The Internet of Money: Why Bitcoin Is the Future of Global Value Transfer | David Marcus

Dec 19, 2025

David Marcus, a fintech pioneer and CEO of Lightspark, shares his insights on the evolving landscape of Bitcoin as a global settlement layer. He discusses how Bitcoin's neutrality positions it as the essential architecture for future money movement. The conversation delves into the challenges with Lightning and the significance of self-custody in wallets. Marcus emphasizes the role of stablecoins in encouraging Bitcoin adoption, while also detailing LightSpark's innovative solutions for low-cost, real-time cross-border payments and the integration of various payment rails.

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ANECDOTE

From Startups To PayPal To Meta

David Marcus recounted pivoting early startups into payments and being acquired by PayPal.
That path led him to lead PayPal and later build Messenger at Meta before returning to payments and crypto.

INSIGHT

Bitcoin As TCP/IP For Money

Bitcoin is the only neutral, open settlement network likely to survive a century.
Building payments on a non-neutral corp chain won't scale globally because governments will resist loss of monetary sovereignty.

INSIGHT

Making Lightning Enterprise-Grade

Lightning needed enterprise-grade automation and routing improvements to scale payments.
LightSpark automated channel and liquidity management, signed major exchanges, and added UMA for seamless fiat pairs.

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“If the internet could move value natively… would you use anything else?”

I sit down with David Marcus, a true fintech veteran and the co-founder and CEO of Lightspark. You might know him from his time at PayPal, Meta where he led Messenger, or the ambitious Libra/Diem project. Now, he’s on a mission to build the open internet of money—on Bitcoin.

We dive into David’s fascinating journey through startups, global payments, and Silicon Valley, before unpacking the philosophy and architecture behind Lightspark. We explore how Bitcoin is evolving beyond store of value into a global settlement layer, how Spark enables stablecoin issuance and self-custodial wallets on Bitcoin, and why compliance, scalability, and user experience are critical for mass adoption.

DAVID'S LINKS:

X: https://x.com/davidmarcus

Lightspark: https://www.lightspark.com/

Spark: https://www.spark.money/

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