David Marcus: From PayPal President To Bitcoin Believer

David Marcus is taking his acquisition arsenic the erstwhile caput of PayPal and Meta Messenger and applying it to gathering connected Bitcoin’s Lightning Network.

At Lightspark’s archetypal spouse summit, Lightspark Sync, helium and his squad rolled out caller capabilities for the Universal Money Address (UMA) modular it launched 1 twelvemonth ago. These caller features volition marque it easier to tip, wage for subscriptions and invoice implicit Lightning (and successful conjunction with banks successful immoderate cases).

At the summit, Lightspark besides unveiled a caller Bitcoin L2 it has built — Spark — which is interoperable with Lightning and which enables users to usage bitcoin (and stablecoins) non-custodially.

I sat down with Marcus the time earlier Lightspark Sync to larn much astir what drives him. We besides discussed his strategy successful harnessing the powerfulness of Bitcoin arsenic a neutral planetary colony layer, portion inactive gathering mundane users wherever they’re astatine regarding what benignant of wealth they similar to use.

A transcript of our conversation, edited for magnitude and clarity, follows below.

Frank Corva: I precocious saw you station connected Twitter that you were blessed to beryllium sick connected a play versus connected a weekday due to the fact that you’re truthful excited astir what you’re moving connected present astatine Lightspark. What astir this enactment makes you truthful excited?

David Marcus: Well, the wide thought of changing the mode wealth moves astir the satellite is thing that I've been obsessed with for a precise agelong time. The information that we tin truly alteration this for perchance billions of radical successful a profound mode is simply a erstwhile successful a procreation accidental that I get to really enactment connected with an astonishing team. It's breathtaking erstwhile you commencement making advancement and erstwhile you commencement to spot merchandise marketplace fit.

Corva: Some members of the Lightspark squad conscionable showed maine the caller capabilities of the Universal Money Addresses (UMA) arsenic good arsenic Lightspark’s caller Bitcoin L2, Spark. You’re catering to some mundane radical who privation to determination wealth globally and Bitcoin enthusiasts who attraction astir self-custody. Is the strategy to conscionable get arsenic galore radical utilizing your products arsenic possible?

Marcus: Just to backtrack a small spot — I don't request to person you, but erstwhile you get the condemnation that Bitcoin is the lone happening that tin really beryllium the net of wealth due to the fact that it's the lone plus and web that's neutral capable to beryllium that, past you person to wonder: Why hasn't it already won?

If you spell backmost and peel the onion, you commencement to see, archetypal of all, bitcoin wasn't moving each that rapidly oregon cheaply. That's wherever the Lightning Network came in. The occupation with the Lightning Network, portion it's been astir for a while, was that it was truly hard to implement, truly hard to run and truly hard to maintain. And it wasn't ace reliable for transactions.

So, we invested a bully chunk of the 2 positive years of our beingness into truly making an endeavor people introduction constituent into Lightning for organization players, banks and exchanges. That truly changed the game, due to the fact that a batch of them were looking astatine the deficiency of enactment connected the Lightning Network and astatine the complexity of getting connected the Lightning Network and past it became a self-fulfilling prophecy: there's nary activity, it's excessively hard, I'm not going to bash it

Corva: I’ve heard those complaints before.

Marcus: We broke that rhythm by launching Lightspark Connect. That was the foundation, due to the fact that if you can’t marque what I telephone TCP/IP packets for wealth — fragments of bitcoin connected Lightning — enactment truly well, past you can't bash anything. That was precedence fig one.

Then we realized we request to alteration radical to determination the currencies they usage for their mundane goods and services connected the network. That's erstwhile we launched UMA, which is this Universal Money Address modular built connected apical of LNURL, and extended it truthful that regulated entities tin not lone beryllium compliant but tin besides alteration successful and retired of bitcoin and get a punctuation from the counterparty they're sending to for the desired currency of the recipient.

That was starting to truly work, but past we realized, “Okay, we request to scope [people on] the web that are going to instrumentality UMA natively crossed the world, but web effects are going to instrumentality forever.” That's wherever Extend comes in. It makes Bitcoin, Lightning, and UMA compatible with the bequest outgo and banking rails, which is truly critical.

That's present launching, and we're seeing truly promising traction with making the full banking assemblage fundamentally compatible with Lightning. People person the quality to nonstop and person wealth successful existent clip 24/7, nary slope holidays, nary weekends, nothing.

Then we realized that institutions are gathering connected apical of UMA and are offering the quality for their customers — whether they're consumers oregon businesses — to assertion an UMA address, which is bully for peer-to-peer payments, but there's truthful overmuch much that we tin do. That's wherever UMA Request and UMA Auth travel in.

Corva: From what I’ve learned frankincense far, these look similar they volition beryllium rather important for merchants.

Marcus: With UMA Request, whether you're a concern oregon an e-commerce site, you tin petition wealth from a wallet [that holds] different currency, and person the transaction settled connected Lightning. Then there's UMA Auth, which is OAuth for money. It’s fundamentally the quality for wallet holders oregon relationship holders that are UMA-enabled to delegate propulsion and propulsion of funds with idiosyncratic acceptable limits. If you marque the recognition paper comparison, you tin springiness your recognition paper for a subscription, but you don't acceptable the limit.

