ETHGlobal · Jul 9, 2026

In this talk, Peter Watts from Relay makes the case that interoperability and exchange are the biggest barriers standing between onchain payments and true "payments grade" quality that can compete with traditional money rails. He opens by framing why onchain payments are compelling: permissionless global access, instant settlement without reconciliation across ledgers, a single shared ledger, and the programmability of open rails that make money as open as the internet. But the bar is high, since credit cards and emerging instant transfer rails already work simply, quickly, and reliably every time. Payments grade means an experience where you just tap, it's fast, it's a synchronous confirmation, and it works every time regardless of which bank a merchant uses or which country you're in. He acknowledges that onchain rails have come a long way with fast low cost blockchains, a mix of regulated and yield bearing stablecoins, and improved on-ramps. Peter argues the core unsolved problem is that there will never be a single chain or single stablecoin. Even within USD there are multiple prominent stablecoins (people use Tron USDT whether you like it or not), foreign currency stablecoins are emerging as people want to be paid locally, and USDC alone exists on around 50 chains. Once you introduce exchange between all these assets, keeping payments simple, fast, and reliable gets much harder, and existing infrastructure doesn't fit. Bridges are deliberately slow and expensive and shouldn't be rushed, while traditional DEXs and AMMs are built for trading, introducing slippage and lacking exact output support that payments require. He outlines what a new payments liquidity layer needs: broad asset support without fragmenting liquidity across pairs and chains, instant cross chain movement via a fast layer of solvers taking finality risk on top of the slow secure base layer, and always available liquidity that works every time even under market stress (unlike mercenary prop AMMs). He explains that liquidity alone isn't enough and an orchestration layer is needed for routing, gas and nonce handling, and rethought UX like universal deposit addresses instead of wallet connections. He closes on pricing guarantees, noting stablecoins don't actually trade at exactly a dollar (USDT recently traded 10 bps below USDC), and predicting applications will subsidize one to one experiences the way merchants subsidize credit card fees, revealing that solving exchange and interop is exactly what Relay is building. 00:00 Introduction 00:12 Why Onchain Payments Are Interesting 00:37 Instant Settlement and a Single Shared Ledger 01:00 Making Money as Open as the Internet 01:22 Why the Bar for Payments Is High 01:44 What Payments Grade UX Means 02:06 Reliability and Working Every Time 02:28 How Far Onchain Rails Have Come 02:53 Why Interop Is the Biggest Barrier 03:22 The Reality of Tron USDT and Local Currencies 03:44 USDC Across 50 Different Chains 04:08 Why Businesses Choose Different Chains 04:32 Why Exchange Makes Everything Harder 04:59 The Need for a New Liquidity Layer 05:25 Why Bridges Aren't Built for Payments 05:58 Why DEXs and Slippage Don't Fit Payments 06:22 The Problem of Broad Asset Support 06:47 How Pairs and Pools Fragment Liquidity 07:17 Moving Across Chains Instantly 07:51 Designing Liquidity That Is Always Available 08:37 The Orchestration Layer on Top 09:05 Routing, Gas, and Nonce Handling at Scale 09:30 Rethinking Payments UX Beyond Wallet Connect 09:53 Universal Deposit Addresses on Any Chain 10:18 Pricing Guarantees and the Dollar Myth 10:44 How Applications Will Subsidize One to One Rates 11:18 The Credit Card Subsidy Analogy 11:49 Summary: We Are Close 12:17 What Relay Is Building 12:17 Closing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

