As someone who closely follows the world of payment processing and cryptocurrencies, I’m thrilled to see Stripe’s latest announcement regarding stablecoin payments. Having witnessed the volatility and transaction issues with Bitcoin in the past, it’s refreshing to hear that Stripe is bringing back crypto but this time with a more stable and efficient solution through stablecoins.
Stripe’s co-founder and president, John Collison, have revealed that Stripe is reintroducing cryptocurrency payments through the use of stablecoins. This feature is scheduled to be released this summer.
I’ve noticed a shift in understanding when it comes to cryptocurrencies serving as a viable means of exchange. This was evident during Stripe’s developers conference in San Francisco on April 25, where Collison shared his insights. Since Stripe ended its Bitcoin (BTC) payment option back in 2018, transaction times have significantly improved and fees have become more reasonable. The emergence of stablecoins has also contributed to this trend by maintaining consistent value.
If I observe the current state of the cryptocurrency market post-2021 being referred to as a “crypto winter,” it seems that stablecoins have been overlooked in this assessment based on the chart depicting their value transfers.
“We’re bringing back crypto as a way to accept payments, but this time with a much better experience with stablecoins.”
Collision made his argument convincing by demonstrating a live transaction with USDC through Stripe on Solana, Ethereum, and Polygon blockchains.
Collison highlighted USDC’s stability, attributing it to its dollar peg which makes it an effective form of value storage. In his words, “The U.S. dollar’s stability is something we don’t have in the U.S., and this chart shows the usage of stablecoins compared to the trading volume of Turkish lira on crypto exchanges.”
Back in 2014, I observed that Stripe became the pioneering payment platform to incorporate Bitcoin into its system. However, if I may share my perspective from that period, Bitcoin was far from perfect as a payment method. As stated by Collison himself, he acknowledged this flaw and Bitcoin was eventually phased out from Stripe’s services four years later.
Although Stripe distanced itself from crypto to some extent, it didn’t completely abandon the field. In fact, Stripe was involved in Facebook’s problematic Libra initiative prior to withdrawing due to political pressure in the US. The company then started rebuilding its crypto engineering team in 2021.
X utilizes Stripe for handling payouts since 2022. In the same year, Stripe and X (previously Twitter), initiated a program enabling creators on their social media platform to receive USDC payments on Polygon. Later, they set up fiat-to-crypto entry points through APIs in collaboration with cryptocurrency exchanges.
The company initiated providing an on-ramp for US customers to convert fiat currency into cryptocurrencies. They assumed responsibility for the conversion process, as well as compliance tasks including KYC (Know Your Customer) and fraud prevention – similar to Venmo and Robinhood’s approaches.
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2024-04-25 23:53