How Stripe Is Building for Bitcoin & Crypto
Summary
TLDRIn this insightful discussion, Stripe's executive delves into the company's approach to cryptocurrencies and their potential impact on the future of global commerce. The conversation highlights Stripe's mission to increase the internet's GDP and how cryptocurrencies, particularly stablecoins, could be a powerful tool to achieve this. The executive shares Stripe's internal perspectives on the evolving financial landscape, the importance of enabling technologies, and the potential for crypto to disrupt traditional financial models. The discussion also touches on the challenges and opportunities presented by regulatory environments and the company's commitment to fostering innovation within the crypto ecosystem.
Takeaways
- 🌐 The vastness of the internet necessitates technologies like cryptocurrencies to achieve significant scale.
- 🚀 Cryptocurrencies are seen as powerful tools to impact the broader internet, potentially becoming integral to Stripe's mission.
- 🔄 Crypto is not viewed as a direct competitor to Stripe's core business but rather as a native extension of it.
- 📈 Stripe's mission to increase the GDP of the internet aligns well with the opportunities presented by cryptocurrencies.
- 🛠️ Stripe's approach to crypto involves enabling crypto-oriented companies, providing on-ramps, and exploring stable coins for global payouts.
- 🔄 The evolution of the financial medium, like the shift from text to video in social networking, is seen in the rise of cryptocurrencies.
- 🌍 Cryptocurrencies offer a new layer of opportunity for global commerce, with potential for faster settlement times and lower fees.
- 🔧 Stripe's role in the crypto ecosystem is to act as an enablement layer, supporting various technologies within the crypto space.
- 🔄 The adoption of stable coins is seen as a positive trend, with increasing consumer and merchant use cases.
- 🔄 The future of global commerce may involve more consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to-merchant transactions facilitated by cryptocurrencies.
- 🔄 Self-custody and the regulatory environment are areas of focus for fintech companies, including Stripe, as they navigate the crypto landscape.
Q & A
How does the speaker view the role of cryptocurrencies in achieving the scale of success for the internet?
-The speaker sees cryptocurrencies as one of the most powerful tools to impact the wide internet, not just the narrow internet, and believes they are native to Stripe's mission of increasing the GDP of the internet.
What is Stripe's mission according to the speaker?
-Stripe's mission is to increase the GDP of the internet by providing an elegant, simple, developer-focused, and durable business through which startups and companies can interact with the often complex financial world.
How does the speaker differentiate between the traditional financial world and the crypto world?
-The speaker notes that the crypto world represents a new medium shift and a layer of opportunity, which is different from the traditional financial world where changes occur less frequently.
What are the three main areas Stripe is focusing on within the crypto space?
-Stripe is focusing on enabling crypto-oriented companies with core services, providing an on-ramp for deeply crypto-native organizations, and developing a global crypto payouts product using stable coins.
How does the speaker view the potential of stable coins in global commerce?
-The speaker believes that stable coins can enable faster settlement times, lower fees, and increased payment inclusivity for longtail countries and currencies, providing more autonomy for individuals in managing their personal finances.
What is Stripe's approach to the crypto ecosystem?
-Stripe aims to be an enablement layer across various crypto technologies, focusing on serving those building within the crypto economy in a durable, trustworthy, developer-friendly, and high-confidence manner.
How does the speaker address the potential for self-custody in the future of fintech and banking?
-The speaker acknowledges the trend towards self-custody and its potential impact on user experience, regulatory compliance, and the financial stack, but notes that Stripe is currently more focused on other aspects of the crypto space.
What is the speaker's perspective on the future of asset digitization and tokenization?
-While acknowledging the potential of asset digitization and tokenization, the speaker suggests that Stripe is not deeply involved in this area yet and that the regulatory environment and technical challenges are still significant.
How does the speaker view the role of AI and automation in the future of transactions and global commerce?
-The speaker sees AI and automation as trends that will increase global commerce and enable microtransactions, with cryptocurrencies and stable coins being well-suited to this due to their speed and efficiency.
What are the speaker's thoughts on the potential disruption of Stripe by new technologies or market shifts?
-The speaker believes that while sudden market shifts could disrupt Stripe, they see cryptocurrencies as disruptive in a positive way, providing new opportunities for growth and innovation.
How can someone learn more about crypto at Stripe or potentially join the team?
-Interested individuals can visit stripe.com, search for crypto in the jobs section, or interact with the Stripe crypto page and its interest forum to request access to specific products or learn more about available positions.
Outlines
🌐 The Internet and Cryptocurrencies
The speaker discusses the vastness of the internet and the potential of cryptocurrencies to achieve significant success. They mention the possibility of regulatory challenges and alternative solutions but emphasize that, currently, crypto seems like a powerful tool to impact the internet. The conversation with John from Stripe begins, exploring the company's role in increasing internet GDP and how cryptocurrencies fit into their core business.
💡 Crypto as a Native to Stripe's Business
The discussion continues with the idea that crypto is not just an extension but a native part of Stripe's business. The evolution of social networks is compared to the financial world's adaptation to crypto. Stripe's mission to increase internet GDP and provide a simple, developer-focused business platform is seen as complementary to the opportunities presented by crypto. The speaker shares their perspective on crypto as a disruptive technology and its potential impact on various aspects of payments and financial transactions.
