Mastercard is establishing a designated experimental platform called the Multi-Token Network (MTN) that will commence its investigation into tokenized bank deposits. Scheduled to be available in beta mode in the UK this summer, this endeavor demonstrates Mastercard’s commitment to pioneering financial innovations.
Mr. Raj Dhamodharan, who oversees Mastercard’s operations in the crypto and blockchain field, has confirmed that various banks and financial entities have been invited to partake in the initiative. The MTN project is expected to advance its scope and test regulated stablecoins and central bank digital currencies soon.
Several worldwide initiatives have launched various types of tokenized cash programs and associated use cases which were executed in pilot projects, and JPMorgan introduced their in-house wholesale cash token referred to as the JPM Coin.
Dhamodharan said in an interview “What powers the global economy today is regulated money in the banks, so we’re starting with making tokenized bank deposits, so the unit of money in a bank account is a digital asset on the blockchain, bringing the same level of programmability to those as you find with digital currency in the crypto ecosystem.”
Mastercard’s initial focus on advancing applications and use cases for tokenized bank money aligns seamlessly with their previously announced blockchain analytics application, Mastercard Crypto Credentials, which aims to ensure transaction compliance with regulations such as anti-money laundering (AML) protocols.
According to Dhamodharan, “Let’s say a bank in the UK has this tokenized form of bank deposit; and let’s say another bank in Singapore also has a tokenized form of deposits, you can see this being exchanged one for the other, also known as cross border transfer of value, which traditionally had a lot of issues in terms of being able to move in a fast and flexible way.”
Dhamodharan mentioned that during an MTN Innovation Sprint held in London this summer, chosen teams will be granted access to the capabilities of MTN. These teams will have the opportunity to develop compelling use cases leveraging tokenized deposits and digital assets.
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