Mastercard Introduces Non-Custodial Bitcoin Debit Card Denominated in Euros

[ABCbits]

Mastercard Introduces Non-Custodial Bitcoin Debit Card Denominated in Euros

Mastercard's new euro debit card allows Bitcoin and crypto spending from non-custodial wallets at over 100 million merchants.

Mastercard has partnered with Mercury, a Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payments provider, to launch a euro-denominated debit card that enables users to spend Bitcoin and other digital assets directly from non-custodial wallets.

The card allows European Bitcoin users to make payments from self-hosted wallets at any of Mastercard's network of over 100 million merchants globally, without requiring users to store their funds with an intermediary... Read more here.


I don't know what they mean by "link their non-custodial wallets", but it's good news.  Your opinion is greatly appreciated.

[bitterguy28]

I don't know what they mean by "link their non-custodial wallets", but it's good news.  Your opinion is greatly appreciated.

i think that this is good progress for bitcoin and the crypto community because this expands awareness to more people but the point of non custodial wallet is to not have any third party to be a custodian so if i were to just link it to a mastercard which surely requires me making an account then it kind of defeats the whole purpose

i don’t know why they had to emphasize on the non-custodial part instead of just allowing for bitcoin whatever or wherever you hold it in

[Lucius]

~snip~
I don't know what they mean by "link their non-custodial wallets", but it's good news.  Your opinion is greatly appreciated.

They were thinking the following :

The virtual payment method, called Spend, enables users to turn their crypto holdings into fiat to make purchases at more than 90 million merchants in the Mastercard network, Mercuryo said in a statement on Thursday. The digital card is issued by Polish fintech company Quicko.
Spend is embedded into a non-custodial wallet, meaning its users can store and manage the keys to their crypto holdings. It is compatible with 40 cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum and Solana, according to Mercuryo.
The card issuer requires users to comply with anti-money laundering and know-your-consumer rules.

In other words, if I understood correctly, Spend is a non-custodial wallet in which the user can create a virtual card with which he can then pay through various digital wallets. Of course, there is the inevitable KYC, as with any similar product.

[ABCbits]

~snip~
I don't know what they mean by "link their non-custodial wallets", but it's good news.  Your opinion is greatly appreciated.

They were thinking the following :

The virtual payment method, called Spend, enables users to turn their crypto holdings into fiat to make purchases at more than 90 million merchants in the Mastercard network, Mercuryo said in a statement on Thursday. The digital card is issued by Polish fintech company Quicko.
Spend is embedded into a non-custodial wallet, meaning its users can store and manage the keys to their crypto holdings. It is compatible with 40 cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum and Solana, according to Mercuryo.
The card issuer requires users to comply with anti-money laundering and know-your-consumer rules.

In other words, if I understood correctly, Spend is a non-custodial wallet in which the user can create a virtual card with which he can then pay through various digital wallets. Of course, there is the inevitable KYC, as with any similar product.

Your interpretation makes sense to me. But are there any Bitcoin or cryptocurrency wallet called "Spend" out there? I didn't find relevant wallet or application with such name from quick google search.

[Lucius]

Your interpretation makes sense to me. But are there any Bitcoin or cryptocurrency wallet called "Spend" out there? I didn't find relevant wallet or application with such name from quick google search.

It is obviously the wallet of the company that designed this service and it is obvious that it can be used exclusively for this service.  On the one hand, you have private keys under your control (allegedly), and on the other hand, you have to do KYC to use the service. It makes sense for those who want to convert crypto to fiat, while bypassing CEX and also having the option of direct payment with a virtual card.

[ZAINmalik75]

I don't know what they mean by "link their non-custodial wallets", but it's good news.  Your opinion is greatly appreciated.

As far as I understand, they mean that to use a debit card to pay with BTC held in our non-custodial wallets, we first need to connect those wallets to the host wallet used by the debit card system. This might also imply connecting our non-custodial wallet directly to the debit card system.

Once connected, we can easily make payments from our wallet using the debit card. However, there’s nothing particularly new here, as many platforms already offer debit card systems. The catch is, to use those, we typically have to deposit funds into their wallets, which comes with some risk since those wallets are not non-custodial. So perhaps that's what they're advertising.

[ABCbits]

I don't know what they mean by "link their non-custodial wallets", but it's good news.  Your opinion is greatly appreciated.

As far as I understand, they mean that to use a debit card to pay with BTC held in our non-custodial wallets, we first need to connect those wallets to the host wallet used by the debit card system. This might also imply connecting our non-custodial wallet directly to the debit card system.

