Mastercard Launches New "Crypto Credential" Service to Secure Crypto Payments

Global payments leader Mastercard has rolled out a new service aimed at streamlining and securing peer-to-peer crypto transactions across several European and Latin American countries. The newly introduced "Crypto Credential" service allows users to create a Mastercard username to facilitate the sending and receiving of Bitcoin and various other cryptocurrencies via exchanges such as Bit2Me, Lirium, and Mercado Bitcoin, which operate in regions including Brazil, Argentina, and France.

Walter Pimenta, Mastercard’s Executive Vice President of Product and Engineering for Latin America and the Caribbean, emphasized the importance of secure transactions in the growing blockchain and digital assets space. “As interest in blockchain and digital assets continues to surge in Latin America and around the world, it is essential to keep delivering trusted and verifiable interactions across public blockchain networks,” Pimenta stated.

Traditionally, crypto transactions require the use of complex wallet addresses, which are lengthy and seemingly random strings of characters. Mistakes in these addresses can lead to the loss of funds. Mastercard's new service addresses this issue by notifying the sender if the recipient's wallet does not support the specific asset or blockchain, thereby preventing the transaction from proceeding and safeguarding users from potential losses.

Moreover, the service tackles the problem of scammers using lookalike addresses to deceive users. Services often truncate wallet addresses, showing only the first and last few characters, which can be exploited by fraudsters.