Last week Mastercard announced it is bringing its payments network to Web3 and NFTs. To make NFT purchases “easier and safer,” Mastercard sees the big move as a means for NFT creators to grow their customer base to a higher potential and to make NFT purchases accessible to more people.
Mastercard Makes Its Way Into NFT World
Mastercard is working with several names in the web3 industry to enable NFT commerce through its payments network. Ultimately the goal is to make it so people can purchase NFTs using their Mastercard cards. Mastercard wants to allow cardholders to make NFT purchases through the marketplace of the companies they have partnered with in the web3 industry, including crypto services. Mastercard is currently working with the following web3 industry innovators:
- Immutable X
- Candy Digital
- The Sandbox
- Mintable
- Spring
- Nifty Gateway
- MoonPay
These companies in the NFT space provide services ranging from NFT/crypto marketplaces and web3 games to minting platforms and the Metaverse. These companies offer services that work on blockchain technology like gas-free minting, NFT trading, and more.
Simple NFT Purchasing
Having hands in web3 company partnerships opens the doors for NFT creators to access a larger audience. Opening the Mastercard payments network to the world of NFTs means granting access to 2.9 billion Mastercard cards worldwide. Essentially, cardholders will have the option to make an NFT purchase without needing to buy crypto first.
In 2021, the growing NFT space generated over $25 billion in sales. The NFT sales categories within the NFT marketplaces range from art and video games to collectibles and, again, the metaverse platform.
Mastercard Web3 Endeavors
Recently, in May 2022, Mastercard dove into web3 by bringing its payment network to Coinbase’s new NFT marketplace. Coinbase is a secure online platform for buying, selling, transferring, and storing cryptocurrency.
On the voyage to expand its payments network into the world of NFTs and crypto, Mastercard will also equip the transactions with cybersecurity capabilities. In 2021 Mastercard acquired CipherTrace to improve its crypto capabilities. CipherTrace is a cryptocurrency intelligence company with insight into more than 900 cryptocurrencies. Cybersecurity tools will help boost the protection and safety of user data when people use their Mastercard card to make a purchase.
What is Web3?
Web3 is the new version of the world wide web, based on blockchain technology which includes such concepts as decentralization in the form of token-based economics. In the same vein, NFTs (short for non-fungible tokens) are digital assets recorded in the blockchain and can be transferred by the owner. NFTs can be sold and traded (mostly with crypto) and typically represents objects like art, music, and videos.
Related Article: Gemini Crypto Rewards Card Available Now In The US
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