🚀 Stripe's Approach to Crypto Technologies
The conversation delves into Stripe's approach to crypto technologies, including Bitcoin, stablecoins, and NFTs. The company's strategy involves enabling crypto-oriented companies with core services, providing on-ramps for deeply crypto-native organizations, and developing a global crypto payouts product. The speaker highlights Stripe's role as an enablement layer across different crypto technologies and their focus on being agnostic to specific products while recognizing the upside of the technology.
🌟 The Future of Global Commerce and Crypto
The discussion focuses on the future of global commerce and how crypto technologies, particularly stablecoins, can enable faster settlement times, lower fees, and payment inclusivity. The speaker emphasizes the importance of these technologies in enabling global operators to manage their finances and interact with the global economy. The conversation also touches on the potential for crypto to become an infrastructure layer, similar to how the internet evolved.
🤝 Stripe's Role in the Crypto Ecosystem
The speaker reflects on Stripe's role as an honest broker within the crypto ecosystem, focusing on serving those building within the economy. They discuss the importance of being a durable, trustworthy, and developer-friendly platform. The conversation also explores the balance between building on community-driven technologies and creating internal products, as well as the potential for self-custody and its impact on the financial stack.
🔄 The Impact of Crypto on Stripe's Mission
The speaker considers the impact of crypto on Stripe's mission to increase the GDP of the internet. They discuss the potential for crypto to be a powerful tool for achieving this mission and the importance of staying attuned to market shifts and regulatory changes. The conversation also touches on the possibility of a future where crypto becomes essential for Stripe's success.
🏠 Tokenizing Assets and the Future of Commerce
The discussion explores the concept of tokenizing assets, such as real estate, and the potential for new use cases and challenges in the digital world. The speaker acknowledges the complexities of this area, particularly in terms of regulatory environments and the need for reliable and trustworthy on-chain transactions. They express interest in the potential changes this could bring to personal net worth and daily spending.
📢 Stripe's Commitment to Crypto
The speaker reiterates Stripe's commitment to crypto and its alignment with the company's mission. They emphasize the importance of crypto as a tool for enabling the vastness of the internet and the potential for it to become a critical part of Stripe's success. The conversation concludes with information on how to learn more about crypto at Stripe and how to apply for jobs or access Stripe's crypto products.
🗣️ Closing Remarks
The conversation concludes with the speaker expressing gratitude for the discussion and acknowledging the progress and technical capabilities of the crypto community. They also highlight the potential for companies like Stripe to accelerate the growth of the crypto ecosystem and look forward to future discussions as Stripe continues to make progress.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Cryptocurrencies
💡Scale of Success
💡Disruptive Technology
💡Stripe
💡Global Commerce
💡Stablecoins
💡Self-Custody
💡Tokenization
💡Regulatory Environment
💡DeFi (Decentralized Finance)
💡GDP (Gross Domestic Product)
Highlights
The internet's vastness and scale can be impacted by technologies like cryptocurrencies.
Cryptocurrencies are seen as powerful tools to achieve the scale of success for the internet.
Stripe's mission is to increase the GDP of the internet, and crypto is considered native to this mission.
Crypto is seen as an exciting medium shift and a new layer of opportunity.
Stripe's core business is not competitive with crypto but rather complementary.
Stripe had Bitcoin acceptance from 2014 to 2018 but had to sunset it due to practical reasons.
Stripe's crypto team focuses on enabling crypto-oriented companies, on-ramping, and stable coin space.
Crypto is a disruptive technology with the potential to be a medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account.
Stripe aims to enable global commerce through faster settlement times, lower fees, and payment inclusivity.
Stripe sees itself as an enablement layer across various crypto technologies.
The future of global commerce may involve more consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to-merchant transactions.
Self-custody in digital commerce is becoming more prevalent, affecting the financial stack and user relationships.
Regulatory shifts are influencing the complexity of financial products and services in the crypto space.
Stripe is not directly involved in tokenizing assets but sees potential in the concept.
Crypto's role in Stripe's mission is seen as native and potentially essential for future success.
Stripe encourages developers to interact with their crypto products and services.
The company is always looking to hire great people and encourages those interested to visit their website.
