Ankr Joins Forces With Mastercard Through Crypto Startup Accelerator Program

We might be well and truly finished with the divide between legacy fiat and modern cryptocurrency. The biggest names in banking, finance, and card issuance are now recognizing what Web3 projects have to offer and are coming on board rapidly.

Ankr, a protocol provider that allows effortless access to Web3, has been accepted into Mastercards’ “Start Path Crypto” accelerator program. This program aims to assist crypto startups to scale. But Ankr is a huge name and may also help Mastercard to integrate more easily into Web3.

The Ankr Network: Benefits For Mastercard

Ankr is one of the biggest infrastructure companies in Web3 and the leader in RPC node services. Built by Stanley Wu, who led Infrastructure at AWS California, Ankr is quickly producing numerous groundbreaking innovations in Web3.

It aims to become a leader in Web3 gaming, having recently released an sdk that allows developers to make blockchain-ready games on the traditional Unity engine. Ankr is also working on subnets and application-specific blockchains (ASBs), which are likely to be a gamechanger for the evolution of the ecosystem. It also brought multichain liquid staking to the industry and is generating enhanced DeFi opportunities and alternative investment mechanisms.

Ankr is no stranger to working with large organizations. It actually built out a lot of BNB Chain’s core infrastructure including their Errigan upgrade and Archive Node upgrade. It is the largest node infrastructure provider to both Polygon and Binance.

As a leader in distributed infrastructure, Ankr could be the ideal company to assist Mastercard in streamlining its services to be onboarded to Web3. The benefits of distributed servers are now well-established. Mastercard, as the largest global card issuance provider, would save enormous amounts of money if it managed to make the switch from a centralized, deprecated Web2 architecture to an efficient, decentralized Web3 network.

Using distributed networks basically means that data is more secure, something which is critically important in the financial services industry, with its long legacy of compromised information. It would also mean that transactions could be processed more quickly and at a lower cost, with further reduced costs for data storage.

Mastercard Crypto Startup Accelerator: Benefits For Ankr

The Mastercard Crypto Accelerator is an excellent opportunity for Ankr to gain a deeper insight into the payments industry. The stated aim of the program is to help crypto startups to scale quickly. Through the program, these startups will get 3 months of free access to a number of products and services offered by Mastercard, as well as networking, subject matter expertise, brand endorsement, and technology collaboration.

The APIs and Mastercard issuance program will be of particular use to Ankr for the duration of the accelerator. Large exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase are already issuing their own cards, and with Ankr’s rate of expansion, this kind of offering is not out of reach.

There are 5 other startups taking place in the program - Spenn, Belo, Bitscrunch, Fonbnk, and Bitfy. The criteria for acceptance is that the project is early stage (Seed, Series A, Series B), focused on digital assets, and of a culturally diverse background. This is the third ‘wave’ of startups that Mastercard has helped to scale through its accelerator. Each wave consists of six startups that benefit from the collaboration.

Significance Of Mastercard/Ankr Collaboration

For many, the collaboration between a large card provider and crypto startups is a welcome integration, after years of media-induced tension regarding the legitimacy and relevance of cryptocurrencies.

It’s relieving for many within the blockchain space to see progressive companies like Mastercard are really embracing cryptocurrency. The fact that it is a payments and card issuance company is also significant, as the financial sector is one that has traditionally been extremely hostile to financial innovation.

This collaboration should encourage more acceptance from other large financial organizations. It is symbolic of the coming integration between Web2 and Web3 and ultimately, all parties will benefit.

The undeniable expertise and experience of Mastercard, placed on a decentralized and hyper-efficient network through Ankr protocols, would be an incredibly potent combination, spelling a bright future for payments in Web3.