crypto

How to bootstrap crypto as a consumer-friendly payment method

When I joined Coinbase in 2014, my first job was trying to get merchants to accept Bitcoin payments. (I worked with @nick on this.)

Bitcoin as a consumer payment method didn't work out for a few reasons:

1. Clunky UX — after scanning a QR code, you had to send the exact amount of Bitcoin from your wallet; prices could also fluctuate during the checkout flow

2. Small user base — population of people with a bitcoin wallet was probably closer to 10M in 2014.

3. Lack of incentives — no incentive for consumers to overcome the clunky UX. Further, credit and even some debit cards offered cash back and points.

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Fast forward 10 years, consumer adoption of crypto payments is still low. However, we have the possibility of significantly improved UX thanks to faster, cheaper and smarter blockchains, stablecoins, and at least 100M consumers with a fiat-connected crypto account.

What remains is the lack of incentives.

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BitPay had the best UX for merchant BTC adoption at the time. The QR code would suggest the exact amount needed for the tx, so it was pretty easy to use ... At least until network fees exploded and nobody could agree on how to scale BTC. That's what really killed BTC as an alternate payment method