Satvik Sethi, Mastercard’s product lead for NFTs, has resigned from the company complaining that he experienced harassment, emotional anguish and had long felt neglected at the global payments and credit card major.
In a series of tweets, he also mentioned about the company’s inefficiencies as one of the reason for leaving. He claimed that he had to go through emotional anguish at Mastercard due to a number of poorly managed processes, miscommunications and internal inefficiencies.
The 2020 graduate of Binghamton University had the grandiose title of NFT product lead, and proving that he knew his stuff, he made his resignation letter a non-fungible token that the public can mint for 0.023 ether, or about $38, netting him $3,610 from 95 supporters.
“We treat each and every one of our employees with decency and respect,”a Mastercard spokesperson who requested anonymity said in an email. “We take these matters very seriously and are looking into the concerns raised by Mr. Sethi. We will do so with respect for his privacy.”
Sethi’s U.K. work authorization expired with his resignation and he has returned to his native India. He will now focus on Joincircle, a blockchain-based social-networking website he is developing.
Moreover, Sethi is going to stop focusing on other projects and devote his time to developing his own Web3 social networking and community-building platform called joincircle. In his letter, he also said that he hopes to release future works of art of different genres.
Additionally, Sethi stressed the breadth of his impact on the company. He insisted that everyone with questions about Web3, including potential partners, should address them to him directly. Following Sethi’s departure, Mastercard has not commented. Although Sethi plays a crucial function, it is probable that it will keep offering its various non-fungible token features.
Several NFT markets, including ImmutableX, Candy Digital, The Sandbox, Mintable, Spring, and Nifty Gateway, joined forces with Mastercard in June 2022. This collaboration allowed cardholders to buy NFTs without having to first acquire digital tokens. The collaboration with Coinbase on that initiative has already been going on for a while.
Sethi stated that he was ignored by the corporation and that he had to plead for his pay. He asserted that Mastercard’s internal inefficiencies and a number of poorly handled processes had subjected him to harassment and emotional distress.
The organization allegedly informed Sethi that he would be paid for a three-month notice period if he quit. However, in contrast, when he revealed his decision to leave, he was only given a one-month salary. He also accused MasterCard of blocking his accounts.
According to Sethi, if he leaves Mastercard, he will lose his work visa and have to work from India until he can figure out a way to get into the country legally. That’s why the ex-product lead has returned to India and will now concentrate on Joincircle, a social networking platform built on the blockchain.
