According to Lightspark, its cofounder and chief strategy officer Christian Catalini joined the a16z crypto podcast to discuss the future of money, lessons from Meta's Libra, and why openness rather than corporate control will prevail. Source: Lightspark on X, Jan 15, 2026. The episode covers why Bitcoin is more than digital gold, what Catalini learned from his time at Facebook, and his view that openness will win. Source: Lightspark on X, Jan 15, 2026. Lightspark notes that Catalini is a former architect of Meta's shuttered Libra project and currently cofounder and chief strategy officer of Lightspark, a global payments startup. Source: Lightspark on X, Jan 15, 2026.

According to @lightspark, Chief Product Officer Alberto Martin published an Insights article asserting that open networks will outperform closed networks and that closed networks are already behind. Source: Lightspark post on X dated 2025-08-15 at twitter.com/lightspark/status/1956406769858801737 and linked article at lightspark.com/news/insights. The announcement is a positioning statement with no new product releases, metrics, or financial disclosures, indicating thematic emphasis rather than an immediate market-moving update. Source: Lightspark post on X at twitter.com/lightspark/status/1956406769858801737. Because Lightspark builds payments infrastructure on the Bitcoin Lightning Network, this reinforces its strategic focus on open, interoperable rails relevant to BTC ecosystem adoption that traders monitor. Source: Company materials at lightspark.com.