Mastercard executive: I don’t care about Bitcoin, I only care about blockchain technology

Rob Reeg, general manager of operations and technology at cross-border payments giant Mastercard, said that while Mastercard has invested heavily in blockchain technology, he is personally indifferent to Bitcoin.

The cross-border payment sector is dominated by Visa and MasterCard. However, it would be a wise choice for these two industry giants to pay attention to disruptive innovations such as Bitcoin, which exist and develop beyond everyone's imagination.

Visa said in its summary of 2015 that Bitcoin and blockchain are becoming "more and more real". Because in 2015, the entire industry witnessed the innovation of blockchain and developed with it. The payment giant is also recruiting talents for virtual currency, blockchain and other emerging payment technology research and development. In addition, Visa has begun to organize engineers to develop blockchain technology, and some European banks have confirmed to participate in the proof-of-concept project initiated by Visa.

Similarly, MasterCard has its own views on Bitcoin and blockchain technology. Last year, the British government consulted MasterCard on digital currency-related matters, and its response just proved the attitude of the payment company towards Bitcoin.

MasterCard responded:

All we can say is that the speed and security of the digital currency network is far from enough compared to the MasterCard network.

MasterCard also questioned the security of the Bitcoin blockchain, arguing that the current global transaction network is built in a regulatory environment and does not rely on the blockchain's operating procedures. Judging from MasterCard's negative response and various views on digital currencies, it can be said that it is dismissive of Bitcoin.

(Rob Reeg, General Manager, Operations and Technology, Mastercard)

Today, this contemptuous view of Bitcoin has not changed, and it has even affected all executives within the company. Indian media Business Standard interviewed Rob Reeg, general manager of operations and technology at Mastercard, and asked whether his company knew about blockchain technology.

Reeg replied:

Blockchain technology is very attractive and we are conducting relevant research. I personally don’t like Bitcoin very much, but I pay close attention to blockchain technology.

Reeg's negative attitude towards Bitcoin coincides with that of Wall Street executive Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, who has asserted that Bitcoin has a poor development prospect and believes that research on cryptocurrencies is a waste of time.

Reeg accidentally revealed two blockchain projects of Mastercard during the interview. One of them uses a system that combines public and private chains, and the other is a completely private chain system. Reeg also indirectly explained why public chains such as the Bitcoin blockchain are not the first choice of Mastercard.

Our company is mainly responsible for managing customers' funds and personal information. Therefore, for us, the security of blockchain is really worrying. Blockchain pursues unregulated, but considering security issues, this is not our first choice.

The safety that Reeg is referring to is that some financial institutions facilitate illegal activities such as money laundering and fraud, and regulators usually impose billions of fines to prevent such situations from happening again. However, this situation has only been an isolated case in the past 10 years.

Code without human oversight is the best way to manage the world.