How Moon Lets You Pay with Bitcoin Anywhere Visa Is Accepted—Behind the Scenes with Ken

What we talked about.

In this episode, Sunny Ray talks with Ken, the builder behind Moon, a payments platform that lets consumers spend crypto anywhere online. Ken walks through Moon's browser extension, which lets US based shoppers purchase Visa prepaid cards using Bitcoin from Coinbase or instantly via the Lightning Network, effectively enabling Bitcoin payments anywhere Visa is accepted. Ken shares his path into Bitcoin, starting on Reddit in 2010, buying his first Bitcoin on Mt. Gox in 2013, and later becoming entangled in the Mt. Gox bankruptcy proceedings. He discusses his engineering background at Lockheed Martin working on submarine navigation sensors, his financial engineering studies at Columbia, and an earlier wearable tech startup that used machine learning to detect exercises. Ken explains how Moon evolved from a 2019 Amazon only integration into a full partnership with Visa and a partner bank, culminating in this week's launch allowing purchases across the wider web. The conversation includes a live demo of buying almond milk on Walmart using Lightning, showcasing the platform's simplicity and zero consumer fees.

Moon's founder Ken shows how Bitcoin and Lightning now buy Visa prepaid cards to shop anywhere online.

The questions, and the answers.

Can you give a quick overview of what Moon does?

Moon is a payments platform that lets consumers pay with crypto pretty much anywhere online. We built a browser extension you add to Chrome, Brave or Edge, and right now at US ecommerce merchants you can purchase a Visa prepaid card. We're integrated with Coinbase so you can pay from any Coinbase wallet, and we're integrated with the Lightning Network so you can instantly send Bitcoin at extremely low fees to make payments.

How did you first get into Bitcoin?

My journey started through Reddit. I'm an engineer by training, studied computer science, and worked at Lockheed Martin, but I was browsing Reddit late at night back in 2010 when I first heard about Bitcoin. Unfortunately I didn't buy any until a few years later, which is probably the biggest mistake of my life. I finally bought my first Bitcoin on Mt. Gox in 2013.

What was your experience with the Mt. Gox collapse like?

I'm wrapped up in the Mt. Gox class action lawsuit now, so I get a lot of mail from Japan. My favorite part was that someone set up an impromptu exchange on Mt. Gox itself, letting people trade trapped Bitcoin for free Bitcoin at a market driven rate. I got lucky and traded most of mine out around two to one, so what I'm still owed is basically a rounding error.

What did you work on at Lockheed Martin?

I worked on the USS Ohio class submarine, primarily on their navigation system, so I have a big background in inertial sensors and the software algorithms around them. Think accelerometers and gyroscopes like the ones in your phone, but on a nuclear submarine scale, much larger and far more accurate. It was really cool technology to get to work on.

What made you go all in on Bitcoin around 2018?

It wasn't about the price. That run up actually worried me because everyone's grandma wanted in, and I felt people's lives were going to get affected chasing quick gains. For me it's about financial freedom and empowerment, and getting people to actually use Bitcoin as a medium of exchange, which I know has become less popular, but I'm a big believer in it.

How did Moon originally launch back in 2019?

We first launched allowing people to shop on Amazon with the same Coinbase and Lightning integrations, but the way we facilitated transactions was much more behind the scenes. You'd install the extension, see a Pay with Moon button at Amazon checkout, and complete your purchase with Bitcoin. It got front page coverage on CoinDesk and TechCrunch and was a big deal at the time.

How did the current anywhere Visa is accepted version come together?

At the start of 2020 I called Visa, explained what we built on Amazon and our vision, and surprisingly they loved it. Visa connected us with our now partner bank, and we spent all of 2020 integrating with them. This past Tuesday we launched the ability to shop anywhere online where Visa is accepted, not just Amazon.