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The research and development of Mastercard is examining the implications of blockchain and other cutting-edge technologies to increase the overall efficiency of the company. The Irish subsidiary of the international payments giant has been responsible for various innovations in the six years since its establishment.
Mastercard Labs Innovation in the digital payment space
The second largest payment processing company on the planet is examining various "deep tech" innovations in an attempt to improve efficiency and create new services. Mastercard Labs has worked on blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning at its Irish headquarters.
Ken Moore is head of the Mastercard research and development department. He explained to The Irish Times about the work done on Mastercard and how it affects the wider society. Although often operating at a loss, the innovations created by the team in Leopardstown, Ireland, allow the company to remain one of the most influential payment processors on the planet.
Moore also stated that the focus on Mastercard Labs was not to generate revenue:
"We are building new Mastercard products globally from Dublin, so we support costs in Ireland, even if the services we offer are global."
Previously, the research and development team has created innovations such as the QKR app. Used by large companies such as Wagamama and Identity Check, the innovative biometrics product has been an important advance in the field of identity verification.
Mastercard Labs currently employs around 400 people. However, this is set to increase as the payment processing firm plans to create another 175 positions in Ireland. These roles will include blockchain developers, data scientists and cloud computing specialists.
Moore also commented that the research and development of Mastercard was one of the most celebrated of the entire company:
"We are very much seen as a success story due and they are becoming increasingly important."
While Mastercard is clearly intrigued by blockchain technology, the same can not be said about their CEO's attitude towards cryptocurrency in general. At the beginning of this year, NewsBTC reported on Ajay Banga stating that digital resources like Bitcoin and Aether were "junk" and were not suitable as a medium of exchange.
Expressing a typically ridiculous feeling for a manager with the maximum to lose from the technological and financial innovation that is cryptocurrency, Banga also stated that about 95% of transactions were used to facilitate crimes such as drug dealing and pedophilia .
However, these statements contain very few truths because many more cryptocurrencies are used to speculate that not for cases of use of the dark web these days.
Shutterstock foreground image.
