One of the problems that I’ve been trying to think through over the years has been interoperability and global payments. With Google Standard Payments, we partnered with payment providers worldwide, enabling more customers to pay for Google products with different forms of payment like eWallets or cash.
In the past, one of the extensions that I pitched (unsuccessfully!) to VCs was a payment aggregator that enabled interoperability between the providers so you could use your Mercado Pago wallet, for example, to purchase at TrueMoney merchants in Thailand. The problem with this idea was that it was a closed network with potentially high fees and compliance issues.
Universal Money Addresses (UMAs) help solve some of these problems. It’s an open standard built on the Lightning Network that enables payments across multiple currencies. It uses Lightning as the ledger and fiat to bitcoin markets on each side to enable users to pay from, say, USD to BRL quickly and with minimal fees. In addition, it can include information about the sender, recipient, and service providers for compliance. Being open means that anyone can integrate the UMA schema to start sending and receiving payments.
To help guide wallet, exchange, neo-bank developers developers through implementation, Lightspark is releasing a playground on Replit(Shoutout to Brian Siao Tick Chong). You can fork it, modify the code, and run it from the browser. It showcases an end-to-end UMA implementation on Lightspark’s sandbox environment, enabling you to create an UMA address and send and receive sandbox cross-currency payments. You don’t need to use Lightspark to interact with the Lightning network, but we do significantly simplify the process :).
Hit me up if you want to learn more.
Socialite Celebrity Endorser and Actor/Entertainer - Hollywood Industry Leader (Dylan Collins - Direct Descendant to John Collins the founding father of the USA) and heir.
5moHey :) I’m developing a series for Disney Channel with some lead actors from Disney Channel and Nickelodeon. We have Terrence Little Gardenhigh and Cody Veith will be on an episode. We will have 10 of the biggest names in Hollywood on season one. How would you like to meet the team of the high up executives from Disney and Nickelodeon that’s helping make the show possible? Along with the CEO of Napster, Dan Daum (Justin Biebers little brother and sisters stepdad) , Robert Rockefeller (John D Rockefeller cousin-grandson) And I can introduce you to some of my Disney friends. Accept my request to connect. I would love for you to be on the team. We are a big family with good vibes. It’s such a fun experience creating a tv show and being around all the talent. How would you like to be an advisor? Or consultant? Or chairman? Just let me know! Please accept my request to connect- or add me if we are not connected my friend . You can also become an executive producer to get more involved with the show. You’re welcome to fly out and meet the talent and record with us David Marcus