The head of Google’s payments division, Osama Abedier, called Mike in to get a tutorial on the technology. Mike knew that Google had long struggled with how to build its own digital payments system. The program that Abedier was working on, known as Google Wallet, was not creating a new payment system—instead it was looking to provide a new means of using existing credit cards and bank accounts online. All the fees and restrictions with credit cards and bank accounts still applied to Google Wallet.
Mike gave Abedier a lesson on the basics of a virtual currency that had no central authority and essentially no transaction fees. When Mike finished his presentation, Abedier told him, “I would never admit it outside this room, but this is how payments probably should work.”