Transcripts
the internet is vast right you know it's
it's such a it's such a a a great vision
in its in its scale you you really have
to look for Technologies like
cryptocurrencies I think to achieve that
scale of success um and it's possible
it'll be something else right it's
possible that that this crypto thing
won't pan out you know regulatory
environments will get you know too too
messy you know some some Grand solution
to Fiat shows up overnight um and that
becomes the easier path but if I'm if
I'm looking look at it practically today
I think it's that crypto is probably one
of the most powerful tools we can put in
our belt to actually impact the wide
internet not just the narrow
internet all right guys bang bang I've
got John here with me uh I thought a
great place to start is the classic
innovators dilemma stripe is a massive
business you guys are helping increase
the GDP on the internet uh you probably
do payments better than anyone else and
everyone you know in the tech industry
is like duh if I'm going to have
payments on my website of UST stripe and
then Here Comes Bitcoin and
cryptocurrencies and they're like well
we're going to do payments amazingly in
this peer-to-peer kind of electronic
fashion uh it could be competitive or
you all could use these Technologies to
further your mission and kind of you
know wrap your arms around and say hey
we want to be part of this how do you
all think internally about you know
Stripes kind of Core Business and what
you guys have been doing for years and
then also this kind of new technology
and Bitcoin and
cryptocurrencies yeah I look I think
it's easy to sort of mistake these two
things to be competitive with each other
right the the reality is that I think
crypto is native to Stripes business
right it's not I don't even think it's
an extension of it I think it's very
native to what stripe does um yeah I was
at Facebook before and this is a kind of
social network world and in that world
the evolution of the medium right inside
of which you're operating changes
consistently and so you know we had like
text based primary social networking
followed by photos followed by videos
followed by today we're sort of in this
short form video World um this happens
far less often I think in the financial
world but I think crypto is that right
crypto is this really exciting medium
shift it's this entire new like layer of
opportunity and if you look at what
stripe is if you look at stripe's
Mission right which is increasing the
GDP of the internet right and sort of
providing this like elegant and simple
developer focused durable business you
know through which startups and
companies can interact with the
oftentimes complex Financial world right
I think these things are are are you
know perfect friends inside of that
space and so I think that it's it's not
surprising to me at all when you kind of
look at it through that lens that you
know we're digging deeper into this
space and that we have a team operating
and building products and trying to
enable crypto as opposed to sort of
taking the opposite stance right which
would be trying to resist it and you
know maybe not speaking about it and and
and and not kind of trying to build in
that direction so you know I think
crypto is a disruptive technology I
think that's one of the things that's
really exciting about it um I think it's
easy to make the mistake with a
disruptive technology that it sort of
can be camouflaged as like one or two
solutions because whatever lens you look
at a disruptive technology through it'll
look like it is that right and I think
when you look at it that way sort of as
these kind of Point items you might make
the mistake of saying oh you know in
this one area in payments it's
competitive with stripe or otherwise but
if you zoom out and you say no this is a
medium this is a layer kind of for like
Financial enablement right then I think
it becomes very natural that like this
is an opportunity stripe and that these
two techn that this technology and this
company like should be very close to
each other not far apart now when we
think about stripe kind of entering into
a space here there's different
components of crypto right there's
Bitcoin there's stable coins there's
like a whole long taale of uh very uh
speculative type uh engagements there's
nfts you know you can kind of go all the
way across this entire industry how do
you all think about maybe buckets of
like okay we think that there's really
really high you know fit between stripes
Mission and like these Technologies and
then we're kind of exploring some of
these other things uh in bucket two and
then maybe there's even a bucket three
of okay we know for sure we're not going
to do anything in that area or we don't
think that that's really got value to to
what our mission is so how do you kind
of think about maybe what those buckets
are and then like putting things in the
bucket so that you can prioritize
internally what to work
on I think we try to think about
ourselves as an enablement layer across
these various different technologies
that are coming out of kind of the macro
technology that is that is crypto um you
know if you look at the history of
stripe a little bit and its
participation there was a period of time
from about 2014 to 2018 where stripe
actually had Bitcoin acceptance um and
you know looking back when that was
ultimately Sunset when the blog post was
written about it right it was it was
turned off for very practical reasons
right was a Bitcoin was was very young
at the time um settlement times were
were taking too long fees were going up
it wasn't really being used as a
transactional currency um you that might
be changing a little bit today but also
Al what happened between sort of 2018
and today are all of these other kind of
Evolutions in opportunities for
companies to participate and utilize
this layer of cryptocurrencies and this
is where we've seen like nfts we've seen
sort of the Ico run we've seen uh
utility capabilities you know now we're
starting to see stable coins and I think
that stripe has a bit of a opportunity
across each of them and you can see it
in the product catalog that we've got
today so we we sort of have three major
remits within the crypto team here one
is enabling uh crypto oriented companies
with stripe core services so if you're
an exchange um you know if you're crypto
oriented and and selling nfts you might
still want to do traditional finance
things like take accept a credit card
and that's not a given to be able to do
it just like in 2011 it wasn't a given
to be able to do it as a web two company
and so that part of our business is very
much kind of a perfect metaphor analog
to what strip was doing in 2011 that it
needs to do today for crypto businesses
we also have a part of the business that
is um the on-ramp and the on-ramp is
much more focused on deeply crypto
native or organizations so if your
business itself probably runs on a smart
contract you know is utilizing some new
capability of blockchain to enable uh
new use cases for your consumers the
on-ramp kind of bridges that Gap so that
users who come to you and are interested
in participating in your smart contract
or otherwise can jump from the world
they're accustomed to which is Fiat over
to this world that is crypto and the
onramp is is multi-coin multi Network so
depending on what you're doing if it's
if it's Bitcoin ethereum you know a
layer two all of those are enabled um
and then the third which is is sort of
