Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong detailed his experience having a payment blocked by PayPal and Square, indicating the importance of crypto transactions.
According to a series of tweets made on Wednesday, Armstrong’s attempt to send money to a friend was denied by PayPal and SquareCash, with both payment platforms citing an error in the transaction.
Trying to send money to pay back a friend. Paypal tells me “recipient is unable to receive money” and SquareCash tells me my bank declined the payment. This is in the U.S. where these services work best. Imagine rest of the world. pic.twitter.com/iBPzPtlAy6
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) February 12, 2020
While Armstrong was critical of the payment services, he admitted that cryptocurrency suffered from its own “UX challenges.” However, Coinbase’s CEO also said that crypto allows for development on top of the underlying infrastructure, providing the opportunity for better products over time.
Crypto has it's own (numerous) UX challenges of course. But by building on new underlying infrastructure there is an opportunity to make things better, and finally have payments that “just work”.
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) February 12, 2020
Armstrong also went after the heavy-handed regulation that has prevented platforms such as PayPal and Square from providing a good experience to customers.
A lot of this is not the fault of these companies btw. They don't control the underlying infrastructure. There is a lot of well intentioned regulation that actually makes it harder for regular consumer to have a good experience as well. Unintended consequences.
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) February 12, 2020
He concluded by lamenting the difficulty in getting entrepreneurs to pursue innovation, rather than generating products in a regulated market.
There is a lot of opportunity to launch products in regulated markets though. It is so much harder to be innovative, so most entrepreneurs shy away from it.
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) February 12, 2020
Featured Image Credit: Photo via Pixabay.com
