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Mastercard Crypto Credential P2P Pilot Program Is Live — TradingView News
Mastercard has launched its P2P pilot program for crypto credentials in hopes of simplifying crypto transactions and eliminating user errors for customers.
The test includes Mastercard exchange partners Bit2Me, Lirium, Mercado and wallet provider FoxBit. Mastercard Executive Vice President of Product and Engineering for Latin America Walter Pimenta noted:
“As interest in blockchain and digital assets continues to increase in Latin America and around the world, it is essential that we continue to provide trustworthy and verifiable interactions across public blockchain networks.”
The credit giant’s crypto credential system assigns individuals human-readable “aliases,” which are verified by Mastercard so that users no longer have to rely on submitting and verifying the long series of numbers and letters that characterize traditional wallet addresses.
Additionally, the Crypto Credential Program is attempting to mitigate financial losses by pre-screening transactions to prevent users from sending incompatible crypto assets to the recipient’s address.
Related: Breaking Barriers: A platform aims to overcome the challenges of self-custodying your wallet
The UX, UI problem
Cryptocurrencies and other digital assets have long suffered from complex user interfaces that present technical challenges and can be quite daunting to the new or inexperienced user.
Complex addresses, technical jargon, and the prospect of permanent financial losses from sending assets to the wrong chain are enough to keep users accustomed to Venmo, PayPal, and online banking apps away from the crypto space.
Crypto analyst and influencer Miles Deutscher outlined the problem in 2022 and said it was preventing mass adoption.Cointelegraph
Centralization concerns
Despite Mastercard’s initiative to simplify the crypto transaction process, concerns regarding centralization persist.
The credit company’s crypto credential program is not a decentralized initiative and relies on Mastercard as an intermediary to verify a user’s identity and monitor the transaction for any issues that could result in lost funds.
The additional Know Your Customer verification and the storage of sensitive data with Mastercard also present concerns for security-conscious people.
Mastercard has been the subject of several high-profile data breaches that occurred through malicious attacks on its payment processing partners and retail customers.
Since 2005, well over 40 million Mastercard accounts have been exposed to hackers and bad actors who targeted centralized points of failure across Mastercard’s vast network of payment processors, retail customers and IT partners.