原文标题：Cross-border Bitcoin payments a top priority for Marathon Digital — Bitcoin 2024

Original author: Alex O’Donnell

Original source: cointelegraph

Compiled by: Mars Finance, Eason

The bitcoin miner is seeking partners to build a bitcoin payments application, a company executive said.

Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital (MARA) is looking to work with blockchain developers to build a Bitcoin (BTC) Layer 2 solution for cross-border BTC payments, Marathon sidechain product lead Julian Duran said at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee on July 26.

Duran, who also contributes to Anduro, a second Bitcoin layer within Marathon, said that “cross-border payments are the biggest use case for blockchain in general, and Bitcoin in particular.” Payments, he said, are “at the top of my development priorities.”

Duran said that in emerging markets, the average cost of sending money overseas is 8% to 10% of the transaction value, and settlement usually takes 3 to 4 days. In contrast, BTC transfers are usually completed in 10 minutes or less, and Bitcoin Layer-2 may be even faster.

Marathon Digital (MARA) 12-month stock performance. Source: Marathon Digital

He noted that regulatory compliance is critical for any payment solution to be successful – and often comes at a cost.

“Regulation is a top priority for any use case we might incubate,” Duran said, adding that if “making sure every license is in order…means the product roadmap stretches from one month to a year, that’s fine.”

High compliance costs in the United States should not deter developers, who may find a more supportive environment in developing countries where cross-border payment solutions are most needed.

“It is often cheaper and quicker for other jurisdictions, particularly emerging markets, to approve new payment systems because regulators and governments … want a better cross-border payments solution than what already exists,” Duran explained.

In addition to payments, tokenizing real-world assets (RWA) is also one of Marathon’s key areas of focus, Duran said. The bitcoin miner is in the early stages of plans to tokenize American whiskey barrels and is also working with an RWA platform to protect French castles.

Marathon is one of the largest corporate holders of BTC, holding approximately 20,000 BTC, valued at over $1 billion. In July alone, the company acquired approximately $100 million worth of BTC.