Bitcoin.com’s latest podcast episode features Stephen Pair, co-founder and CEO of BitPay, in a conversation with host Richard Jacobs focused on the evolution of bitcoin payments, the growth of BitPay, and the company’s open-source development initiative, Bitcore.
BitPay’s rise in bitcoin payments
According to the episode, BitPay was founded in spring 2011 by Stephen Pair and Tony Gallippi. Pair explains that the company gained traction quickly, with 1,100 merchants accepting bitcoin during its first year. Over roughly six years, BitPay grew into what the podcast describes as the world’s largest bitcoin payment processor, reflecting how early infrastructure providers helped merchants experiment with digital currency acceptance at scale.
During the discussion, Pair looks back at BitPay’s early contributions to the bitcoin sector and the company’s rapid expansion since launch. The conversation frames BitPay as one of the businesses that helped turn bitcoin from a niche internet payment method into a tool that merchants could integrate into day-to-day operations. Rather than focusing only on speculation around bitcoin, the episode emphasizes utility, merchant enablement, and user experience.
Merchant network and global reach
Pair says BitPay serves thousands of merchants across six continents, supporting a bitcoin payment flow used by thousands of people each day. The company’s tools are presented as globally accessible merchant solutions that also extend to billing and donation features. This positions BitPay not only as a checkout processor, but also as a broader service provider for organizations looking to accept bitcoin in multiple contexts.
The podcast also references partnerships and collaborations with large brands, including Microsoft, Warner Bros. Records, and Newegg, as well as work with PayPal. These examples are used to illustrate BitPay’s reach into mainstream commerce and its efforts to bridge digital currency infrastructure with established corporate payment environments.
For listeners, that merchant list serves as a reminder of an important stage in bitcoin’s development: the period when adoption was often measured by whether recognized global brands were willing to test or deploy acceptance tools. In that context, BitPay’s role was less about consumer branding and more about providing the backend rails that made those integrations possible.
Bitcore and the open-source development stack
Beyond payment processing, Pair discusses Bitcore, an open-source project developed by BitPay to support bitcoin development and blockchain-based applications. The platform is described as a full stack for building on bitcoin, including a wallet client, API, user interface components, and a full node with extended capabilities. It also offers a JavaScript library intended to make development more accessible for programmers and merchants.
The episode presents Bitcore as part of BitPay’s broader contribution to infrastructure. Instead of relying on proprietary APIs alone, Pair and the company argue that developers should have access to open tools that allow them to build applications with greater flexibility. In practical terms, that means enabling developers to create services on top of bitcoin without being locked into closed systems controlled by a single vendor.
This open-source angle gives the discussion a second layer beyond commerce. While BitPay is widely associated with merchant services, Bitcore shows the company’s interest in shaping the technical environment around bitcoin as well. For developers, the existence of reusable modules, APIs, and full-stack tooling lowers barriers to experimentation and shortens the path from idea to product.
A conversation centered on utility
The podcast episode stands out for its focus on operational use cases rather than market hype. Pair’s comments tie together two major themes in bitcoin’s development: payments infrastructure and developer tooling. On one side, BitPay works to make bitcoin usable for merchants, billers, and organizations accepting donations. On the other, Bitcore aims to provide the software building blocks needed to create new applications in an open environment.
That pairing is significant because adoption often depends on both layers progressing at the same time. Merchants need reliable processing, settlement tools, and billing workflows. Developers, meanwhile, need software frameworks and infrastructure that let them build without unnecessary friction. The conversation suggests that BitPay views those needs as interconnected rather than separate markets.
Why the episode matters
For industry observers, the interview offers a concise snapshot of how one of the earliest and most recognizable bitcoin payment companies describes its own trajectory. Pair’s remarks connect BitPay’s origin story, its merchant expansion, and its open-source work into a single narrative about practical adoption. The company’s first-year milestone of 1,100 merchants, its presence on six continents, and its relationships with major brands are presented as evidence of sustained relevance in the payments segment.
At the same time, the Bitcore discussion underscores a long-running debate in the crypto and blockchain industry: whether developers should build on closed commercial platforms or on open protocols and public tools. By highlighting Bitcore, the podcast frames BitPay as a participant in that debate, advocating for a model in which infrastructure remains accessible to a wider technical community.
Bitcoin.com notes that readers can listen to or download the latest episode through the link provided with the original article. The publication also invites the audience to share views on both BitPay and Bitcore, reinforcing the broader industry relevance of the discussion.
Overall, the episode functions as both a company profile and a broader reflection on the building blocks of bitcoin adoption. Through Stephen Pair’s comments, listeners get a view into how BitPay sees its place in the ecosystem: as a facilitator of merchant payments, a provider of global bitcoin-based business tools, and a contributor to open-source software development through Bitcore.