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Pedro Gomes
Pedro Gomes
Founder and Director, WalletConnect Foundation, WalletConnect (WalletConnect Foundation / Reown)
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From Transactions to Payments | Pedro Gomes at Pragma Lisbon 2026

📅 Aug 08, 2026 ETHGlobal 13 MIN 3 VIEWS 9 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS
Pedro Gomes, Founder of WalletConnect, argues that crypto has optimized transactions without fully solving payments. Blockchains can move assets, but a useful payment system must also coordinate authorization, clearing, settlement, merchant acceptance and the exchange of goods or services. He contrasts crypto’s common push-payment model with card and bank systems that pull funds after authorization, explaining why a simple wallet transfer leaves merchants and consumers to manage timing, token, chain, and counterparty complexity themselves. He breaks a payment into distinct stages that crypto a...

What Pedro Gomes said

Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.

Pedro Gomes, founder of WalletConnect, argued that crypto has focused on building infrastructure for transactions but has not solved the original problem of payments. He distinguished transactions from payments, describing the three steps of authorization, clearing, and settlement that traditional card networks like Visa and Mastercard use. Gomes explained the difference between pull payments, used in card networks with pre-authorization, and push payments, how blockchains work today, and argued that pull payments reduce merchant risk and enable instant settlement. He outlined how WalletConnect is building a payments solution that lets merchants accept crypto in their local currency, abstracts away different stable coins and chains, and enables both in-person and online payments. Gomes highlighted benefits including much faster settlement (10 to 20 seconds), lower fees (card fees up to 3%), new customer access, and no charge disputes. Consumers keep their choice of wallet, token, and chain, and WalletConnect offers 2% cashback globally. Gomes stressed that WalletConnect is a network of wallets, not an app, and that this payments capability is available today.

Key takeaways

  1. WalletConnect is building a payments layer that lets merchants accept crypto in their local currency with one QR code accepted by all wallets.
  2. Stable coin settlement can happen in 10 to 20 seconds, compared to card settlement that can take up to 7 days.
  3. WalletConnect will offer 2% cashback globally from launch, which is rare outside the US.

Numbers and commitments

FigureWhat it refers toTypeAt
7 days Card payment settlement time metric 3:25
10 to 20 seconds Stable coin settlement time metric 9:28
3% Card payment network fees metric 9:28
2% WalletConnect cashback program commitment 10:48
8 years WalletConnect building the QR code standard metric 7:32

Chapters

  1. 0:00Payments versus transactions
  2. 3:25Authorization, clearing, settlement
  3. 5:09Pull versus push payments
  4. 7:32Blockchain payment complexity
  5. 9:28Merchant benefits with stable coins
  6. 10:48Consumer benefits and cashback
  7. 12:08Payments for mainstream adoption

Questions asked in this interview

1
  1. 0:09So, can I tell you all about the opportunity and the transition and just everything they're excited about?
Host 0:09 ↗
We're going to get started with our next talk. For this one, I'd like to bring on Pedro from Wallet Connect. He's the founder of Wallet Connect. And a lot of you know WalletConnect as the thing that you use to connect your wallet for mobile apps and MetaMask and any other web3 wallet on your desktop. But there's been a big evolution of how we think wallets are evolving and going from just transactions to actually managing and facilitating payments. So, can I tell you all about the opportunity and the transition and just everything they're excited about? Please welcome Pedro on stage.

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Cite this transcript

APA, MLA, BibTeX
APA

Gomes, P. (2026, August 8). From Transactions to Payments | Pedro Gomes at Pragma Lisbon 2026 [Interview transcript]. ETHGlobal. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1173465/

MLA

Pedro Gomes. "From Transactions to Payments | Pedro Gomes at Pragma Lisbon 2026." ETHGlobal, 8 Aug. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1173465/.

BibTeX 
@misc{gomes2026_1173465,
  author       = {Pedro Gomes},
  title        = {From Transactions to Payments | Pedro Gomes at Pragma Lisbon 2026},
  howpublished = {Interview transcript, ETHGlobal. CEOInterviews.AI},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = {aug},
  url          = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1173465/},
  note         = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}