future looking and has to do with the
stable coin space is a global crypto
payouts product which is if you're
participating in stripe connect and
you're running a Marketplace or
something similar um your recipients of
payouts should have that choice to be
paid out in this new stable coin system
as opposed to having to be paid out in
their local currency so it's just like a
long way of saying like we participate
in all of these areas and we try to be
agnostic
to kind of the specific products being
built on the technology while
recognizing sort of The Upside so our
remit shifts over time in terms of like
what the products support and who the
products are supporting but the
underlying uh goal of the organization
here which is to kind of enable
companies that are participating in this
new economy doesn't change so what's
interesting about these Technologies is
there's a lot of promises some of them
seem to be coming to fruition some of
them not so much um and if I had to
characterize them maybe there's like a
store value type AR argument uh for a
Bitcoin or or some of these assets
there's definitely a medium of exchange
and if you kind of extend that out into
applications there's like remittances
there is you know a reduction of fees
there maybe even is a increase in speed
um kind of along that side and then
there is like pricing or unit of account
and so talk maybe a little bit store
value is pretty self-explanatory I don't
know if you've got anything to add there
but when it comes to medium of exchange
like what are you all seeing in terms of
what the technolog is allowing you to do
that maybe you otherwise could putting
are you doing you know like instant
payouts are you doing you know yeah hey
we can lower our fee because now our our
cost structure is different or something
and then also unit of account like
should we expect stripe to eventually
offer uh you can price things in Bitcoin
or or your favorite asset rather than
just Fiat
currencies yeah I think across all of
those things it's really the enablement
of global Commerce that's the most
interesting and that kind of speaks to
the medium of exchange when you look at
you know Global Commerce today you know
within the United States especially we
have this sort of um privileged position
right of feeling like our interactions
are all already instant right we we
swipe a credit card we tap a credit card
we type in a credit card um you know we
have this kind of instant feeling of of
completing the transaction um there's an
entire world out there that does not
have that especially when dealing with a
crossb type transaction and so the
payouts product sort of speaks to this
which is we should see advantages here
across all of those different dimensions
that you listed so we should see faster
settlement times and we do see faster
settlement times we should see lower
fees and more importantly I think
actually than both of those is we should
see kind of this payment inclusivity for
these like longtail countries and
longtail currencies and um individuals
that are Global operators uh to be able
to be paid out in global type currencies
as opposed to local currencies and that
gives them more autonomy in terms of how
they want to manage their personal
finances and then how they can reinter
with that global economy and I think we
think about this a little bit as a
flywheel right so it's it's it's about
receiving those stable coins then being
able to you know ultimately do things
with them conceivably the reason you
want them might be for that stored value
reason you might have you know a local
currency that's that's volatile and so
you'd rather hold something that feels a
little bit more stable right but it
could also be for for further Commerce
or for further um you know smart chain
interaction with other web three
organizations and in that world where
you're not actually having to
consistently onramp and off-ramp right
you really start to see those upsides
right those upsides of time to
settlement of uh you know transaction um
cost and speed and all of those things
and we're seeing that in the networks as
well right the better networks are
coming out the faster networks that
we're able to push these stable coins
over so I think again it's it's kind of
all of them but sort of in the order of
like medium of of exchange followed by
stored balance like in my mind at least
now let's say that uh the technology
continues to be improved uh both
internally and externally how do you all
look at your role in kind of the
contribution to the ecosystem and
sometimes uh I I you know feel like the
crypto industry does a fantastic job of
understanding free market principles and
incentives and and really kind of
applying those and and showing this is
how that can work and then other times
we're horrible at it and we take like
this like moral High ground or we're
like theoretically this is how it should
work we try to kind of build things to
to that so how do you all think like
you're a for-profit business uh you are
technologist you're you're building
products for consumers uh and customers
but also then there's like kind of Open
Source there is uh these products that
you may contribute to but other people
can then use and so just talk a little
bit as to like your role in the
ecosystem specifically around building
products and how much of it is like
building on top of things that are being
built by the community versus you all
are trying to create things internally
and then like push them out to the
community yeah when I think about our
positioning in the market in general I I
think about stripe as the honest broker
you know within crypto um I I don't I
don't really see us as an evangelist you
know our our role here is to ser Ser
those people who are building inside of
this economy already and to serve them
in a way that's durable trustworthy
developer friendly and high confidence
that's that's that's first and foremost
the role of stripe across I think web 2
as well but then extending that out to
web 3 developers and so this is kind of
maps back to this this same question
again around you know this world is
changing rapidly it's been changing
since you know 2008 or so when when when
this all began um and I don't think
strip's role has changed I just think
we've evolved evolved a little bit from
recognizing from from sort of taking a
singular position of okay this is this
is all about just payments right into a
more expanded position of we need to
lift this uh industry wherever we can
because being a financial medium there
are more and more sort of touch points
that the founders and creators who are
beginning to exploit New Opportunities
right need to be able to interact with
it's not just the payments layer right
it might be the on-ramp layer it might
be the payouts layer um and frankly
stripe is just a more mature business
today as well you know I was um I was in
y combinator in in 2011 I actually have
one of the first couple hundred uh
stripe accounts ever issued and just
before this I I was digging up like the
original email that I got from John
Collison you know inviting me to join
stripe and it's just such an honest
statement of what stripe was trying to
do you know it was saying like this is a
simple easy to use developer focused way
to take credit cards and and it's such a
simple statement right but it's really
has these these powerful impacts to all
of these little startups that the time
that we're just trying to participate in
