Giant payment firm Stripe has started developing its crypto engineering team to design the future of its digital assets.
The head of engineering and cryptocurrency at Stripe, Guillaume Poncin, announced on Tuesday, October 12 that he is looking to hire at least four staff to help develop Stripe’s crypto strategy.
Poncin stated that he is building a team of engineers and designers to integrate cryptocurrency into their platform.
Poncin tweeted that: “We’re starting a new crypto team at @Stripe. I’m hiring engineers and designers to build the future of Web3 payments.”
According to the job posting on LinkedIn, Stripe is seeking to hire four new positions with the title “staff engineers, crypto.”
The job listing states, “We hear a growing need from developers and users in that space for better building blocks to accept payments, move funds, exchange between fiat and crypto. By focusing on these problems and needs, we aim to build faster, more trustworthy, and higher quality crypto-enabled experiences.”
The engineering team will “lay the foundation to support and inform Stripe’s crypto strategy” and will design and build the core components that the firm needs to support crypto use cases. The engineers are expected to identify and resolve long-term technical challenges, from user experience, API design, blockchain, data storage services, backend operations to payment and identity systems.
As per the job posting, the open positions are limited to engineers based in the U.S. who is required to have a background in developing the crypto space, including more than ten years of experience as an engineer.
Stripe is a giant payment firm with customers all over the globe already using the platform. The announcement could be another gateway to increased mass adoption of cryptocurrencies. The job listing further stated that “many businesses and users already rely on and trust in Stripe. This gives us a massive opportunity to be at the forefront of a new wave of innovation.”
The hiring announcement comes two years after Stripe CEO Patrick Collison stated he was sceptical of crypto assets.
Stripe initially began accepting Bitcoin in 2014, but the service was later halted in 2018 because of concerns associated with transaction confirmation times and fees on the main chain.
Since that time, the development of the Lightning Network has made Bitcoin a viable means of exchange without the long confirmation times and high fees.
Whales in The Crypto Markets
Stripe is set to become a new whale in the cryptocurrency market where clients come to purchase crypto tokens. The payment firm follows a rising number of traditional companies capitalizing on potential opportunities in the cryptocurrency market.
Several fintech firms are assisting in fueling demand for Bitcoin as they open the floodgates of millions of people to trade it and other crypto tokens.
For example, Square payment firm and PayPal launched crypto-related solutions that enable their clients to buy cryptocurrency supply entering the market each day. Visa and Mastercard have also been actively looking to capitalize on the rapidly growing industry.
The crypto space has been heating up amid more interest and increased focus on digital payments, partly driven by the Covid-19 pandemic and the rapid surge in eCommerce.
Image source: Shutterstock