Patent data shows that Mastercard is developing a method to add blocks to permissioned blockchains using an efficient consensus mechanism, bloom filters, and audit guarantees. Mastercard was fined $650 million by the European Union on 1/22/2019 for breaching antitrust rules by raising payment processing fees artificially, which led to higher prices for retailers and consumers. Many say this highlights cryptocurrencies' freedom from excessive bank and credit card fees.