Claire Hughes Johnson, Stripe COO Says Bitcoin’s Killer App is Ransomware
Stripe which is a a digital payments provider took a pioneering role with bitcoin in 2015 when it introduced a tool that allowed merchants to accept bitcoin. However, the company stopped the service this year in April.
Claire Hughes Johnson, the company’s COO, told Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference on Tuesday that the reason behind the firm’s abandonment of BTC is that blockchain-based payment services are slow and not practical. Claire also questioned the mainstream uses of cryptocurrencies and the practical uses of blockchain technology.
She noted that settlement times for bitcoin transactions at the present time are around an hour. Last December, she said, they were as long as five days. Merchants sometimes needed to make a second transaction on account of bitcoin price changes between the time of purchase and clearance.
The Stripe executive also questioned the mainstream role of cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin. According to Claire, Bitcoin’s killer app at the present time is ransomware.