 252507

Sorry I'm not as informed on Tether as others.

Tether concerns have been around for years. I'll tell you from my experience, the Tether fud hurt me in the last bull market/bear market cycle (2017-2019) as I didn't utilize stablecoins as a safe haven due to my mistrust of Tether I didn't trust all stablecoins that are fine and have no issues (i.e. USDC, GUSD, etc)

Imho, Tether is fine now, but I have other options so I don't have a need to store a significant amount of USDT and will not do so

If you and RedDuke have concerns on Tether, you should not use them or you can contact them to get more guidance on how you can perform proper investigations to alleviate your concerns

https://wallet.tether.to/transparency