Onboarding the world to the Lightning Network with David Marcus 

In this episode, David Marcus, CEO and co-founder of Lightspark, discusses his journey from Facebook to bitcoin and the challenges of integrating Lightning at Coinbase. He explores the pace of bitcoin adoption, differentiates between custodial and non-custodial Lightning services, and addresses the market for goods transactable only over the Lightning network. The conversation also touches on the impact of AI on financial services, the future of Visa and Mastercard with bitcoin, and issues with taxes on smaller bitcoin payments.
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:35 Founded and exited multiple companies-why so much success?
00:02:50 Leaving Facebook to start Lightspark?
00:07:03 Telecom and paypal to bitcoin?
00:08:19 David’s first touchpoint with bitcoin
00:12:26 Adoption occurring faster or slower than you expected?
00:15:20 Implementing Lightning at Coinbase
00:17:50 What took Coinbase so long to implement Lightning?
00:20:30 Transaction fees on L1 and L2
00:23:05 Is Lightning broken?
00:25:55 Custodial Lightning vs non-custodial Lightning
00:33:40 Spending bitcoin vs Lightning as payment technology only
00:35:19 Concerns with stablecoins on Lightning?
00:36:50 Tether’s rapid growth
00:38:24 Goods and services only sold over the Lightning network?
00:40:17 Future of AI and AI agents
00:42:45 Wealth created from AI?
00:45:07 Lightspark, Visa, and Mastercard
00:47:09 Barriers to break into in person retail payments
00:49:50 Will Visa and Mastercard be forced to adopt bitcoin and Lightning?
00:50:40 Will taxes always be a hurdle for bitcoin payments?
00:51:25 Will the Visa and bank “3% payment fee” eventually go away?
00:52:39 What’s something you believe that most bitcoiners would disagree with?
00:54:44 What’s the biggest risk to bitcoin and Lightning?
00:56:46 Closing thoughts
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