Slashdot Mirror
Mastercard Denies Plans For BitCoin Credit Card
judgecorp writes "Reports that BitCoin is to issue a credit card have turned out to be false — or at least premature. Mastercard has denied there are any such plans and given details of the procedural barriers to creating such a card."
How did "a major international bank" turn into "only MasterCard?" Surely there are other international banks -- or have I missed recent news?
I think you are completely missing the reason for having a bitcoin credit card in the first place. It would have been accepted anywhere a normal mastercard would (according to tfa). This would've meant bitcoin could be used to buy stuff pretty much anywhere in real-life instead of some small online black markets or bitcoin exchanges.
Oh and also, bitcoin is 100% digital so any internet-capable device can send bitcoins anywhere in the world in under 10 minutes "to clear" time.
Which is one of many reasons the last story smelled bad, who'd wait 10 minutes for their grocery payment to clear. The alternative would be that MasterCard or somebody guarantees the merchant gets paid before you disappear out the door with the goods, never to be seen again while your transaction bounces 10 minutes later. At the very best it would be something like having a credit card in a foreign currency where they take an exchange fee for converting your Bitcoins to US Dollars or whatever the local currency is, since I guess nobody would take Bitcoins.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
from MasterCard...would introduce a serious flaw into the bitcoin model. Namely, the ability to override the corporate and political will of a major multinational financial processor with strong ties to the US Government.
the huge appeal of BitCoin is the ability to treat it like anonymous cash, a privilege previously enjoyed only by the upper echelons of the rich and powerful as they finance things like proposition 8 or the next GOP candidate.
Good people go to bed earlier.
They didn't say they don't approve it. They said they were never asked about it.
Seriously, Bitcoin people say "we'll have a global Mastercard-branded credit card avaolable to you all very soon". Mastercard say "Whadafuk? Who are you and how can you offer a Mastercard-branded card very soon if we've never heard of you?!". This only shows the lack of professionalism by Bitcoin.
It's not illegal now, and still bitcoin owners seem to be mostly criminals. The only significant use I've heard of for them are buying things on that online dope store.