Stephan Pair

Stephen Pair is an American entrepreneur and the co-founder of BitPay. BitPay is a processor of the Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. Since the companies foundation in 2011, it has become the largest Bitcoin processor globally.

He is currently the CEO of BitPay, which has recently seen investments from a number of leading businesspeople, including Asia's richest man, Li Ka-Shing. Pair has frequently featured in the media discussing Bitcoin and the technical aspects of processing the cryptocurrency.

Career

Stephen Pair and Tony Gallippi co-founded BitPay in 2011. The company was initially created to provide mobile checkout services for anyone using the cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. The company grew slowly in 2011, before Pair and Gallippi signed a major merchant to their service, WordPress. It was stated that the move came as many bloggers faced financial blocks for either financial or political reasons in certain countries. Pair would later comment that this is one of the major drawbacks of current payment systems and that cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, are more viable online payment options. Pair wasn't alone with this views, as similar comments were made by Forbes, when comparing the BitPay processing system to PayPal. This was because at the time PayPal and other merchants frequently blocked access from over 60 countries and many credit card companies had similar restrictions. Bitcoin at the time had no central authority, meaning BitPay couldn't lock entire countries out.

Pair brokered BitPay's first angel investment in 2013, for the figure of $510,000. Pair and his Co-founder made the decision following the investment to move BitPay's headquarters to Atlanta, Georgia.

Throughout 2014, Pair was responsible for managing a number of investment deals with well-known investors. The first came from Asia's richest man, Li Ka-Shing. At the time of the investment he was seen as the richest person in Asia. Following the growth of BitPay, Pair was again involved in a large investment deal when over $30 million was raised. The investors of the $30 million included Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and Yahoo founder Jerry Yang.

In May 2014 Pair featured on CNBC stating that he believes that companies like Visa and Mastercard will "leverage" Bitcoin, rather than competing With It.

Pair and BitPay were one of the first to announce a major sponsorship deal using the Bitcoin currency. The sponsorship deal between BitPay and ESPN was paid in bitcoin, which made ESPN the largest media company to accept bitcoin for a transaction. The deal was for the naming rights of the St. Petersburg Bowl, an NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game. It was decided that the Bowl would be called the "Bitcoin Bowl", in order to promote the cryptocurrency rather than the BitPay brand.

Technical

Pair has frequently discussed the technical benefits of using Bitcoin and BitPay services over existing payment methods. During a presentation in 2013 with MIT Technology Review, he discussed the drawbacks of current financial systems. These included the drawbacks of credit cards and that figures suggest that in 2013 1% of GDP in the United States was credit card fraud.

He was one of the first to identify in the media the technical aspects of Bitcoin could be beneficial to not only the consumer but also businesses. Pair has also stated that credit cards were never built with the Internet in mind. He explained that when credit card payments were sent, details are sent to the Recipient on how to access the funds. However, the same details would be used if the payment amount was different, meaning details can easily be obtained by fraudulent methods. Continuing, Pair stated that BitPay and Bitcoin send one off secure payments, similar to how an email is sent. This ensures that fraud with Bitcoin and BitPay remains incredibly low when compared to other payment methods. He was one of the first to identify this technical difference, which has led to many businesses in recent years begin to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment.

See also

  • Tony Gallippi
  • History of Bitcoin
  • BitPay