ETHGlobal · Jul 9, 2026

In this fireside chat, Jacob Willemsma from ETHGlobal sits down with Henri Stern, founder of Privy, to discuss Privy's first year inside Stripe and how stablecoin infrastructure is being woven into mainstream finance. Henri explains that Privy builds embedded wallets, key management systems that developers drop directly into their products to give users simple access to crypto, stablecoins, and any digital asset without needing to think about what happens under the hood. Privy serves several thousand customers ranging from crypto native companies like Jupiter, Hyperliquid, and Uniswap to much more mainstream businesses like Deel, Ramp, and Klarna. Henri shares that his biggest fear joining Stripe was the stack being co-opted and verticalized into captive infrastructure, but conversations with Stripe leadership affirmed a shared commitment to an open stack where developers pick their chains, orchestration, and rails, and where Privy can still serve Stripe, Bridge, and Tempo competitors. He describes the pragmatic balance between decentralization purism and usable infrastructure, citing wallet connectors and day one key export as escape hatches that preserve self custody. He walks through lessons absorbed from Stripe (decade long ambition exemplified by Atlas now powering 25% of Delaware incorporations, kinetic short term execution, and a deep commitment to never deprecating interfaces), the Treasury product giving businesses stablecoin backed accounts now used across 50 countries, and recent launches like MoneyGram's MGUSD and Deel's hold, earn, spend contractor wallets. He closes on the remaining bottlenecks of financial tooling, regulatory clarity, and accounting integration, along with his belief that these rails ultimately lay the groundwork for genuine self sovereignty. 00:00 Introduction 00:28 The Fear and Excitement of Joining Stripe 00:45 What Privy Builds: Embedded Wallets 01:04 From Crypto Native to Mainstream Customers 01:27 Privy Needs Friends: Why Wallets Need Ecosystems 02:11 The Fear of the Stack Being Co-Opted 02:33 Conversations With Stripe on an Open Stack 02:57 Working With Stripe, Bridge, and Tempo Competitors 03:37 Pragmatism Over Decentralization Maximalism 04:00 Where Are the Lines on Open vs Closed 04:40 Privy Earn Built on Morpho and Aave 04:57 Embedded Wallets and Abstraction From the Metal 06:06 Wallet Connectors and Escape Hatches 07:21 What Privy Learned Inside Stripe 07:40 Decade Long Ambition and the Atlas Example 08:40 Balancing Long Term Vision With Short Term Shipping 09:36 Never Deprecating Interfaces 09:50 Stripe Sessions and the Treasury Announcement 10:51 Why Crypto Rails Make Better Products 11:07 The Two Prongs of the Stablecoin Strategy 11:42 From Holding to Actually Using Stablecoins 12:30 Treasury Live in 50 Countries 13:00 Abstracting Crypto Without Losing the Magic 13:53 Smart Contract Risk and Disclosure 14:38 MoneyGram MGUSD and Deel Contractor Wallets 15:35 The Stablecoin Sandwich and Responsibility to Disclose 16:05 Ship the Value, Not the Infrastructure 16:48 Is Tooling Still the Bottleneck 17:30 Regulatory Clarity and Money 20/20 17:53 Accounting, Taxes, and Marrying the Rails 18:41 Meta Creator Payouts in Emerging Markets 19:33 The Perception Gap: Crypto Stuck in 2014 20:23 Three KPIs Henri Is Watching 21:21 New Experiences That Peek the Rails 21:39 The Ten Year Horizon of Self Sovereignty 22:04 Closing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Aqeel Mohammad

Conflux - Web3 UX Unconference · Nov 16, 2023

No description The video features an opening speech from a conference in Istanbul addressing the UX community. Despite regional challenges and the absence of some colleagues, the speaker appreciates attendees' presence at DevConnect and encourages them to enjoy the additional activities available, including Turkish ice cream and coffee. The speech explains that the UXLand conference is an "un-conference," where participants create the event by discussing topics of interest to them. The conference has no sponsors or volunteers but is supported by the Ethereum Foundation and DevConnect. The speaker emphasizes that the success of the event depends on attendee participation and stresses that it's a collaborative environment rather than a platform for promoting individual projects. Attendees represent various professional backgrounds, with product development, engineering, and design being prominent. Key topics for discussion include account extraction, user onboarding, Web3 design principles, and general adoption within the ecosystem. Working groups will form to delve deeper into these areas in a collaborative setting with provided tools like FigJam for documentation. The speaker also mentions a goal of creating memorable ways (memes) to communicate complex UX concepts outside of the conference to foster broader understanding and excitement. An example given is "4337," which has gained attention despite many not fully understanding it. The video outlines rules for speakers, including strict time limits,