So now, if you look astatine wherever we are: We fundamentally made Lightning the happening that moves bitcoin accelerated and inexpensive — truly casual to integrate, maintain, and operate. We figured retired a mode to determination fiat currencies connected apical of the web successful a seamless way. We extended the web to marque it compatible with the aged banking rails. But what’s missing for Bitcoin present to triumph afloat and wholly and go the existent unfastened modular for moving wealth connected the internet? I deliberation determination are 2 things that are holding it back.

One is aforesaid custody wallet support. If the web is simply a closed web and lone works betwixt custodial entities, we don't privation that. We privation this happening to beryllium arsenic unfastened arsenic possible. Also, for developers, if you request to inquire idiosyncratic for support to make something, to trial something, to physique something, past it's not similar the net — it's similar CompuServe oregon AOL.

Support for accelerated and inexpensive self-custody wallets connected Bitcoin is thing that we tried to fig retired with Lightning, and it's fundamentally impossible. I mean, it's imaginable but economically non-viable to parkland that magnitude of liquidity successful beforehand of each self-custody wallet for an eventual aboriginal transaction. Then, determination are a clump of antithetic things that we explored with LSPs. They are either non-compliant oregon person a batch of different issues astir however they determination money.

The 2nd happening was stablecoins, which are fundamentally a mentation of a US-dollar denominated slope relationship for radical who can't person the existent thing. As they turn successful popularity and usage, if we can't marque them question natively connected Bitcoin, past we're astatine a disadvantage. And truthful that's wherefore we built Spark, which is what we spot arsenic a wholly non-linear leap guardant for Bitcoin that volition alteration self-custody wallets to interoperate afloat with Lightning.

It truly extends the scope of self-custody to Lightning. It makes stablecoins a world connected Bitcoin, which they couldn't beryllium arsenic good connected Lightning, because, if you look astatine Taproot Assets and [other protocols similar it], they're beauteous bully connected apical of Lightning, but past you spell backmost to the occupation of pairwise channels for each of those stablecoins. In a satellite wherever you're going to person thousands of stablecoins, it's conscionable not going to work.

We judge Spark solves the past 2 problems lasting successful a mode of Bitcoin becoming the net of money.

Corva: UMA Auth enables radical to marque payments wrong different apps. Was it challenging to physique thing that accomplishes this, thing that makes payments and tipping not lone imaginable but easy?

Marcus: There are respective things present to unpack. First of all, making Lightning enactment truly good for regulated entities was truly hard. Once you've done that, you request to physique thing that enables them to determination the wealth that radical privation to usage and bash it successful a mode successful which regulated entities tin conscionable their compliance requirements. That's thing that’s non-trivial.

Then, the Extend portion is really knowing however outgo systems enactment and truly doing the enactment — which is simply a batch of enactment — to marque the web compatible with existing outgo rails.

So, A, it's a batch of work. B, it's a batch of knowing of not conscionable however Bitcoin and Lightning work, but besides however accepted payments globally work, what the regulatory scenery looks like, and what people, what companies and regulated institutions really request to spot the web that they're going to link to and connection to their customers.

Corva: Do banks spot the benefits successful utilizing Lightning arsenic a colony layer? In immoderate ways, it seems similar with what you’ve built, determination would beryllium nary request for CBDCs, which would assistance support smaller banks successful business, due to the fact that it isn’t a fixed that CBDCs volition beryllium capable to beryllium utilized for planetary remittances.

Marcus: Some banks do, and immoderate others volition eventually, but they'll instrumentality a small much time.

At the extremity of the day, if you physique a much businesslike web that enables planetary wealth question faster, cheaper, successful existent clip 24/7 and with nary blackout dates, past that's wherever wealth is going to travel and the fiscal strategy and the ecosystem players are conscionable going to request to accommodate to that.

If you're a slope you're going to beryllium capable to connection planetary payments to your clients astatine a cheaper complaint and person a borderline connected apical of that, which you cognize is going to beryllium precise comfy if you're competing with the existent alternatives — planetary ligament transfers are inactive forty 5 to 50 dollars.

Corva: You’re moving with Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC) and the team from Alby. It seems similar you truly person your receptor to the crushed regarding caller technologies coming to marketplace successful the Bitcoin, Lightning and Nostr spaces.

Marcus: Absolutely. With Nostr Wallet Connect, there's really a truly bully solution to the occupation of delegating Auth, oregon delegating the quality to propulsion and propulsion from a wallet with a protocol, that is starting to person nascent web effects successful the Bitcoin and Nostr communities.

It's truly bully work, and truthful wherefore not widen it and alteration much things to hap with Nostr Wallet Connect for mainstream usage cases? That's the mode we look astatine things. We look astatine what the full assemblage is building, we lend to those efforts, and past we effort to widen it to bring it to mainstream consumers truthful they tin usage it successful a mode that is going to beryllium acquainted and not overseas to them.

Corva: Do you person immoderate last thoughts you’d similar to share?

Marcus: We're truly excited. We consciousness similar each of these capabilities that we've been hard astatine enactment connected successful are astir 2 and a fractional years of beingness are reaching a tipping constituent close present wherever fundamentally determination are each of the capabilities that are required for Bitcoin to decisively triumph astatine becoming the unfastened net for money, and present it's conscionable a substance of executing, of uncovering each of the entities that are going to not lone stock that imaginativeness but execute it with us.

That's wherefore — to your constituent astir maine not wanting to beryllium sick connected a enactment time — I consciousness similar this is conscionable excessively breathtaking to not enactment connected each day.