Mastercard has “built a Blockchain that can run the whole” of its network, its vice chair Ann Cairns claimed during the ongoing Money20/20 conference June 4. Speaking at the Amsterdam event, Ann Cairns said the company had deliberately opted to develop a blockchain integration “at scale” while stating the need to identify “real use cases.” “You just don’t replace existing technology with blockchain because you may not create a better user experience,” she explained. “So it’s finding that thing that it’s going to solve for you, and it may be proof of authenticity… or it could be things like global …

Mastercard has filed a patent for a system to speed up the activation of new nodes in a blockchain, in an application published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) April 26. The application, which was first filed on October 24, 2016, outlines that the current difficulty facing new nodes – a computer connected to the blockchain network that stores a copy of the blockchain – is that they are required to individually verify a massive amount of data in order to activate. The patent states that new nodes must verify “thousands, millions, or even billions of transaction records …

Financial services provider Mastercard has recently announced it will hire 175 new employees in Dublin to increase its presence in Ireland. Among others, the company is looking for Blockchain specialists, local news outlet Irish Tech News reported April 12. In order to boost innovation in the field of payments, the company is looking to hire a wide range of professionals such as software engineers, data scientists, information security experts and Blockchain specialists. Ireland’s Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys commented that the country has become “a very attractive location for international fintech and payment companies” stressing the favorable …

The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), the world’s largest open-source Blockchain initiative, has recently added 34 new members expanding to a total of 150 organizations. Mastercard and Cisco Systems The EEA is a non-profit consortium that is focused the developments of Ether or in the broader sense, the whole Ethereum Blockchain. Among their 34 new members are Mastercard and Cisco as well as the Scotiabank and Government of Pradesh. While Cisco is clearly on the list of the new members in the press release, the absence of Mastercard's name has brought confusion to the Ether community in Reddit. But actually, the …

Mainstream users require a debit card in order to make Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies a part of their daily lives. What is the result of this year and what is the future of the Bitcoin debit card market in 2016 & 2017? Cointelegraph interviewed Ted Rogers, the president of XAPO, one of the world leading companies issuing Bitcoin debit cards. Cointelegraph: There are dozens of Bitcoin debit cards in the world. Are there any statistics about this market, that are gathered by any association? How can we know, who the leaders are in this market? Ted Rogers: Unfortunately, no one …

Visa has a dedicated team in London looking at specific use cases involving blockchain technology but argues that bitcoin won't reach mainstream acceptance "unless there is trust in the system," according to Jonathan Vaux, executive director of innovation partnerships at Visa Europe. Speaking to the International Business Times at MoneyConf in Belfast, Vaux shared his firm's blockchain strategy, and said that his company was "certainly looking at applications involving blockchain." "What can you do with this? We know there's a peer-to-peer transaction network happening but we don't see it scaling unless there is trust in the system," Vaux said. He …

Overstock sold its first cryptobond, the cryptography team at Blockstream unveiled its first prototype sidechain and more top stories for June 9. Overstock Sells World's First Cryptosecurity Overstock has become the first company to solicit qualified institutional buyers in a digital corporate bond which will trade using blockchain technology. CEO Patrick Byrne purchased the world's first cryptobond for US$500,000. The pioneering development is part of the company's larger cryptofinance initiative known as Medici, on which Overstock expects to sell a total of US$25 million in digital bonds. Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne said: "The cryptorevolution has arrived on Wall Street [...] …

Google Introduces Android Pay, A Replacement For Its Wallet App on Mobile Google is taking another shot at mobile payments. At this year’s I/O developer conference, the tech giant stated that Google Wallet will now be replaced with Android Pay on smartphones. The Verge reported: “Android Pay will power in-app and tap-to-pay purchases on mobile devices. Google Wallet will stick around, but it will power Play Store purchases outside Android, say on the web, and facilitate peer-to-peer payments you can make through the app and on services like Gmail.” Commonwealth Bank of Australia to Integrate Ripple for Instant Settlements Commonwealth …

Japan's largest Internet company Rakuten Inc. has started to accept Bitcoin as a payment option on its American portal Rakuten.com, MasterCard describes cryptocurrencies as an innovative competitor, and more top stories for March 17. Japan’s Rakuten becomes largest E-Commerce Business to accept Bitcoin Japan's largest Internet company Rakuten Inc. started to accept Bitcoin as a payment option on its American portal Rakuten.com. The company said this first integration should be followed closely by other global marketplaces integrations, including its German and Austrian e-commerce portals. Yaz Iida, President of Rakuten USA, said: “Rakuten’s mission is to empower the world through the …

The West African nation of Nigeria has just announced the launch of a new national identity card. This might not seem like much of a big deal to most people as many countries have national identification cards. It might also come as a surprise to people who remember that the voters of Nigeria already voted down this idea only ten years ago. This attempt however has several crucial differences from the last attempt. This time, the politicians in Lagos have added a new wrinkle: They have combined a national identity card with a MasterCard debit card. This effectively ties the …