Mastercard NFT leader steps down and tokenizes resignation letter

Mastercard NFT product lead Satvik Sethi mentioned in a collection of tweets on Feb. 2 that he has resigned from that place, which he has held for the previous yr.

Sethi mentioned he skilled harassment and misery because of the firm’s administration. He advised that his wage was denied to him, his employment contract was overridden, and that he was blocked from on-line accounts.

Sethi mentioned that he’s minting and promoting his resignation letter as an NFT priced at 0.023 ETH ($38.00) to help himself. He mentioned that he’ll airdrop extra paintings to supporters sooner or later. Manifold, the app on which consumers can mint the token, reports that 38 tokens have been minted on the time of writing.

Sethi additionally emphasised the extent of his position on the firm. He mentioned that each one questions on Web3 ⁠— together with these from companions ⁠— have been directed to him. He added:

“[Mastercard] may attempt to discredit me or downplay my contributions. However the truth is ⁠— globally our companions, shoppers, and regional groups affiliate Mastercard x NFTs with me.”

Mastercard has not commented on Sethi’s resignation. Presumably, it’s going to proceed to supply its numerous non-fungible token options regardless of Sethi’s key position.

In June 2022, Mastercard partnered with numerous NFT marketplaces, together with ImmutableX, Sweet Digital, The Sandbox, Mintable, Spring, and Nifty Gateway. That partnership allowed cardholders to purchase NFTs with out buying cryptocurrency as an intermediate step. An analogous partnership with Coinbase preceded that effort by a number of months.

Mastercard has additionally labored with Polygon to launch an artist accelerator that helps individuals to mint NFTs. The corporate partnered with the crypto app Hello to supply customizable debit playing cards that includes NFT avatars final yr.

Exterior of NFTs, Mastercard can also be working to supply crypto-related providers, together with buying and selling providers, monitoring instruments, and reward choices. It additionally powers fee playing cards supplied by cryptocurrency corporations, together with Uphold, Wirex, Nexo, and Bitpay.