Mastercard’s new “Crypto Credential” service has already been launched, making peer-to-peer cryptocurrency transfers much more intuitive for the average user.
The payment giant’s new service allows users of selected cryptocurrency exchanges to send and receive digital assets using the Mastercard Crypto credential alias instead of blockchain addresses, which are long and confusing strings of random numbers and letters.
“This solution not only replaces complex wallet addresses with user-friendly aliases, but also makessending blockchain transactions secure, transparent and accessible,” – Mastercard wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
The service first verifies its users according to Mastercard standards, after which they receive an alias from the company. Then, when users send cryptocurrency, the program verifies that their alias is correct and that the recipient’s network address supports the associated token and transaction blockchain.
Transactions simply won’t be processed if the recipient’s address doesn’t support the sender’s resources or network, preventing loss of funds due to related user errors. Aliases can also protect against address poisoning scams, during which attackers get wallet users to send coins to an address that appears very similar to their own.
The service is currently available on Bit2Me, Lirium and Mercado Bitcoin exchanges . It will soon be available in countries such as Brazil, Chile, France, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and Uruguay.
In a comment to Decrypt, a company spokesperson said that more European countries will be added in the future.
Widespread attack on Mastercard cryptocurrencies
“The P2P transaction is the first of many possible use cases that Mastercard Crypto Credential is designed to support.” – the company stated. “Others may include NFT transactions, ticket sales and other payment solutions depending on market requirements and compliance.”
Crypto Credential’s service also includes wallet support for Foxbit and Lulubit, the latter of which benefits from integration with the Lirium exchange.
“With Mastercard Crypto Credential, we can provide traceability for all blockchain transactions with a higher level of compliance, while providing an exceptional user experience,” said Martin Kopacz, chief operating officer of Lirium.
Earlier this month, Mastercard joined a consortium of major banks to test the distributed ledger technology to settle transfers of digital assets between companies. Assets in the test network include commercial bank money, U.S. Treasury bonds, central bank money and investment grade debt instruments, which are usually traded in separate systems.
