The Fintech Blueprint

Lex chats with Harish Natarajan - Practice Manager, Financial Inclusion and Infrastructure, Finance, Competitiveness & Innovation at the World Bank, and Carlos Brandt - The Senior Advisor for Pix at the Central Bank of Brazil. Together they discuss the remarkable success of Pix, Brazil's real-time payment system, which now sees over 6 billion transactions per month and is used by more than 90% of the adult population and 80% of companies. Lex explores how Pix was created by the Central Bank of Brazil with strong public-private collaboration, backed by regulatory authority and supported by a co-creation model with stakeholders. Key to its adoption were a low-cost centralized infrastructure, clear branding, mandatory participation by large banks, and a robust national communication strategy. Globally, Pix is seen as a leading example of fast payment system deployment, driven by the central bank acting as a neutral coordinator and scheme owner. Lex also examines the technical architecture, built in-house by a surprisingly small team of 55–65 people, and how scalable infrastructure and extensibility have enabled rapid growth and innovation.   NOTABLE DISCUSSION POINTS:   1. Pix achieved mass adoption through public-private co-creation and legal mandate: Pix now processes over 6 billion transactions per month, with 90% of Brazil’s adult population and 80% of businesses actively using it. Its success stems from a strategic legal mandate in 2013 granting the Central Bank regulatory and operational authority over retail payments. The Central Bank then led a co-creation process involving both public and private stakeholders through the Pix Forum, fostering alignment, inclusivity, and strong network effects. 2. A lean but powerful team built a nation-scale real-time payments system: The Pix infrastructure was built entirely in-house by a relatively small team, 30-40 people for the technical infrastructure layer and around 25 for the payment scheme layer. It operates 24/7 with real-time settlement and uses centralized infrastructure separate from Brazil’s traditional large-value payment rails. This centralized, purpose-built architecture dramatically lowered costs and enabled rapid rollout. 3. Strategic communication and mandated participation drove adoption at scale: The Central Bank led a national communication campaign to build trust, establish a strong brand identity, and educate the public. Simultaneously, it mandated major banks (with over 500,000 active accounts) to join Pix, triggering widespread voluntary adoption from smaller PSPs. The rollout included a restricted pilot phase and emphasized user-friendly features like QR codes and aliases to boost convenience and usage from day one.   TOPICS   Pix, Central Bank of Brazil, World Bank, Visa, Citibank, M-Pesa, Alipay, SPI, fintech, payments, PSP, API, Fast Payments, Payments Infrastructure, PayTech   ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT   Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2   Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV   Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin   TIMESTAMPS   1’19: Building Pix from the Ground Up: Carlos Brandt on Modernizing Brazil’s Payment Infrastructure   3’03: Fast Payments for Financial Inclusion: Harish Natarajan on the World Bank’s Role in Modern Payment Infrastructure   4’29: From Cash to 5 Billion Transactions a Month: How Pix Transformed Brazil’s Payment Ecosystem Through Public-Private Collaboration   10’41: Why Pix Succeeded Where Others Struggled: The Power of Neutral Coordination and Public-Private Synergy   12’40: Inside the Pix Forum: How Brazil Built a Collaborative Process for Payment Innovation   15’07: Fast Payments at Scale: Market Coordination, Infrastructure, and Global Lessons from Pix   20’55: Engineering Pix: How a Small Team Built Brazil’s 24/7 National Payments Infrastructure from Scratch   27’28: Driving Nationwide Adoption: How Strategic Communication and Mandates Powered Pix’s Rollout Across Brazil   34’14: Scaling for Success: Why Communication, Extensibility, and API Design Are Key to Evolving Payment Systems   37’23: Building Trust Through Cooperation: How Regulators Can Foster Innovation While Balancing Public and Private Interests   40’06: The channels used to connect with Carlos & learn more about The Central Bank of Brazil.   40’39: The channels used to connect with Harish & learn more about The World Bank Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD. Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

