TL;DR
- Goodbye to hexadecimal addresses: Customers will have the ability to ship cryptocurrencies utilizing easy “username” type aliases as an alternative of lengthy codes.
- Excessive-speed infrastructure: Polygon was chosen as the bottom community as a consequence of its velocity and capability for institutional-grade settlements.
- Built-in verification: Mercuryo will handle the identification course of and credential issuance by way of soulbound tokens.
Mastercard Crypto Credential for self-custody is optimized to scale back friction in digital asset adoption. The worldwide funds large just lately introduced the enlargement of its resolution, an initiative that featured collaboration with Polygon Labs and funds infrastructure supplier Mercuryo.
This strategic alliance seeks to remodel the person expertise by changing intimidating blockchain pockets addresses—these lengthy strings of alphanumeric characters—with verified, easy-to-read aliases.
The official assertion signifies that the objective is to combine a verification layer immediately into pockets environments the place the person maintains management of their funds (self-custody). With Mastercard Crypto Credential for self-custody, transactions might be as intuitive as sending an e-mail, drastically decreasing the chance of human error when copying addresses and rising belief in digital transfers.

A Strategic Alliance on Scalable Infrastructure
Mastercard chosen a multidisciplinary staff to hold out its imaginative and prescient. The Polygon community was chosen for its confirmed capability in velocity, reliability, and an infrastructure prepared for mass funds. Polygon’s Proof-of-Stake community provides low transaction prices and excessive throughput, vital components to help exercise at a worldwide funds scale.
Moreover, current community upgrades, corresponding to Rio and Heimdall v2, have strengthened transaction finality and eradicated reorganization dangers, consolidating Polygon as a hub for fintechs and neobanks.
On the operational aspect, Mercuryo will act because the preliminary issuer answerable for person onboarding. The method entails Mercuryo performing identification verification and issuing the alias. Subsequently, customers can hyperlink this alias to their pockets and request a Mastercard Crypto Credential for self-custody soulbound token (non-transferable) on the Polygon community. This token features as an on-chain sign certifying that the pockets belongs to a verified person and meets credential processing requirements.
For Polygon particularly, the launch of this initiative arrives at a second of serious momentum. It comes only a week after Calastone built-in its tokenized fund distribution resolution onto the platform, reinforcing the development of institutional adoption in Layer 2 options. With this new instrument, Mastercard reaffirms its dedication to delivering safe, scalable, and acquainted blockchain experiences for customers worldwide.













