MAY 14
Why Networks Compound
When Existing Networks Open Their Doors
The Signal
Bitcoin can reach further when established networks make it easier to participate.
The Reading
What happens when Bitcoin becomes a payment option on the checkout a business already uses? The owner does not have to rebuild the shop. Customers gain another way to pay. Years of work suddenly become useful to another group of people.
That is happening with Square, part of Jack Dorsey’s Block. Its Bitcoin rollout brings Lightning payments into existing checkout systems for eligible American businesses. Block described its ambition as reaching millions of sellers. Merchants can receive dollars automatically, even when customers pay in bitcoin.
Think about what that removes. A shopkeeper can offer Bitcoin payments without choosing to hold bitcoin. The customer and business can use different forms of money while the payment infrastructure connects them.
Then another piece fits into place. Cash App introduced a map helping customers find Square businesses and other merchants accepting bitcoin. Making payments possible created a reason to make those businesses easier to discover. Each improvement gives the previous one another use.
Coinbase also added Lightning transfers, working with Lightspark. Existing customers gained access through accounts they already had. Different companies were building ways into the same payment network, rather than requiring everyone to join one company’s closed system.
This is how networks can compound economically. Existing customers, familiar tools and working infrastructure give the next service a head start. Easier access can encourage use. More use can give businesses a reason to improve their services again.
An enabled checkout still needs a willing customer. But the work of making that exchange possible no longer starts from nothing.
Look beyond the price screen. Bitcoin is finding its way into the systems people already use. Progress is becoming something the next participant can build upon.
First Principles
Established services can expand access to Bitcoin.
Connected tools can increase each other’s usefulness.
Easier participation creates opportunities for adoption.
Today’s Challenge
Send someone at home a photograph from your phone. It takes moments because the camera, messaging service and network already work together.
Imagine having to build those first. You adopted a useful service because others had already done the difficult work. That is the head start new participants inherit.
Tomorrow’s Signal
Liquidity