Lex speaks with Ali Niknam, CEO and founder of Bunq, a leading European neobank. Ali shares Bunq’s journey from its founding during the financial crisis to becoming Europe’s second-largest neobank. The conversation explores Bunq’s user-centric philosophy, innovative products, and unique organizational design. Ali discusses overcoming regulatory challenges, prioritizing cultural values, and fostering accountability within teams. The episode also examines the complexities of the European fintech landscape and Bunq’s mission to revolutionize banking by focusing on user needs and continuous improvement.   MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION   Topics: Bunq, ING, Revolut, Betterment, Synapse, TransIP, Fintech, banking, crypto, neobank, challenger bank, culture, Europe, VC   ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT   Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2   Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV   Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin   TIMESTAMPS   1’09: Bunq’s Bold Mission: Ali Niknam on Reinventing Banking for the Modern User   6’27: Building from the Core: Why Bunq Chose the Hard Road to Reinvent Banking   10’08: Bootstrapped Banking: Building Bunq Without External Capital or Compromise   13’56: Launching the Future: Bringing Innovation to Market with Bunq’s First 45-Person Team   17’35: From Payments to Personalization: How Users Drove a Decade of Product Innovation   19’52: Designing for Eva: How Bunq Rebuilt Its Organization Around the User, Not the Org Chart   22’02: Beyond Titles: How Bunq’s Ownership-Driven Culture Redefines Teams, KPIs, and Hierarchy   28’14: Culture Over Compensation: How Bunq Attracts Mission-Aligned Talent Without Relying on Equity   35’06: Europe’s Tech Paradox: Why Innovation Thrives Despite Fragmentation—and What Must Change   39’11: The channels used to connect with Ali & learn more about Bunq   43’07: The channels used to connect with Edward & learn more about Zerohash  Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD. Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

 Lex chats with Edward Woodford - CEO of Zerohash. They discuss Zerohash’s growth, the rise of stablecoins, and the evolving fintech landscape. Edward explains how stablecoins now make up half of Zerohash’s volume, highlights regulatory shifts in the U.S. and abroad, and explores the distinction between crypto and stablecoins. The conversation covers usability challenges, emerging payment use cases, and the future of embedded finance, emphasizing the need for regulatory clarity and collaboration between fintechs and traditional financial institutions.   Notable discussion points:   1. Stablecoins Overtake Crypto in Volume: Stablecoins now make up over 50% of Zerohash’s volume, driven by regulatory clarity and real-world use cases like payments and treasury. Institutions prefer them for their centralized control and ease of integration. 2. Brokerage and Payments Are Converging: Zerohash sees strong demand across brokerage and payment rails, with banks and fintechs embedding stablecoin infrastructure. Global payouts, account funding, and subscriptions are key growth areas despite UX friction. 3. Regulatory Climate Is Rapidly Improving: U.S. policy has shifted from regulatory overreach to bipartisan support for stablecoin legislation. This change is unlocking institutional adoption, with banks now moving aggressively into crypto and digital assets.   MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION   Topics: Zerohash, MoonPay, Transak, Ramp, Stripe, BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Hamilton Lane, Morgan Stanley, Charles Schwab, SoFi, Uniswap, fintech, web3, digital assets, blockchain, tokenization, rwas, stablecoin, crypto, regulation   ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT   Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2   Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV   Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin   TIMESTAMPS   1’51: From Crisis to Convergence: Edward Woodford on Scaling Zerohash and the Future of Embedded Crypto Infrastructure   5’06: Scaling the Pie, Not Stealing Slices: Rethinking Volume, Margins, and Meaningful Growth in Digital Asset Infrastructure   10’02: The Great Rebrand: How Stablecoins Are Shedding the 