Jack Mallers, founder and CEO of payments application, Strike, believes Bitcoin can bring the first real change to the payments industry since the invention of the credit card.<\/p>\n
Trading just above $41,000 as of Tuesday afternoon, down about 2% over the past month, Bitcoin is used primarily as a store of value asset that critics and long-time investors agree trades like risk-on equity, making it much less useful as a medium of exchange than cash.<\/p>\n
But Mallers argues that Bitcoin\u2019s underlying network makes it the world\u2019s most efficient payments network if harnessed correctly. He contends that “using Bitcoin as a payments network is superior to card processing networks or bank networks or remittance networks like Western Union.”<\/p>\n
To reap the potential benefits, consumers and merchants don\u2019t even need to touch Bitcoin, he argues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a payments network that can move value anywhere in the world at no cost in real time and anyone can build on top of it. It’s more inclusive, more innovative. To the consumer who’s remitting money or buying Chipotle, they don\u2019t know Bitcoin is involved so whether you want to have a stablecoin, a Euro, Starbucks points, it’s the payment network that facilitates the settlement of value that\u2019s the disruptor here,\u201d Mallers told Yahoo Finance.<\/p>\n During his April keynote speech at the Bitcoin 2022 conference, Mallers announced a series of partnerships between Strike and big-name companies including Shopify, Blackhawk and the world\u2019s largest point-of-sale supplier, NCR. But the talk began with the history of the credit card industry.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a story as old as 1949,\u201d he told his audience as he strutted back and forth on the stage in a black baseball cap and hoodie. That year, Frank McNamara forgot his wallet while dining out in New York \u2014 sparking his idea for the Diner\u2019s Club card, which became the first multipurpose credit card.<\/p>\n Since then the industry \u201chas seen a lot of consumer innovation\u2026 but no one has helped the merchant,\u201d Mallers argued.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n