The payment giant, Mastercard has formed a partnership with industry leaders in blockchain technology to launch the CBDC Partner Program.
Mastercard CEO, Michael Miabech shared a post on X citing that the company is working on this new program to help central banks in CBDC exposure. “With Mastercard teaming up with a handful of key blockchain/Web3/payments players so we can learn from each other,” he said.
The official announcement from Mastercard cites that the program is designed to foster collaboration among leading industry players to drive innovation and efficiency.
“As we look ahead towards a digitally driven future, it will be essential that the value held as a CBDC is as easy to use as other forms of money.” says Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard’s head of digital assets and blockchain.
The partners in this program include firms such as enterprise blockchain leader Ripple, web3 developer Consensys, digital asset manager FireBlocks, digital payment provider Consult Hyperion with CBDC focused companies IDEMIA, Fluency and security technology group Giesecke+Devrient.
As the CBDC is conceptually a new innovation, it has yet to gain widespread adoption. Jesse McWaters, Marstercard’s global regulatory advocacy lead, says that this program will help central banks in developing CBDC that add value to the economy.
The scope of crypto and blockchain technology is attracting numerous leading companies across all sectors.
In a similar move to adapt crypto, Mastercard’s traditional competitor Visa has also increased its effort to experiment with crypto applications. As such, Visa recently announced a novel solution to pay ethereum gas fees using credit cards.
