Next Level Adoption - Fuse Network's Mark Smargon Interview

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Description

Fuse making everyday payments possible on the blockchain - via social apps and networks that create value. With the platform, anybody can easily build their own applications where they can digitize an...

AI Analysis

Fuse Network is building the "next level of adoption" for blockchain technology, aiming to make everyday payments seamless and accessible to everyone. The project's CEO, Mark Smargon, a veteran in e-commerce and payments since the early 2000s, recognized Bitcoin's potential to bypass complex international payment processes but also quickly understood its limitations for daily transactions. Fuse's core mission is to bridge the gap between complex blockchain technology and the simple, familiar payment experiences people use today, like WeChat or Venmo, ultimately making crypto an invisible infrastructure.

Here's a breakdown of Fuse Network's journey, vision, and technical approach:

* Mark Smargon's Extensive Background: Mark started his first e-commerce company in Israel 20 years ago, even before the internet was universally accepted. He encountered Bitcoin in 2012-2013 and saw its potential to revolutionize cross-border payments, which were incredibly complex and expensive for businesses. This early insight led him to focus on payments within the crypto space, launching multiple companies.
* The Evolution from Bitcoin to Ethereum: Mark initially tried to integrate Bitcoin for payments, but realized consumers didn't want to use it for everyday transactions, comparing it to "paying with your stocks." His second crypto company, Colu, focused on "Colored Coins," an early attempt to represent real-world assets on the Bitcoin blockchain. He explains that these ideas were the precursor to Ethereum, which Vitalik Buterin created because Bitcoin's scripting language was too limited for general-purpose applications beyond simple payments. Ethereum, with its Turing-complete environment, allowed for much more complex financial instruments and applications.
* Fuse Network's Core Vision for Everyday Payments: Fuse Network is built on the philosophy of "fusing" together the best protocols developed on Ethereum to create a seamless experience for simple, everyday payments. The goal is to facilitate Visa-like transactions, such as buying coffee, sending remittances, or giving kids allowance, scenarios where Bitcoin or even current Ethereum aren't practical due to fees and complexity. Fuse believes that crypto should serve as an invisible backend infrastructure, much like Linux powers modern smartphones without users being aware. Consumers shouldn't have to deal with gas fees, public keys, or transaction finality.
* Solving Scalability and Gas Fee Challenges: Fuse worked backward from a clear business goal: achieving one million transactions a day at a fixed cost of one cent per transaction within two years. They argue that fluctuating fees are a non-starter for merchant adoption. To achieve this, Fuse currently operates at 100 transactions per second (TPS), which is faster than Ethereum but not yet Visa-level. This is accomplished by having a lower number of validators, which reduces propagation time. For future scalability (Fuse 2.0), they plan to incorporate off-chain solutions like zero-knowledge proofs and optimistic rollups, similar to what many in the Ethereum ecosystem are exploring. Mark emphasizes that raw scalability isn't enough; it must go hand-in-hand with actual user adoption, a lesson learned from projects like EOS that achieved high TPS but lacked real users.
Addressing Centralization Concerns: While abstracting away complexity can sometimes lead to centralization, Fuse aims to be a decentralized version* of platforms like Stripe. They bundle crypto primitives, best practices, and APIs into an easy-to-use product, allowing businesses to launch quickly without needing deep crypto knowledge. The idea is to make the blockchain part transparent to the end-user. Mark foresees a future where there's no distinction between "crypto wallets" and "regular wallets," just as iPhones aren't called "Linux phones" despite using Linux under the hood. He points to trends like Argent's gas-less transactions as proof that this seamless, user-friendly experience is already emerging.
* Targeting Real-World Adoption in Communities: Fuse's adoption strategy focuses on "operators" like local franchises and communities, aiming for 1,000 such implementations within two years. They target "the long tail"—smaller communities and regions that lack sophisticated traditional banking and payment infrastructure. Examples include a village in the Amazon using a local digital currency on Fuse, and PayWise in Trinidad, which serves a largely cash-based society with high smartphone penetration but limited credit card access. Another compelling example is Wikibank in Seville, Spain, which uses digital vouchers on Fuse for charity handouts. This allows the charity to track funds, set expiration dates, and ensure money is spent at local small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), fostering local economic circulation. This model is much cheaper (1 cent per transaction) than traditional credit card fees (3%), incentivizing more frequent use and keeping money within the community. Fuse sees themselves as offering payments and reputation services similar to Uber or Airbnb, but without the high 30% cuts.
* The Fuse Token ($FUSE) and Ecosystem: The $FUSE token is crucial for the network's decentralized operation. Fuse utilizes a Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) blockchain, similar to Tezos, where token holders can participate in governance, influencing decisions like network fees. This ensures that no single entity, including Fuse Network itself, controls the ecosystem. The project is launching its first public distribution of the $FUSE token via a "Mesa" sale. The current Uniswap liquidity for $FUSE is very low, making the Mesa sale (starting at 6 cents) the primary way to acquire tokens at a more stable price.
* Exciting Future Developments: Beyond the token sale, Fuse has ambitious plans, including the upcoming launch of "FuseSwap," a gasless Uniswap fork that will run on the Fuse network. Users of FuseSwap will earn $FUSE tokens for their activity, further incentivizing network usage. This move aims to provide a frictionless and free exchange experience, which could be a significant step toward broader adoption.
* Takeaways from the Host: The host, who has personally invested in Fuse, highlights the project's unique value proposition: its focus on improving crypto adoption by providing a free, open-source platform that empowers communities to build their own digital economies. He encourages viewers to support Fuse's product launch on Product Hunt and explore the $FUSE token sale, acknowledging that Fuse represents a visionary approach to crypto's future, focusing on what "can be" rather than just "what is."

Transcript

and we should be ready to start i say it's excellent condition and we are good to go so guys welcome back to another live stream of box mining here and i chose a really cool topic for this interview because it's the next level of adoption and this is a project that's been building in stealth mode for a long time fuse network they've been working on building with communities building all the way of talking about scaling there's a lot a lot going on over here so today i want to introduce to you g...