Commerce and I think the role is the
same I think the role today is similar
and we will continue to build out the
products that enable these organizations
to grow so that they can have a
continually improving Merchant and
consumer experience and that's that's
ultimately our job we talk a lot about
you know where is crypto today right and
we say it's the dialup age right and
that's an easy way I think for a lot of
people to say it's the beginning but if
you look at the history of the internet
right like the first arpanet contracts
were in 1969 right like dialup was
pretty far in right we were we were we
were a long way we were past TCP IP we
were past like packet design we were
like into worldwide web by then and so I
think it's kind of a cool phrasing if
you think about it that way is we're
just in that era where the translation
layer between web two and web 3 is still
difficult right you're still telling
your mom to hang up the phone before you
hit the dial button right we're we're
there and so strip's role is to hold
that torch High make it as easy as
possible to to participate in this
economy help the consumers get on board
to enable the merchants and then grow
with the merchants which I think is when
we start talking about things like
stable coins and Global commerce grow
with them as they start to kind of reach
their second order and third order uh
goals it's funny that you mentioned the
like hang up the phone because I need to
use the internet uh I recently was
talking with someone and uh uh somebody
we work with is I think 21 or 22 years
old and this came up and he said wait
what and I had to explain to him the
like AOL you know a you're trying to do
something but the phone and your parents
are telling to get off and he was
shocked he was like wait that really was
a thing and I was like everybody over
the age of I don't know maybe 30 35
years old like that is a shared
experience that we all had as the
internet rolled out and I do wonder what
are the shared experiences that we will
all talk about you know 20 years from
now when it came to these Technologies
and the uiux seems horrendous uh but
stripe is historically known for making
beautiful things you see this in you
know the the kind of core product you
see this in things like stripe press and
and just many of the things that I think
the company is known for and so how do
you all think about that where like the
technology seems to work and there's
this like underbelly of the mechanics
are there but the uiux may not be that
great and so is that something that you
all can kind of reskin for the stripe
experience or are you kind of stuck with
hey whatever the the community has done
so far we got to kind of take it in the
form that it is for sure so so so first
of all just just on that like General
topic like I think you we went through
this with the iPhone too right like skew
morphism is this like really important
thing that you have to have but you only
need it until the folks who grew up
natively around the thing have grown up
and suddenly the skorm kind of falls
apart right you don't need like a disc
anymore to click the save button and I
do I do I do think crypto will go
through the same thing like today we
have to talk about it in sort of these
like old-fashioned terms almost to help
make crypto clear to people but in the
future it you know it'll just be you
know an infrastructure layer um on on
the other question though around like
uiux like one of the advantages of
stripe being a little bit more mature
when we're coming into this space is
it's not just the one product anymore
like the collection of stripe products
actually give us the ability to make
uiux more improved so um stripe has a
has a product called link right which is
basically a system for uh making
payments more efficient if you've
interacted with stripe before so if
you've come in and you've bought
something from a stripe Merchant web to
you know maybe you bought a t-shirt
somewhere and you saved your credit card
and you saved your profile information
and then one day go to a merchant in web
3 and you hit the stripe onramp we're
going to remember you and we're going to
say oh hi John it's you again great we
remember you like we've already got your
credit card don't worry you don't need
to type it in again like let's just
verify who you are and let's get you
into crypto and it helps like lower this
barrier right in instead of every part
of the crypto experience feeling like
you're having to interact with new
vendors and new companies and
potentially people you've never heard of
you get this one probably the most
frightening part right for for a
consumer which is the moment where
you're interacting with the Fiat world
and translating it over to the crypto
world and you get this familiarity that
comes through in the link integration um
and then you know behind the scenes
there's there's sort of stripe enabled
kyc and radar and and other really like
powerful fraud tools but I think that's
really important right it's really
important to show up somewhere and see
that familiarity even if the experience
you're going through is new and novel um
and so I that's that's kind of one of
the core things we have to lean on the
other side of of course is that stripe
just has it deeply in its culture to
build very strong and very successful um
ux experiences you know I think back in
I referenced 2011 all the time but back
when we were first using 2011 uh in my
startup with stripe what was amazing was
it felt consumer grade you know as a as
a as a business user so you would log in
and this this dashboard didn't feel like
you were logging into a program right it
felt like you were logging into a
consumer program it was all very clean
very welld designed very well built the
documentation was really clear um and I
think like carrying that over to
developers is just as important as
carrying it over to Consumers so while
consumers get this kind of improved
experience with familiarity through
Integrations with things like link the
developers also get that they also get
like this very clear experience where
they can then deliver to Consumers kind
of the highest quality experience where
they can make sure that things like
fraud rates are low and and acceptance
rates are high right which is part of
what makes something feel good like you
have to think you know ux versus UI
right the entirety of that user
experience needs to feel clean and
comfortable um you know efficient
durable and trustworthy and so all of
those kind of come together and we can
take those learnings from you know a
decade plus of doing this in web 2 and
translate them very directly and I think
that comes through on the onramp if you
look at things like acceptance rates you
know in in the market and it certainly
comes through for things like crypto
payouts where you know you're
interacting with connect and you just
have a new payout method um all of those
things should be like like the core like
high quality stripe experience so one of
the ideas I'm probably most excited
about is the convergence of a lot of
these Technologies and obviously there's
a ton of excitement right now for
artificial intelligence even Robotics
and and machines but I kind of think of
it all as it's like automation right
like we're just moving more towards this
like automated Society regardless of the
underlying Technologies and so uh in
that form uh it's very hard for
quotequote machines whether it's actual
software or machines to conduct
