On this episode of Invested, Michael sits down with David Marcus, the CEO and co-founder of Lightspark. Most recently, he led all payments and crypto efforts on Meta/Facebook. In 2018, David started Diem (fka Libra). He joined Meta in 2014 to lead Messenger, which he took from under 200M monthly users to over 1.5B. Previously, he was PayPal’s President. A lifelong entrepreneur, David launched two companies in Europe and then founded mobile payments company Zong in Silicon Valley, which was acquired by PayPal in 2011.
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KEY TOPICS
00:00 - Intro
01:54 - Dropping Out of College
05:07 - Elite Colleges Are Radicalizing Students
07:45 - AI Makes College Mostly Obsolete
15:30 - Libra Threatened the Global Financial Order
17:36 - Janet Yellen Personally Killed Libra
18:55 - Why Centralized Crypto Always Fails
19:40 - Bitcoin Is the Only Neutral Money
23:38 - Bitcoin Can’t Work - Until Lightning
26:05 - Bitcoin Replaces SWIFT and Banks
30:11 - Stablecoins Are Corporate Control Tools
33:45 - Bitcoin Enables Real De-Dollarization
36:10 - Most Financial Crime Isn’t Crypto
41:30 - Bitcoin Is the Ultimate Bar Mitzvah Gift
43:10 - Bitcoin Will Hit Seven Figures
44:05 - US Education Is a National Security Threat
47:35 - Parents Are Letting Kids Be Radicalized
54:20 - Mark Zuckerberg Backed Libra Until End
56:10 - Why Governments Fear Neutral Money
57:30 - Politics Destroyed My Faith in DC
59:10 - Israel, Iran, and Regime Change Hopes
01:03:45 - Europe’s Point of No Return
RESOURCES
Follow David on X: https://x.com/davidmarcus
Learn more about Lightspark: https://www.lightspark.com/
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CREDITS
Executive Producer: Erica Marom
Producer: Sofi Levak, Myron Shneider, Dalit Merenfeld
Video and Editing: Ron Baranov, Nadav Elovic
Music and Creative Direction: Uri Ar
Content and Editorial: Kira Goldring
Design: Rony Karadi
