Pedro Gomes founded WalletConnect in 2018, back when crypto infrastructure was so early that, as he puts it, you weren't just invited to the party, you had to build the walls yourself. Eight years and multiple Money20/20 conferences later, WalletConnect is the QR code the crypto industry recognizes on sight, and WalletConnect Pay has grown from a developer tool into a fully functioning payment method with real merchants on board.
Dayana Aleksandrova sat down with Pedro Gomes at Money20/20 in Amsterdam for an episode of the Payments Pulse, WalletConnect's talk show covering the convergence of traditional and digital finance. It's a fitting milestone: WalletConnect Pay first debuted about a year earlier at an IRL event in Singapore with DTC Pay, and Pedro used the conversation to trace exactly how much ground has been covered since then, from missing compliance flows and FX to a product that now looks like any other alternative payment method.
In this episode, Pedro talks about why fintech and crypto are converging into a single industry, why WalletConnect chose payments as its narrative rather than trying to be everything at once, and what's coming next: recurring payments, payouts, and a subscription-management experience built on crypto rails that neobanks haven't been able to offer.
Full Transcript
Dayana Aleksandrova: Welcome to the Payments Pulse, WalletConnect's talk show where we discuss anything payments, from traditional finance to digital finance. Today we're live at Money20/20, and we have a very special guest who we have not seen in a while: our founder, Pedro Gomes. Pedro, let's start at the beginning. You founded WalletConnect in 2018. You're a technical person, an engineer, a coder. How has WalletConnect changed from its origin until now, 2026, with WalletConnect Pay? Where were we, and where are we now?
Pedro Gomes: When you think about the world in 2018, all the bells and whistles weren't built yet. It's not that you're invited to a party and just have to set the table; you actually have to build the walls. That's kind of where I came from. I was in fintech back in London, and then I looked at the crypto industry, and it was just missing so many things. You couldn't even build a wallet properly. That's why I started WalletConnect: those fundamental pieces of infrastructure were missing.
Dayana: So now that we have WalletConnect Pay, where do you see the future evolving? Because this is a company everyone knows, loves, and uses. Where are we going next?
Pedro: I think where we're going next is really about the consolidation of fintech and crypto into one thing. Fintech companies are becoming crypto companies, and crypto companies are becoming fintech companies. You can imagine it the same way every company eventually became an internet company. Every fintech company will become a crypto company , it's just natural. And that means crypto companies also have to become fintech companies. That's what WalletConnect has evolved into.
Dayana: That's a bold statement, and it's so cool to see where you started, because you were one of the original t-shirt-wearing, coding, idealistic people back in 2018. Now you're rocking a blazer. When we talk about convergence between crypto and fintech, or TradFi as some call it, how do you see the crypto space evolving? Is this a symbiotic relationship between the two? What's happening to crypto because of fintech? Is it good for us?
Pedro: What crypto had going for it was this niche, a bit of a Wild West where you could do everything. But once you actually fit into the fintech industry, you have to decide which track to go down. That's exactly what crypto companies are facing now: you can't just be everything; you can't keep changing your mind every six months. You have to decide. WalletConnect made a very bold decision to focus on fixing payments, which is where we've had the most impact. Other companies are fixing other things: savings, lending, borrowing, perpetual markets. They're picking their narrative within the existing industry and bringing their crypto expertise with them.
Dayana: So why payments? Why did we choose payments?
Pedro: I'd say, first of all, WalletConnect is the QR code for crypto, and crypto plus QR codes just feels like payments is the natural next narrative. But we also offer tap-to-pay, we have e-commerce experiments, payment links; it's the best touchpoint for a wallet to engage with a merchant.
Dayana: When you say "the QR code", of course WalletConnect is known for its QR code, it's emblematic. About a year ago we introduced a partnership with DTC Pay in Singapore, and we had a booth at an IRL event; that was the first ever debut of WalletConnect Pay. How has the tech changed, and the whole vision, from then until now? For context, now WalletConnect Pay is fully functioning and people are buying merch here at the booth. How have we progressed technologically from Singapore to Amsterdam?
Pedro: I'd say it's been more about abstraction. We were in a previous world where we were selling to developers; WalletConnect was a developer tool. Now it's a merchant tool. We realized there were more layers that had to be built. Back at DTCP, we didn't have the compliance flows; we didn't have the FX. Now we have all the features you'd expect from any other alternative payment method. So we don't even classify ourselves as crypto infrastructure anymore; we classify ourselves as a payment method. That means we need all the features expected of a payment method. You can see that transition clearly across our technology, from DTCP in September, to Geneco in January, to today at Money20/20.
Dayana: What are some other milestones you can mention for WalletConnect Pay so far?
Pedro: Right now we're focused on one-time payments. I think that's the most impactful thing we can do, but why not recurring payments? Why not payouts? Expand the number and types of payments we support. I think it's limitless, because we have the largest network of wallets, and now we have merchants onboarding, so we can build that synergy together.
Dayana: Love that. What are you personally most excited to see in the future of WalletConnect?
Pedro: I'd love to see the subscriptions piece come together. That's something a lot of fintechs have struggled with , looking at your neobank and just knowing which subscriptions you have and managing them in one place. I think this is somewhere WalletConnect can really help and build a solid system, because we have the crypto tools, the blockchains, the stablecoins, things other neobanks didn't have before to build a solid subscription experience.
Dayana: So WalletConnect is here to build it. Pedro, thank you for being a guest on Payments Pulse.