Bitcoin And Nothing Else: Why Former PayPal, Meta Executive David Marcus Is Building On The Lightning Network

For nearly 25 years, virtually as long as online payments have been possible, David Marcus has been trying to figure out how to perfect them.

In the mid-90s he founded a telecom company that offered internet access along with telephone service. In 2000, he launched Echovox, which he spun out into Zong in 2008 a mobile platform that let users pay for things online directly through their mobile phone bills. When this venture was acquired by PayPal in 2011, Marcus joined the digital payments giant, becoming its president the next year.

Hed read the Bitcoin white paper shortly after it was published, but didnt fall into the rabbit hole at first, he recalled in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine. Then, in 2012, Argentina ordered PayPal to stop all transactions that would send money out of the country as it grappled with currency inflation and a fiscal austerity effort, and the real value of this peer-to-peer electronic cash system started to resonate with him.

We had to (comply), we were a regulated entity, Marcus explained. The day that happened,bitcoin priceswent up significantly and I was like, Whoa. Like, this is something where consumers in a place like Argentina are actually rushing into bitcoin as a way to move money that theyve earned its their money in a way that they saw fit. So, I felt that was a very eye-opening moment for me in terms of Bitcoin being an escape valve to certain behaviors that werent aligned with my views of self sovereignty, of money so that was kind of a turning point for me in 2013, where it really solidified my conviction.