The head of Mastercard’s blockchain and digital assets for Asia-Pacific told CNBC that since consumers are so at ease with modern money, there is no need for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
“Adoption is the difficult part,” stated Ashok Venkateshwaran on Wednesday, outside of the FinTech festival in Singapore. “So if you have CBDCs in your wallet, you should have the ability for you to spend it anywhere you want – very similar to cash today.”
Participants in the payments giant’s CBDC Partner Programme include Consensys, Fireblocks, and Ripple. The purpose of the move was to promote discussions among important industry players, but it was also perceived as a means for Mastercard (MA) to become more deeply involved in CBDC developments as more countries begin to investigate the technology. According to the Atlantic Council, as many as 130 nations—or 98% of the world’s gross domestic product—are investigating CBDCs. Just 35 nations were considering one as of May 2020. However, just 11 nations have adopted virtual currency as of yet.
According to him, it’s difficult to justify the effort right now. In certain parts of the nation, building the required infrastructure “takes a lot of time and effort.”
In order to show how tokenized deposits, or CBDCs, can be used for real-world asset transactions, Mastercard completed the Hong Kong CBDC Pilot last week. “The pilot also showcased the potential for seamless funding and settlement in and out of Web3 marketplaces via a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC)”