184 - Why Facebook’s Stablecoin Failed, with David Marcus

Bankless

David Marcus started a company that was acquired by PayPal, he then became President of PayPal (running the company), then he joined Facebook as VP of the Messenger app, and that’s when he started Facebook’s Libra project. Currently, he’s the CEO and Co-founder of Lightspark, a company that builds out Bitcoin Lightning tech.

------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-david-marcus

----- From whitepaper to being summoned in front of Congress in 3 weeks…what really happened to Facebook’s stablecoin endeavors and what can we learn from it?

This episode is a post-mortem of Facebook’s highly ambitious crypto project from 2019. They tried to build a stablecoin but the U.S. government stopped it.

Topics covered in today’s episode: 1) Facebook’s Libra project…why did it fail? Who tanked it? The U.S. gov? The banking lobby? Why can’t the West seem to innovate its banking systems? 2) Why SuperApps won’t work? 3) Why our David Marcus thinks the money layer of the internet will be built on crypto…but more specifically…on Bitcoin!

----- TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro 7:20 The Libra Project 9:10 Facebook’s Involvement 9:59 Super App Thesis 12:05 Getting Government Approval 14:39 Messaging & Payments Intersection 16:45 Releasing the White Paper 18:05 Libra’s Government Reaction 19:50 Summoned to Congress Experience 21:25 U.S. Crypto Competition 25:40 Government Money Power Structure 30:00 FedNow 42:40 Will Twitter/X Become a Super App? 48:18 Bear Case for Super App 51:42 Lightspark 54:35 Bitcoin vs. Stablecoins 58:15 Why Lightning Uses Bitcoin 1:06:25 Bitcoin vs. Ethereum 1:11:37 The Future in 5-10 Years 1:14:40 Closing & Disclaimers

----- RESOURCES

David Marcus https://twitter.com/davidmarcus

Lightspark https://twitter.com/Lightspark

----- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures ⁠