Stripe begins building out its flagship crypto team

Payments platform Stripe is building a team of engineers and developers to bring cryptocurrency payments via Web3 to its platform.

In a tweet, Guillaume Poncin – Head of Engineering and Crypto at Stripe – revealed the platform was seeking four engineers and designers to “build the future of Web3 payments” on Stripe.

The job listing goes into further detail on the role – saying “crypto is a brand new team at Stripe” and the development of crypto payments provides Stripe with “a massive opportunity to be at the forefront of a new wave of innovation”.

The job specification also notes Stripe’s previous involvement in the cryptocurrency industry, which included contributions to the Stellar foundation back in 2014, and accepting Bitcoin payments in the same year.

Despite removing Bitcoin payments in 2018 due to low customer demand, the re-emergence of Bitcoin into the mainstream spotlight aligns with Stripe’s second stab at crypto payments.

John Collison – co-founder of Stripe – commented on the development on Twitter, saying “Stripe and crypto have grown up at the same time” and that it has “always kept an eye on things” in the industry.

Collison also noted that the “last few years’ developments (L2s, new chains, stablecoins, DeFi) are particularly exciting” for the industry – perhaps explaining Stripe’s re-entry into crypto payments.

Crypto payments now a lucrative market

The crypto payments market has since gone mainstream due to new developments in the industry that enable faster and cheaper payments, including Lightning payments on Bitcoin and platforms such as Bakkt integrating crypto into its services.

Coinbase has been leading the way in the US for bringing crypto payments and adoption to a wider audience, and has spurred on US-based retailers including AMC and SHOP.com to integrate crypto payments.

El Salvador’s push to establish Bitcoin as legal tender also shows that crypto payments can be implemented – albeit on a smaller scale – to help aid and develop struggling nations.