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How cryptocurrencies can succeed
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Greg Brockman
July 10, 2014
Technology
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How cryptocurrencies can succeed
Greg Brockman
July 10, 2014
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Transcript
How cryptocurrencies can succeed Greg Brockman Stripe CTO // @thegdb
The three functions of money… • Store of value (place
to hold savings)! • Unit of account (stable increment for records)! • Medium of exchange (way to transport value)
Bitcoin has promise as a currency in high-inflation economies, but
it’s a tough sell for most consumers today
The three functions of money… • Store of value (place
to hold savings) • Unit of account (stable increment for records) • Medium of exchange (way to transport value)
It’s surprisingly difficult to transport value • The experience of
paying online hasn’t changed much in the past 20 years • International payments are very high friction
Cryptocurrencies are uniquely situated to solve these problems
Start with building gateways which allow consumers to keep thinking
in local currency CAD <-> BTC Consumer Bitcoin network
How a gateway works • Consumer has an account with
the gateway, likely tied to their bank account • Consumer specifies all actions in fiat currencies
The world’s financial systems are largely isolated today.
None
Building a gateway • Gateway complies with local regulations (e.g.
identity verification) • Gateway doesn’t need any cross-border relationships
Given a global network of gateways, build a great payment
experience cad-gateway.com/alice
Bitcoin would be the IP layer of payments stripe.com <>
cad-gateway.com/alice ! 50.18.187.106 <> 1PCa6dEQFEy…
Not the first global network
Not the first global network
Not the first global network
How does this compare to Visa? [x] Network for initiating
transactions and moving funds [ ] Consumer trust and protection (chargebacks, stolen cards) [ ] Setting rules and regulations, ejecting bad actors
Unless we solve decentralized reputation, we’ll see the emergence of
a few centralized consumer trust providers
Starting to see consumer protection emerge in the form of
escrow ! ! ! ! ! ! However, escrow is unlikely to be the long-term solution
Instead, we’ll see “consumer trust” providers emerge, gaining traction by
boosting purchases + = ??
cad-gateway.com/alice The consumer trust providers will mediate chargebacks for purchases
under their aegis Purchase protected with ??
Because these consumer trust providers will have such strong brands,
gateways will want to co-brand with them
The trust providers will need to set and enforce rules
for merchants and gateways to work with them
So… what did we gain? • A technologically-open ecosystem •
A decomposition of the existing layers into independent companies • A truly global network for both P2P and consumer-merchant transactions
Open question: how do we bootstrap the gateway ecosystem?
Greg Brockman Stripe CTO // @thegdb