In response to PayPal CEO Dan Schulman’s plans for a crypto “super app,” Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Bitfinex, said every bank and fintech is destined to become a blockchain-based business.
In an interview with Decrypt, Schulman revealed that PayPal's crypto unit is experimenting with smart contracts and testing Ethereum and other blockchains as potential candidates to help it improve payments and other transactions.
Mr. Ardoino said financial and technology incumbents such as PayPal will find themselves at a severe disadvantage when competing against natives from the blockchain ecosystem. “Iteration and development cycles are prolonged. And they don’t yet have the business lines or operational know-how to get involved properly,” Mr. Ardoino said.
Bitfinex Pay launched this week as a payment technology providing online merchants with a means of receiving contactless and borderless digital token payments. Whether you are a crypto savvy yoga instructor, hobbyist jewelry maker, or the owner of an e-commerce platform, Bitfinex Pay offers a means of seamlessly accepting crypto payments.
“Bitfinex has a heritage in the space dating back to the very inception of crypto. While other more corporate entities have adopted payment technology for digital tokens, such initiatives have to be seen in the context of their aspirations and plans in the mainstream of financial services,” added Mr. Ardoino.
“Meanwhile, Bitfinex has a track record of supporting genuine use cases and the use of crypto as a form of payment. We are a big supporter of the Lightning Network. Bitfinex processed 12,000 transactions on the Lightning Network in February. As a blockchain native company, the launch of Bitfinex Pay actually sheds light on where our industry is headed — and where traditional finance and fintech may encounter the greatest competition.”
