"We at Mastercard are not completely comfortable with the idea of cryptocurrencies, largely because they go against the whole principal that we have established our business on which is really moving to a world beyond cash ensuring greater transparency, security and simplicity in the way people live their lives. If you think about it Cash is a problem for a number of countries. Cash really facilitates anonymity, it facilitate illegal activity, it facilitates tax avoidance...and a range of other things that aren't going to drive efficiency in an economy. Trust is a critical component of any payment system. So if you think about the idea that all of a sudden your having cryptocurrencies being "manufactured" if you like on an anonymous computer in an anonymous location, it's completely legitimate to have some concerns about how that might be working. What a regulator wants to do is ensure there is a fully compliant root to the transaction, that they understand who is making the transaction, who the payment is being made to and that they have a suitable record so they can ensure there is credential control over the system. If it's an anonymous transaction, that sounds like a suspicious transaction. Why does someone need to be anonymous? I certainly don't want anyone mining technology or mining financial services away from my control, particularly if they're going represent something from me."