Once connected, we can easily make payments from our wallet using the debit card. However, there’s nothing particularly new here, as many platforms already offer debit card systems. The catch is, to use those, we typically have to deposit funds into their wallets, which comes with some risk since those wallets are not non-custodial. So perhaps that's what they're advertising.

Thank you for sharing your interpretation. But which Bitcoin wallet have feature to connect/link to specific website/system? Such feature usually only exist for altcoin wallet, where the altcoin have rich web3 or smart contract support.

And if they actually require the customer to deposit the coin in advance, then IMO claim "non-custodial" is misleading.

[ZAINmalik75]

Thank you for sharing your interpretation. But which Bitcoin wallet have feature to connect/link to specific website/system? Such feature usually only exist for altcoin wallet, where the altcoin have rich web3 or smart contract support.

And if they actually require the customer to deposit the coin in advance, then IMO claim "non-custodial" is misleading.

I was also thinking that if we have to deposit coins in advance into their wallet, then it's no longer a non-custodial service. However, if we can connect our Electrum wallet to their app (which they will introduce) and simply allow that app to access our wallet to use the debit card, that would be different.

We’ll see how this debit card works once it goes live, but until then, all we can do is wait. Can’t we connect our Trust Wallet to such services? It also supports these kinds of connections if Electrum doesn't.

[joniboini]

I remember reading this topic on Bitcointalk, so I tried to look further and it seems most articles used Cointelegraph as the primary source[1]. In that article, they don't explicitly mention that this new card/software will allow users to spend their Bitcoin directly. That's quite similar to what Mercuryo said on their website[2]. If I'm reading their statement correctly it seems like this is another web3 app that requires you to register just like the previous crypto debit card. I suspect the "Bitcoin" part is a spin done by some websites to make their articles slightly different from Cointelegraph's. CMIIW.

[1] https://cointelegraph.com/news/mastercard-non-custodial-crypto-spending-card
[2] https://mercuryo.io/explore/article/mercuryo-launches-spend-crypto-debit-card

[libert19]

... But which Bitcoin wallet have feature to connect/link to specific website/system? Such feature usually only exist for altcoin wallet, where the altcoin have rich web3 or smart contract support.

If you have ever used ordinals, you would know. I used Unisat ordinals marketplace [1] a while back, you can connect your ordinals supported Bitcoin wallet there (myself used Unisat wallet) and make buy/sells. Experience was similar to how Metamask works with Opensea.

[1] https://unisat.io/market

[ABCbits]

... But which Bitcoin wallet have feature to connect/link to specific website/system? Such feature usually only exist for altcoin wallet, where the altcoin have rich web3 or smart contract support.

If you have ever used ordinals, you would know. I used Unisat ordinals marketplace [1] a while back, you can connect your ordinals supported Bitcoin wallet there (myself used Unisat wallet) and make buy/sells. Experience was similar to how Metamask works with Opensea.

[1] https://unisat.io/market

Thank you for sharing. I've read how Ordinals works, but never bother to try mint/sell any token. Anyway, i just did quick search and found out Mastercard post[1] which mention MetaMask as example of the supported non-custodial wallet.

[1] https://www.mastercard.com/news/perspectives/2024/inside-the-making-of-a-self-custody-web3-card-for-a-web2-world/

[TomPluz]

I don't know what they mean by "link their non-custodial wallets", but it's good news. 

I am not so familiar with this offering from Mastercard as I am more into Visa which is more popular here in my country when we talk on debit cards. Now, maybe by linking it can mean just that easy as provided by Mercury and since this is with non-custodial wallet I am sure there can be more safety here. Well, I am hoping they can get a good level of patronage of people spending their Bitcoin via this wallet option. As far as I am concerned, I am not using my Bitcoin for anything not unless it would be priced a million dollar already (lol). At any rate, it is good to see Mastercard now really getting into the cryptocurrency ride as they don't want to be left behind by this big trend and since Visa is already a lot of miles ahead with this similar move.

[NotATether]

OK, one thing you guys need to know, is that the card networks never issue cards by themselves. They always partner with a bank or a financial service to do so. In this case, Mastercard is working with Mercury, a financial services provider for small businesses. Though really it would be more accurate to say that Mercury is working with MasterCard, since the fintechs and banks have to reach out to the card networks first to request a card partnership. The networks are not interested in going around and asking the fintechs themselves.