Onboarding the world to the Lightning Network with David Marcus

The Bitcoin Frontier

In this episode, David Marcus, CEO and co-founder of Lightspark, discusses his journey from Facebook to bitcoin and the challenges of integrating Lightning at Coinbase. He explores the pace of bitcoin adoption, differentiates between custodial and non-custodial Lightning services, and addresses the market for goods transactable only over the Lightning network. The conversation also touches on the impact of AI on financial services, the future of Visa and Mastercard with bitcoin, and issues with taxes on smaller bitcoin payments.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:35 Founded and exited multiple companies—why so much success?

00:02:50 Leaving Facebook to start Lightspark?

00:07:03 Telecom and paypal to bitcoin?

00:08:19 David’s first touchpoint with bitcoin

00:12:26 Adoption occurring faster or slower than you expected?

00:15:20 Implementing Lightning at Coinbase

00:17:50 What took Coinbase so long to implement Lightning?

00:20:30 Transaction fees on L1 and L2

00:23:05 Is Lightning broken?

00:25:55 Custodial Lightning vs non-custodial Lightning

00:33:40 Spending bitcoin vs Lightning as payment technology only

00:35:19 Concerns with stablecoins on Lightning?

00:36:50 Tether’s rapid growth

00:38:24 Goods and services only sold over the Lightning network?

00:40:17 Future of AI and AI agents

00:42:45 Wealth created from AI?

00:45:07 Lightspark, Visa, and Mastercard

00:47:09 Barriers to break into in person retail payments

00:49:50 Will Visa and Mastercard be forced to adopt bitcoin and Lightning?

00:50:40 Will taxes always be a hurdle for bitcoin payments?

00:51:25 Will the Visa and bank “3% payment fee” eventually go away?

00:52:39 What’s something you believe that most bitcoiners would disagree with?

00:54:44 What’s the biggest risk to bitcoin and Lightning?

00:56:46 Closing thoughts

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