David Marcus, CEO of Lightspark and co-founder of PayPal, expressed his skepticism about Bitcoin’s potential as a popular or common payment method. During a recent interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Marcus said he believes that Bitcoin is not the currency that people will use to buy things in the future. While this may come as a surprise to some, given Marcus’s history working with payment platforms, he is betting on Lightning Network, a layer-2 scaling solution on top of Bitcoin.
The Lightning Network is focused on making Bitcoin transactions faster, cheaper, and more practical for small payments. It handles BTC transactions separately before later settling them on the main Bitcoin blockchain. Marcus sees the network as a “universal protocol for money on the internet,” similar to how texting is a universal protocol for communication. However, the currencies transferred over the network will still be fiat currencies, not Bitcoin.
Marcus explained that a fragment of a Bitcoin on top of lightning is like a small packet data packet on the internet for value. Users can send any currency they like and receive any money of their choice on the other side, but lightning is acting as the real-time, low-cost, and cash final settlement layer in between.
Marcus’s views are similar to those of Jack Mallers, CEO of Strike, whose company also leverages Lightning for cheaper global currency transfers. The wallet app now allows lightning-based remittances to 65 countries like Argentina, Nigeria, and Ghana, where users can receive transactions as local currency within their bank account.
Despite his doubts about Bitcoin’s potential as a payment method, Marcus believes in the potential of cryptocurrencies. He co-founded Meta’s now-defunct stablecoin wallet app, NOVI, and later launched Lightspark.
PayPal, which Marcus co-founded, now allows users to buy, sell, and hold crypto, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. The payment platform also announced its own stablecoin, PYUSD, last month, aiming to improve payments in Web3 and digitally native environments.
Fellow PayPal co-founder, Peter Thiel, also shares Marcus’ positive view of cryptocurrencies as an alternative to today’s “bankrupt” central banks and “fiat money regime.”
In conclusion, Marcus sees Bitcoin’s future in the Lightning Network, which he hopes will become a “universal protocol for money on the internet.”
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