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In this episode of “Bitcoin Magazine Podcast,” hosts Alex McShane and Q interview Strike CEO Jack Mallers to discuss Bitcoin, life and legacies built on a sound money standard.
Building The Best Financial Experience
Jack Mallers speaks about taking lessons learned from the development of the internet to incorporate into the process of building out Strike. He wants to launch the app in as many countries as possible but also recognizes the challenge of a lack of merchants accepting bitcoin. Mallers hints at Strike becoming a partner with a major online e-commerce platform saying, “I think someone needs to become a Shopify partner, wink wink.” He goes on to say, “Someone needs to integrate the big coffee merchants of the world.” These may be indications for what’s in store for Strike in 2022.
Throughout the episode, Mallers repeatedly states his goal for customers to have the opportunity to choose the best experience, and an open network, such as Bitcoin, provides that ability.
The Game Theory Of Building A Bitcoin Company
Mallers believes that it’s one network, Bitcoin, that will defeat the financial system by competitive businesses making better products for the consumer. He says, “We are all peers on the same network.” He then compares Strike as a Bitcoin company to Google as an internet company because more companies built on the same network only increases the value of the entire network. If Google was the only search engine, it would be valuable, but because other companies also built on the internet, it made all internet companies worth more. The internet required many network participants to dematerialize radio, newspapers and so on,. but it was the building on top of one open system that made that dematerialization happen. Mallers thinks there’s plenty of room for everyone to win because Bitcoin is a collective network.
“I personally see the world being a better place if Bitcoin was the monetary network for the world, I think the world would be a better place. I think society would function better. I think human freedoms and a lot of liberties would be reinstilled and protected and that there would be a renaissance of innovation for financial services and experiences.”
Regulatory Clarity Benefits Consumers
Mallers talks passionately about a desire for regulatory clarity on the digital asset space as a whole. He says, “The Federal reserve has perverted risk tolerance across all assets … No one knows the price of anything anymore. No one knows the true rate of inflation. And no one can save in dollars right now.” What used to be clear violations of securities laws are now more opaque because of the lack of clarity for these types of assets. His clear concern is the people who are getting taken advantage of by proponents of altcoins and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Mallers thinks that what’s going on in Canada with financial assets being frozen is an opportunity for Bitcoin and Lightning to shine. His main focus as he builds out Strike is, “The ongoing work in optimizing the protocol to be successful but also retain the properties that make it important and allow it to survive … Trying to ensure that we make a resilient, private, open monetary network and enable good experiences on top of it.”