transactions with money that takes one
or two days to settle
and so one of the promises of stable
coins as an example is that you can have
very quick efficient and lowcost
transactions and so now there are things
like streaming payments we've seen
people do this with Bitcoin we've seen
them do it with stable coins um but it
almost feels like that is where the
market is really going to pull these
Technologies into uh existence outside
of just the insular crypto Community are
you all seeing that and how do you think
about you know uh places where maybe you
want to provide services to stripe
customers but the Legacy Financial
system not Stripes products but the
Legacy Financial system limit your
ability to do that and so you you guys
are forced to use the new technologies
really as a way to serve your customer
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think there's there's like two Trends
there and and AI you know fits into one
of them and maybe both over the long
term right Trend number one is kind of
the increase in global Commerce versus
domestic Commerce and sort of the
opportunities that that arrive there
with a more efficient transaction layer
and I think in the in the AI space you
sort of have this this this other side
which is what you're talking about a
little bit which is how do you map these
transactions into code in such a way
where they're fully settled right and
and and in the case where like
irreversibility of crypto actually
becomes an advantage
um I think there's another angle on that
AI piece which is that you know how do
you make finance and transactions native
to the code that's being written right I
mean there's there's an HTTP code out
there right code 402 which is payment
required which is not used anywhere on
the internet but is like sort of s
should be this core basic capability I
think of the internet and I you know
when we one of one of the examples I
didn't get a chance to give but but is
probably relevant here is you look at
our Integrations with things like like
ramp and two of the things we try to do
there are increase availability right so
availability in in more difficult
regulatory environments like New York um
but also decrease uh minimums so
decrease kind of that lower limit and
when you think about something like AI
right you're probably starting to think
a lot about microtransactions right like
smaller and smaller transactions
happening faster and faster and
happening like in very very tiny tiny
ways like maybe we're even looking at
like token level right like cost
transactions um and cryp currency
especially stable coins feel like
they're very well suited to this problem
but only right only if you can also
handle like small and minimum level Fiat
transactions into it so that the barrier
for someone to participate is low enough
right if if our barrier to interact with
you know anything in the
microtransaction world is like hundreds
of dollars like that's the minimum to go
on on-ramp as a user and then have an AI
agent take over it's too high but I
think if we can keep pushing that down I
think there's there's huge opportunities
um and then if we think about kind of
the global environment uh you know we
look a little bit more I think in that
world at speed um of transaction and
settlement uh in that it's reasonably
unacceptable when you're trying to
operate in an automated fashion as an AI
or otherwise to have a multi-day
settlement period um and it's really
funny because inside of crypto right we
sort of hem and haw about minutes versus
versus like 10 minutes versus hours and
we say oh this this chain is no good it
takes hours right and then on the other
side of the fence you have this you know
entire Global world that operates on on
the order of days um and and and that
translation layer there I think is
something we have to lean really deeply
into right and I think if you enable
both of those and you think that
ultimately you know they come together
you know in terms of like AI automated
payments microtransactions and Global
Commerce the the sort of imagination
that creators in this space who are
building towards it have I think is is
beyond something that I can personally
imagine but is definitely something that
I want to enable and we understand those
Primitives right of speed cost
availability as being the things that we
need to succeed in as a company like St
so when I think about uh maybe where we
are today and and measuring uh the
current uh usage of these Technologies
on one hand it's like total amount of
transactions in the world uh Visa does
15 trillion stable coins all combined
did 15 trillion but still the like
non-stable coin transaction volume is
off the charts compared to stable coins
my expectation would be that will over
time become a much bigger number
aggregate but also percentage wise uh I
would love to hear kind of how you all
think about that and if that's changing
anything internally but also I think
maybe a a onea to that analysis is right
now Fiat currencies are like
99.9% of all transactions globally and
quotequote digital currencies or like
native digital currencies like a Bitcoin
are you know not even really registering
yet um I think that that number also as
a percentage and aggregate will get
bigger over time as well and so how do
you think about you know stable coins
which are just like a different form
factor for the Fiat currencies but then
also like these digital native
currencies that have nothing to do with
the Fiat currencies is it just up and to
the right in terms of adoption and usage
for both of those and is that changing
anything internally for you guys I think
it is up and to the right but I actually
think the depth of those charts is what
gets more interesting so there was a
report released pretty recently on sort
of the Relentless rise of stable coins
that had a bunch of different charts
inside of it showing kind of the
breakdown of like what stable coins were
being used where they were being
distributed to um and and there was a
subchart inside of there that actually
didn't get that much attention but I
thought was probably the most
interesting chart that broke down kind
of um the value of the transactions
happening so each section right let's
say like transactions happening at over
$100 in the transaction you know over $
thousand dollar and there's there's this
shift that's happening which is two or
three years ago the number of
transactions happening between like one
and $25 was was you couldn't even see it
right it was like this tiny little line
right but over the last year or so it
started to kind of expand it started to
grow and that layer like that layer
looks like consumer activity right that
layer looks like you know walking
somewhere and and buying something for
$10 buying something for $12 you know
buying maybe a SAS service buying a you
know a cup of coffee right and that
piece of the chart is growing and I
think like I think those are the types
of early signals really excit
when we sort of look at them as an
organization trying to enable Commerce
because if all that it is is block
trades right if all that it is is moving
you know a million dollars this way or
tens of millions of dollars that way um
I think that's pretty interesting but I
don't know that that actually like
impacts kind of the the consumer level
of gr Global Commerce in in a way that's
exciting you know for for a company like
strike to enable but as we see that
start to expand and we see like what
