Stijn Paumen, CEO of the expanding cryptocurrency payments platform Helio, presents an impression of a market that is still in its infancy.
The CEO and founder stated that although decentralized blockchain protocols such as those found in Bitcoin and Ethereum are innovations, the functionality and performance of traditional financial infrastructure remain superior to both chains’ foundational layers.
Paumen says, “I think the benchmark is Apple Pay. How are you going to beat Apple Pay, where I can just tap my phone and I’ve paid within three seconds.”
As stated by Paumen, the emergence of more recent blockchain networks is starting to close the gap, although not without initial difficulties. He continues, “Now with the second generation of blockchains like Solana, even though there’s a lot of talk about congestion, we actually have the engineering resources to figure it out.”
In March 2022, Paumen and Chief Technology Officer Jim Walker launched Helio. The two had previously left a profitable firm to work in the cryptocurrency industry. Paumen says they were excited by the prospect of Solana’s high TPS and fast finality as the basis of building a new crypto payment platform.
According to Paumen, “Ever since someone paid 10,000 BTC for a pizza, crypto payments became a thing. But the user experience sucked. You had 20-minute payment times or payments not being processed at all.”
Helio’s platform enables retailers and e-commerce sites of all sizes to accept bitcoin payments. Despite processing $30 million monthly, its main focus remains on the Web3 market for both merchants and users. Helio’s payment plugin has stirred the Solana ecosystem, enabling sales of approximately 80,000 Solana mobile phones.
According to Paumen, Web3 payments pose an ecosystem difficulty even though they can challenge established industry participants.
“We talk about this concept of crypto granny internally. What we mean is, when crypto granny buys a Bored Ape hoodie for her grandson, she needs to be able to do that without owning crypto, without even knowing what blockchain is,” says Paumen.
The CEO of Helio closed by speculating about the possibility of companies like Apple Pay settling payments on their blockchain in the future. Moreover, he did state that he is a strong supporter of the notion of a decentralized method of sending money anywhere in the globe “without intermediaries, with fast or instant settlement with low fees.”
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