The Bitcoin Collective
What Would a Bitcoin-Native Bank Actually Look Like? | Piotr Bedkowski #223
- Product strategy at Zappo: Building a full-service Bitcoin banking platform (wallet, savings, trading, lending, yield products) designed to meet long-term Bitcoiners' needs beyond simple hodling, including borrowing against Bitcoin without rehypothecation.
- Bitcoin adoption narrative: Emphasizes getting billions of people direct exposure to Bitcoin through easy-to-use interfaces (potential "iPhone moment" via native OS integration) rather than relying solely on institutional adoption, ETFs, or government reserves.
- Currency debasement case: Historical pattern showing all fiat currencies eventually lose value (pound sterling down 95% since 1971); Bitcoin offers immunity against monetary debasement as a scarce, hard asset with a fixed supply.
- Custody and security evolution: Zappo shifted from multi-sig deep cold storage vaults ("Fort Knox of Bitcoin") to modern MPC (multiparty computation) protocols, maintaining security while enabling faster transactions for institutional and high-net-worth clients.
- Collateral economics: Bitcoin should command lower borrowing rates than other assets (real estate, stocks) due to superior liquidity, no counterparty risk, portability, and 24/7 tradability—but market pricing hasn't fully reflected this yet.
- User-centric product development: Decisions informed by three pillars: direct customer feedback, market trends within the Bitcoin community, and long-term vision of what banking infrastructure should look like in a Bitcoin-native world.