looks more like Merchant consumer type
Commerce and we start to see you know
individual countries beginning to adopt
these things almost domestically in
really interesting ways like um you know
like in in India and in like Nigeria
where we're just seeing like stable coin
usage becoming almost native to the uh
to the geography um I think those two
things combined lets you kind of pull
out a little bit and say all right this
trend isn't just your reflection of
what's already been happening right this
is actually new information new types of
Commerce new types of transactions that
are happening and that actually implies
that sort of the future there of global
Commerce is potentially tied into more
consumer to Consumer consumer to
Merchant type transactions and if that's
the case right that's payments right
that's payouts that's like on ramping
and smart contract uh conversion with
average individuals and I think like
that's the piece of the chart that
excites me the most when I look at it um
despite the fact that certainly you know
the up and to the right macr chart is
exciting dayto day but I think it's
important that that kind of consumer use
case continues to grow in order to kind
of justify the continued um investment
in this space by the most creative and
interesting startups who ultimately are
the people that we want to enable with
stripe crypto products so what's
interesting to me is like crypto at
stripe almost feels like uh uh the
executive team saying like hey let's
make sure we don't get disrupted by this
thing and like let's play a part in the
future of this because this technology
that we think it's valuable and we could
use to help service our customers how do
you think about what could disrupt
whether it's crypto at stripee or stripe
in general like are there certain things
in the market where you're like wow if
we don't Embrace these things like they
100% could disrupt stripe yeah I mean I
think we could see sudden shifts in the
market um you know step functions in in
in in sort of adoption that could cause
us to kind of change our paths very
quickly if we needed to right and I and
I think like stable coins are actually a
great example of this right I mean this
is stable coins are new it's not that
they're A New Concept but it's new that
they're starting to kind of gain
consumer and Merchant use in a way that
it's like exciting and interesting for
us to build against and and and sort of
payout starts to capture that right um
and I think like those types of
changes are things that we have to keep
our ears very perked about and that we
have to stay very deep in the community
to monitor I don't you know I sort of
reject the general statement that you
know we we we build the crypto team as
like a protection against disruption
right I think cryp currencies are
disruptive against like Global Financial
markets in positive ways and I think
stripe is a service provider within the
Global Financial Market benefits from
disruption of any sort because it gives
us new opportunities to build so I I I
very rarely sort of you know sit up in
bed and worry about you know the next
big thing that's coming that's going to
take us out right I think a lot more
about what is the like practical
activity that's happening in the world
that isn't maybe as enabled as we'd like
it to be and I think um I think that
really does look more and more like you
know globalization Global access to
these things Global Commerce um and
increasingly you know in the stable coin
space when you see some of the other
payment providers you know the Visas the
MasterCards they're starting to play in
some of these spaces um and everyone's
taking a different approach is there
anything that you see across the board
everyone doing that you're like pretty
much at this point if you're a fintech
or maybe even a large Bank
there's like a consensus around this is
going to be a thing or something that
you're going to have to do and what is
interesting to me is like if you think
about social networks over the long run
uh many of them realize like hey we need
a Newsfeed like the newsfeed was this
like very Innovative thing although
today we're all like of course every you
know social network has this uh and then
it became widespread and it's unclear to
me yet if the market outside of crypto
has come to a consensus in terms of like
Services they offer or or specific
products that they're going to offer
outside of just like oh we're going to
let stable coins go across our system
right are there other things that you
see consensus being arrived at so
far I I see less consensus I see a lot
of speculation um you know I think I see
a lot of guessing one one of the areas I
think that's that's been out there for a
long time that just becomes more of a
point of conversation sort of across you
know the networks and and and folks like
stripe you know has to do with kind of
like wallets right and and the the
custody versus self- custody convers
which is um you know historically it was
it was extremely difficult to do kind of
self- custody in any sort of of Commerce
transaction that was happening digitally
um but now with with crypto it's it's
it's almost the default right if you
look at an integration with with with
like a wallet like metamask right where
where we have an on-ramp integration
right that's all self- custody um and I
think that that piece of it is pretty
important to keep an eye on and
understand as we go forward because an
understanding of like who ultimately is
going to be holding the coins and
issuing the transaction calls is pretty
critical to defining the followon steps
right okay then then like who is is is
the financial stack that it's processing
through right is it still credit card
networks that are involved or are we
doing direct peer-to peer um you know is
Stripes role shifting in those cases is
it having more to do with um you know
identity and radar and Link and memory
and and on- ramping you know or is it
actually having to do with like custody
transaction and I don't have perfect
answers to these things I actually think
that the questions are getting more
complicated they're primarily being
influenced by regulatory shifts um you
know which we need to operate really
successfully within
so sorry it's a bit of an anti like poor
answer to the question of like is there
consensus coming in on this I think I'm
seeing more self- custody these days and
I think that that's the trend that we're
moving towards and I think in a self-
custodi world everyone's relationship
with the the with the user shifts a
little bit in what is probably a
positive way but if you want to look at
kind of like where Ripple effects happen
right that affects everyone that affects
stripe that affects the uh the credit
card networks that affects the banks
right that has a really interesting
ripple effect so I think that's one of
the areas that's being watched the most
closely um both from a ux standpoint you
know what's the best way to do this from
a user experience is it better to hold
your own coins or is it better to have
someone else hold them and where does
that line get drawn and then separately
the regulatory uh question marks which
are does the way the product interacts
uh or sorry does the way that the
consumer with the merchant have to
significantly change depending on
whether or not it's a self- custody
solution and we have we're generally
shielded as consumers I think in the
Bitcoin world of that question
