Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Mastercard Denies Plans For BitCoin Credit Card

Posted by Unknown on from the bad-idea-was-bad dept.

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."

27 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. other? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How did "a major international bank" turn into "only MasterCard?" Surely there are other international banks -- or have I missed recent news?

    1. Re:other? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      How did "a major international bank" turn into "only MasterCard?" Surely there are other international banks -- or have I missed recent news?

      I don't really understand what you're asking, but MasterCard isn't an international bank, or any other sort of bank. Where did you get that from?

    2. Re:other? by Desler · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Because I realize that bitcoin is a giant scam? Because I know that Mastercard is not a bank?

    3. Re:other? by idontgno · · Score: 2

      You would have had to read TFA in the original story, but all indications were explicit that it would be a Mastercard debit card.

      Besides, "a major international bank" is not mutually exclusive of "Mastercard." Banks issue Mastercards. Both are needed. (It's not a debit card unless it's backed by a bank, and it's not a Mastercard if Mastercard doesn't say it's a Mastercard.)

      So Mastercard saying "hell no" is actually a little bit of a roadblock.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
    4. Re:other? by harks · · Score: 2

      Stock offers from legitimate successful companies also benefit creators and early adopters. By your definition, does that make all stock offers scams?

    5. Re:other? by SandorZoo · · Score: 2

      You're correct that the original story said these were debit cards, not credit cards.

      I don't see how this necessarily requires Mastercard's approval. Presumably "a major international bank" (MIB) can already issue Mastercards, and guarantees them. Do Mastercard themselves approve every type of Mastercard that MIB issues?

      MIB could come to a private arrangement with BitInstant, that goes like this: BitInstant maintains your balance. You use your BitInstant/Mastercard/MIB debit card. MIB credits the vendor and debits BitInstant. BitInstant debits your account, converts it to "real" money (that's what they do) and credits MIB.

      If Mastercard is already happy with MIB issuing Mastercards, and MIB is happy with its arrangement with BitInstant, then what's to stop this going ahead? The danger to the end user is that BitInstant goes south and loses your money, but that's not Mastercard's or MIB's problem, except MIB would be liable (I expect) for the payments it had accepted (and guaranteed), but not yet been credited for by BitInstant. As far as Mastercard are concerned, it would be MIB that backs any and all the guarantees that you get with a Mastercard.

    6. Re:other? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2, Informative

      The other currencies are backed up by weight of law ...

      You are mistaken. There is no law that gives the US dollar any value, nor is there one for Euros.

      A few currencies are backed by binding them to another currency, but usually that is a fiat currency again. (Like the fixed exchange rate of the chineese currency towards the dollar)

      The word fiat in the currencies we use in our days exactly means: unbacked.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  2. shocker by slashmydots · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A worldwide, multi-billion dollar company doesn't want to help promote a new competitor that undercuts their price and their control over the global flow of money? I never saw that one coming!
    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. So a plastic card would just help regulate it and add another layer of complication and control by an outside force. Not 1 single bitcoin user would have gone for such a product. This story had fake written all over it from the beginning.

    1. Re:shocker by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

    2. Re:shocker by larko · · Score: 2

      1 BTC = 9.93 USD

    3. Re:shocker by Kjella · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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
    4. Re:shocker by Desler · · Score: 3, Informative

      Competition to what exactly? Assuming it would have taken off Mastercard would have been raking in money off the conversion fees on each transaction.

    5. Re:shocker by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

    6. Re:shocker by slashmydots · · Score: 2

      And yet I made a bunch of money mining bitcoins with a high powered dual GPU system. Wow, I sure got taken! Like 99% of other bitcoin enthusiasts, I read every last detail about how the system works, potential problems, and thoroughly protected my wallet file on cold storage (not attached to my PC). And oh look, I made money. Stupid, careless people get their money stolen whether it's BTC or USD. Don't use sketchy exchanges. Don't leave your wallet file live and then download 50 illegal software packages with viruses. Don't use the same password on a forum as the exchange. This is security basics, people, it's not a problem with bitcoins. By the way, I've never heard of a Ponzi scheme that doesn't have any central authority running it. That's a new one, lol.

    7. Re:shocker by Bam_Thwok · · Score: 2

      "Didn't approve of it" is not the same as "Never heard of it".

    8. Re:shocker by Bam_Thwok · · Score: 2

      That, and I'm sure their legal team would have a seizure trying to figure out their potential liability from helping to launder monopoly drug money back into the economy.

    9. Re:shocker by Bam_Thwok · · Score: 2

      MasterCard is a payment processor that merchants and consumers CHOOSE to use for convenience, not a boa constrictor wrapped around the neck of international commerce. If WikiLeaks wanted to, they could accept donations from dollar bills stuffed in envelopes, but they wanted an online processing instead. MasterCard shut them off because they didn't want to known as one of the companies processing charitable contributions to an international espionage suspect, not because they're some megalomaniacal superpower.

    10. Re:shocker by makomk · · Score: 2

      The alternative would be that the payment provider requires you to have a Bitcoin balance loaded onto the card that's already safely under their control before you use it to pay for anything, which was I think exactly what they've said they're going to do.

    11. Re:shocker by ceoyoyo · · Score: 2

      Why should Mastercard care what currency you're using? They'd probably love to offer bitcoin services... then they get to charge the merchant a transaction fee AND the customer a transaction fee plus currency exchange. It would be like everyone was suddenly shopping abroad.

      However, Mastercard isn't going to go for an anonymous system.

  3. Re:Don't listen by Desler · · Score: 2

    True and it was sourced from a discussion in an IRC channel.

  4. a bitcoin credit card by nimbius · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.
  5. "BitCoin is to issue a credit card" by Wonko+the+Sane · · Score: 4, Funny

    BitCoin is going to issue a credit card right after LiNux opens up a app store and HTTp holds a networking conference.

  6. Re:bitcoin is coming, deal with it financial fags by kelemvor4 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

  7. Re:bitcoin is coming, deal with it financial fags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    this tells us more about you than about bitcoin.

  8. Re:AC called it by gatfirls · · Score: 2

    They really need to ban bitcoin "stories" (ads) on here unless they are going to get paid for them. It's nothing more than people trying to inflate that bubble again so they can cash out. It's pitiful. May as well have stories about rumors of people becoming so damn rich from johnny woos secrets.

  9. Re:AC called it by gatfirls · · Score: 2

    Yes, my feelings are frequently hurt when I miss out on obvious pump and dump schemes. Spreading false stories to inflate the price of something is "making money off of bitcoin stories". Bit coin sure is a real "thing", a really annoying thing crawling with scammers, thieves, misinformation, and a rabid fanbase that crawls into the cracks of any discussion/forum like a cockroach.

  10. Re:bitcoin is coming, deal with it financial fags by Urza9814 · · Score: 2

    Tells you what, that he reads Slashdot?

    http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/08/07/1910238/bitcoin-based-drug-market-silk-road-thriving-with-2-million-in-monthly-sales (posted about two weeks ago if you missed it)

    Other than some T-shirts and novelty things, and the (no longer accepted) EFF donations, that's the only use of Bitcoin I've yet read about...