Mastercard has included seven new startups with blockchain and cryptography solutions in its program Start Path, ranging from so-called NFTs ("non-fungible tokens") to building a vacuum chamber to enable new sustainable digital assets.
According to the "Executive Digest" portal, the aim is to support fast-growing digital assets, blockchain solutions and cryptocurrency companies, and to continue Mastercard's own work on digital assets.
GK8, Domain Money, Mintable, SupraOracles, STACS, Taurus and Uphold, together with Mastercard, will now "seek to expand and accelerate innovation around digital asset technology and make it safer and easier for people and institutions to buy, spend and hold cryptocurrencies and digital assets," the company advances in a statement.
Among the seven startups participating in the inaugural version of Mastercard's Start Path program is Singapore's Mintable, which allows users to create, buy and sell digital and physical assets, including artwork, music or collectibles, through NFTs supported by blockchain technology.
"The platform has a number of new features designed to empower the average citizen to work with NFTs, even if they have no prior knowledge in cryptography or code," Mastercard highlights.
Israel's GK8, meanwhile, is a self-managing institutional cryptocurrency platform that offers a true vacuum chamber that allows secure blockchain transactions to be created, signed and sent without receiving any input from the internet, eliminating any potential vectors of cyber attacks.
Switzerland's Taurus, meanwhile, offers an enterprise-grade infrastructure to manage any digital asset through a single platform, including crypto assets, digital currencies and tokenized assets, covering asset issuance, custody, maintenance and trading.
Domain Money (US) aims to build an investment platform for retail banking that bridges the gap between digital assets and traditional finance, and SupraOracles (Switzerland) is "a powerful blockchain oracle" that helps companies connect data from their activity to public and private chains, enabling interoperable smart contracts to automate, simplify and protect the future of financial markets.
STACS (Singapore) provides a blockchain infrastructure that enables global banks, national stock exchanges and asset managers to create effective sustainable financing models, and Uphold (USA) is a multi-asset crypto-native digital money platform that offers investment and payment services to consumers and businesses around the world. Uphold's unique 'Anything-to-Anything' trading experience allows customers to trade directly across asset classes with embedded payments, facilitating a future where everyone has access to financial services.
The founders of the digital asset and blockchain companies participating in this new Start Path program from Mastercard want to "solve a number of still problematic aspects, including asset tokenization, data accuracy, digital security, and seamless access between the traditional and digital economy."
"As a leading technology player, we believe we can play a key role in digital assets, helping to shape the industry and create the solutions for consumer protection and security. Part of our role is to forge the future of cryptocurrencies and we're doing that by uniting leading traditional financial players with innovations at the digital asset level," stressed Jess Turner, Executive Vice President, New Digital Infrastructure and Fintech.
Mastercard has been involved with the digital currency ecosystem since 2015.