The Rollup Why Stripe's Former Payments Lead Joined Polygon | The Stablecoin War Begins
Oct 17, 2025
John Egan, Chief Product Officer at Polygon and former Payments Lead at Stripe, discusses his career transition and the future of crypto payments. He delves into Polygon's strategy to dominate the stablecoin market and highlights the importance of subsecond finality in reducing settlement risk. Egan explores innovative applications for AI streaming payments and the role of interoperability through AgLayer. He emphasizes building resilient payment infrastructure amidst market downturns and fostering community through shared finance.
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Career Path To Polygon
- John Egan moved from Facebook to crypto startups to Stripe and then to Polygon to get closer to building payments infrastructure.
- He says Polygon felt like a natural fit because it was the first stablecoin chain Stripe integrated and had the right team and tech.
Vision Of Open Money Network
- Egan envisions an open global network that makes money movement as simple as buying at a convenience store.
- He believes such a network will reshape markets, access, and human interactions.
Rio Is Step One Not The Finish
- Rio improves node lightness, reliability, finality, cost, and TPS while enabling future scaling.
- Egan sees 100k TPS as a medium-term milestone but only step one toward much greater demand.