historically because we don't live in a
self- custody world when it comes to
digital Commerce today but I think that
is probably changing and as that changes
I think it's something that there will
be a lot of consistency around in terms
of being one of the more important
conversations to have or how do we all
enable that in the best way if we're not
actually maybe directly holding the
funds how do you think about um this
idea of like digitizing or tokenizing
assets that now can be spendable so you
know I can't spend my house right it's
uh uh I have ownership of it I can prove
that I have ownership but I can't like
fractionalize the home uh maybe I could
securitize it and yeah there's trading
of it and and things like that but in
this Digital World now all of a sudden
like you can pretty much have a digital
asset that could be a whole host of
different things that aren't just a true
currency and I can swap them and so it
kind of opens up what potentially is
like oh here we go like the crypto
people are going to be insane and create
you know like recreate all the problems
that the financial system already solved
you know uh many decades ago or oh here
come a bunch of new use cases that do
become pretty interesting and so have
you all explored that how have you
thought about there are transactions it
may not be with a currency it could be
with like a different type of asset in
this digital format and and does that
change anything about how you guys see
the future
evolving yeah we don't really
participate too much in that side of the
equation today um and I think I think
we're probably a little ways off from
where we would um I think there's
something really fascinating happening
there in terms of you know what is the
backing entity for the liquidity that
any individual has um you know we we we
look at a world of of things like
mortgages and otherwise where're we're
all sort of living under under this bit
of a shadow
right of a large purchase that we've
made and that's kind of we're powering
our day-to-day purchases on the backs of
that purchase because we're paying off a
large loan I think there's a lot of
really interesting depth there um it's
not really the role of stripe I think
today um you know we're kind of getting
a little bit deeper into like
traditional banking roles there um and I
and I I also think like the regulatory
environment there is probably incredibly
comp complicated um you know we see this
in sort of the the dawn of of Defi and
and and kind of a lot of the difficulty
that there is there in terms of can you
actually move this stuff on chain in a
way that is is reliable and trustworthy
is there an equivalent of of sort of the
Town Hall that holds all these records
and can issue out you know proof of
ownership accurately um you know and in
a safe and durable way so I I don't have
too much to say kind of into that into
that space I think I think it's pretty
fascinating I think it'll probably
change a lot about how people you know
think about their their personal you
know net worth and their sort of
day-to-day spending um but you know I
think I think stripe lives a little bit
not a different layer of the stack than
kind of that that piece of interaction
at least on the crypto side Stripes uh
notorious for their mission being to
increase the GDP of the internet um how
much of the future of success of that
mission can crypto really help right and
I think there's a whole bunch of
different ways but is this something
where you all look at it as uh we will
not be successful without crypto is it
something where we will be successful
with or without crypto but crypto helps
us get there faster like how do you kind
of characterize crypto's participation
in this you know commendable mission
that you guys are taking
on yeah I I I often think about about
this mission statement you know sort of
in the in the terms of the internet is
vast right you know it's it's such a
it's such a a a great vision and it's in
its scale um in that you you really have
to look for Technologies like
cryptocurrencies I think to achieve that
scale of success um and it's possible
it'll be something else right it's
possible that that this crypto thing
won't pan out you know regulatory
environments will get you know too too
messy you know some some Grand solution
to Fiat shows up overnight um and that
becomes the easier path but if I'm if
I'm looking at it practically today I
think it's that crypto is probably one
of the most powerful tools we can put in
our belt to actually impact the wide
internet not just the narrow internet
right we think about the internet we can
think about you know when I say the
internet today talk about sort of
generation right if you're if you're
like 40 or over you probably have a very
different like mental model of the
internet than you know if you're if
you're maybe in your teens today you
might be thinking about five six
websites or apps you know versus you
know hundreds and and millions but one
of the great views we get into the
internet you know being a a processor
like stripe is we can actually see that
vastness right sort of that depth and
all of these like longtail tiny
Merchants that are just starting you
know that are transacting with small
communities that they have access to and
I think more of that right I think like
the the a little bit of the tail wags
the dog here right the longer that tail
stretches out the more interesting it
becomes and I think crypto becomes the
tool that really enables
that uh those parts of the internet to
succeed and so I think it is I think
it's native to the mission I think is is
sort of what I'm getting at I don't I
don't I don't think I would I would be
so bold as to say stripe doesn't work
without crypto I don't think we're
nearly far enough along in the pathway
but I think that there is potentially a
future where that's the case where where
can we send people to find out more
about crypto at stripe uh if they want
to apply for a job I'm assuming you guys
are always looking to hire great people
um and if they want to potentially
become a user of various products where
would you send them yes so you can
always hit stripe.com which is sort of
the like core uh core center point of
everything that stripe does there's a
link to the jobs page in there actually
if you just use search and search for
crypto you'll find all the different
documentations on crypto and the
different products that we have um
there's a lot of depth there I'd
encourage you know any developer who's
interacting with stripe to interact with
stripe crypto the same way that they
would um and through there there's an
interest Forum inside of the stripe
crypto page itself um that actually lets
you request access to specific products
that are either in beta uh or give you
instructions to come on board
immediately awesome John I appreciate it
very much it was great talking with you
uh I learned a lot and I think that
having a company like stripe put so much
time energy and frankly enthusiasm into
this speaks one to the progress and and
kind of technical you know ability of
the crypto community and what what's
been built so far but also two is uh the
accelerant that a company like you all
can put onto it uh is exciting and I
think that it's kind of a one plus one
equals more than two scenarios so uh
thank you for all the hard work and I
hope to do this again in the future as
you guys continue to make more progress
great thank you
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