Pierpaolo Barbieri: belief

Transcript context

…Recently. We see very high levels of adoption in places like Venezuela and Argentina for crypto. I respect that. I think Bitcoin is a very useful store value; not great to transact on your daily needs. I don’t remember ever seeing anyone pay for a coffee in Bitcoin. Those people who used to sell coffees in 2011 for Bitcoin — now they want to forget about those transactions, given what they missed out on. But there could be a crypto option, and I think it’s part of the ecosystem. When you think about it, when 50 percent of adults have never had a payment mechanism, what they want to do when they first get it is sign up for Netflix, sign up for Spotify, pay for a game on PlayStation, pay for something on Steam, buy something on Mercado Libre or Amazon. None of those platforms take crypto. The day after tomorrow, when they do, maybe there’s an argument to be had. But it’s not a first transaction you do when you digitize to go buy a Tesla in Bitcoin. It’s quite rare. Say you’re outside of the earlier phase of your company, where you’re just seeking to build the size of the network and become a dominant source of network externalities, and you have a portfolio. You’re taking money from people, in a sense, that’s like deposits. For Ualá to make money, don’t you need to make loans? And if you make loans, then aren’t you a bank?…

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