Ex-PayPal, Facebook exec David Marcus says Lightning can turn Bitcoin into a ‘real global payment network’ Ex-PayPal, Facebook exec David Marcus says Lightning can turn Bitcoin into a ‘real global payment network’
Marcus says that his company, Lightspark, aims to expand Lightning's availability.
2 min read
Updated: Sep. 11, 2023 at 9:20 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
David Marcus, formerly an executive at PayPal and Meta/Facebook, commented on his goals for Bitcoin development during a Sept. 11 interview on CNBC.
Marcus began by describing his current company, Lightspark, which is building payment solutions for Bitcoin’s Lightning Network. He said:
“What we’re trying to do is turn Bitcoin into a real global payment network … we’re still in the fax era of global payments and that’s what we’re attempting to solve.”
Marcus emphasized throughout the interview that most popular payment services do not fully support international transactions or cross-application transactions. By contrast, he suggested that many other online services, such as texting, emailing, and video conferencing, can be accessed by their users almost universally.
He also called international transactions an enormous business opportunity, with “trillions of dollars of transactions” taking place on existing networks.
When asked whether Bitcoin’s adoption as a real-world currency could result in a higher market value for the asset, Marcus said:
“Our view is actually that Bitcoin is not the currency that people will use to buy things … the actual net settlement layer that is used is basically Bitcoin Lightning and it settles in real time, cash final, and at a very, very low cost.”
Marcus added that this approach allows for currency exchange โ including dollars, Japanese yen, and euros โ “at the edges of the network.” He did not clarify whether this is a basic feature of Lightning or a planned feature of his own Lightspark project.
Marcus has a long crypto and payments history
Before creating Lighstpark, Marcus served as Vice President of Messaging Products at Facebook, now known as Meta. After taking on that role in 2014, Marcus moved to a blockchain group within Facebook in 2018 in order to lead development on the company’s now-defunct Diem stablecoin and Novi wallet. He left the company in 2021.
He also served as Vice President and President at PayPal between 2011 and 2014. Incidentally, Marcus commented on PayPal’s current stablecoin goals in a conversation with Axios on Sept. 8. There, he suggested that PayPal is likely in a better position to launch a stablecoin than Meta in part due to PayPal’s existing payment services.
Marcus briefly served on Coinbase’s Board of Directors from 2017 to 2018 but left that position in order to work on blockchain products at Facebook.
Mentioned in this article
Author 
Mike Dalton
Before transitioning to crypto writing in 2018, Mike studied library and information sciences. Currently, he resides on Canada's West Coast.
Editor Editor 
Jacob Oliver
Jacob Oliver is a recovering academic and English teacher turned crypto journalist and web3 writer. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Washington.
In this article
PayPal
PayPal is an American multinational financial technology firm that operates an online payment system in most countries that permits online money transfers and serves as an electronic replacement for conventional paper methods like checks and money orders.
Coinbase
Coinbase is a digital currency exchange and wallet service that allows individuals to buy, sell, and store digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
David Marcus is a co-founder and the CEO of Lightspark, a cryptocurrency startup that works on Bitcoin and the Lightning Network.