'Crypto' Label and Reshaping Digital Finance   15’22: From Overreach to Opportunity: How Regulatory Pushback in the U.S. Sparked a Global Shift Toward Stablecoin Adoption   20’31: The Semantics of Trust: Why ‘Stablecoin’ Sells and ‘Crypto’ Scares - and Why the Framing Now Matters More Than Ever   22’36: Unlocking Real Utility: Why Stablecoin Payments Are Finally Poised to Scale Across Commerce and Subscriptions   30’50: Disrupting the Rails: How Stablecoins Are Reshaping the Power Dynamics of Global Payments   34’49: The New Brokerage Mandate: Why Every Platform Is Racing to Add Crypto - and What’s Unlocking the Shift   39’03: Rewiring Financial Infrastructure: How Stablecoins and Super Apps Are Forcing Banks to Rethink Risk and Relevance   43’07: The channels used to connect with Edward & learn more about Zerohash Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD. Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

Lex chats with Yuval Rooz, CEO and co-founder of Digital Asset, about the company’s transformation from its early institutional blockchain experiments to launching the Canton Network - a purpose-built, privacy-enabled smart contract platform designed for financial markets. Rooz shares insights into why Digital Asset was inspired by Bitcoin’s financial principles rather than its technical assumptions, highlighting the importance of rethinking blockchain infrastructure rather than replicating flawed legacy models. He also unpacks the hard lessons from high-stakes projects like the Australian Stock Exchange overhaul, emphasizing why large-scale financial infrastructure must evolve incrementally to succeed. Finally, the conversation dives into Canton’s unique tokenomics, where 70% of block rewards go to the developers and users who create economic activity on the network, challenging traditional validator-centric models and aligning incentives more fairly for long-term ecosystem growth.   Notable discussion points:   1. Canton’s innovative tokenomics: Unlike Ethereum, where validators capture most of the rewards, Canton allocates 70% of block rewards to developers and applications, creating sustainable alignment.   2. Lessons from ASX: Rooz reflects on the failed ASX blockchain migration, advocating for iterative upgrades rather than “big bang” infrastructure transformations.   3. True tokenization: Rooz critiques superficial on-chain IOU models, asserting that real tokenization must place the asset’s books and records natively on-chain to unlock the benefits of DeFi and composability.   MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION   Topics: Digital Asset, Canton Network, DRW, ASX, Ethereum, Bitcoin, Plaid, DAML, fintech, web3, tokenization, digital assets, financial infrastructure, DeFi, onchain   ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT   Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2   Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV   Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin   TIMESTAMPS   1’28: From Wall Street to Web3: Yuval Rooz on Founding Digital Asset and the Birth of the Canton Network   4’29: Rethinking Blockchain: Rejecting Ethereum’s Assumptions to Build a Better Financial Infrastructure   8’18: Getting Banks to Say Yes: Bridging Blockchain Innovation with Regulatory Reality   12’43: Blockchain at Scale: Lessons from the ASX Project and Why Incremental Innovation Beats Big Bang Deployments   21’27: Agile by Design: How Canton Aims to Bring Continuous Delivery to Decentralized Blockchain Networks   23’50: Beyond the Hype: Why Crypto Needs Pragmatism, Not Just Vision, to Integrate with Financial Institutions   27’08: From DAML to Canton: Building Scalable, Privacy-First Infrastructure for Real-World Finance   30’52: Redefining Tokenization: Real On-Chain Finance at Scale with Trillions in Assets on Canton   35’34: Solving the Tokenization Gap: Bridging Legacy Infrastructure with Decentralized Architecture   39’13: Seeding Web3 with Real Assets: Canton’s Strategy to Power DeFi with Institutional-Grade Infrastructure   41’33: Custom Rules, Shared Rails: How Canton Balances Decentralization with Regulatory Flexibility   44’30: Aligning Incentives: How Canton’s Tokenomics and Fair Launch Redefine Value Creation on Chain   49’35: The channels used to connect with Yuval & learn more about Digital Asset and Canton Network Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD. Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.