Why the room needs them.
Ben Milne, founder and CEO of Brale and founder of Dwolla, spoke on two Taostats Stage panels at Proof of Talk Paris 2026. The panels covered Bitcoin's financial stack and building applications on Canton.
The full account.
Ben Milne founded Dwolla, a payments network built to move money directly between bank accounts, in Iowa in 2008 with Shane Neuerburg. Before that he ran Elemental Designs, an online audio-speaker business he started in 2001 as a high school senior in Cedar Falls, Iowa, with about $1,200 in savings. He grew it through audio enthusiast forums without outside funding and later sold it. MIT Technology Review reported that card fees on that business led him to look for a cheaper way to move money.
Dwolla launched nationally in December 2010 after about a year in limited beta in Iowa and California. Fast Company named it one of its 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2014, and Forbes listed it among its Disruptors of the Year. In 2013 MIT Technology Review included Milne in its Innovators Under 35.
In 2020 he co-founded Basis Theory, a payments data infrastructure company, with Brian Billingsley and Colin Luce, and co-founded V-Sum, a virtual fintech conference series. In 2022 he founded Brale, a stablecoin issuance platform that a March 2023 post on his own site described as a Des Moines-based licensed money transmitter. In March 2023 the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission named him to its Technology Advisory Committee, listing him as Brale's founder and chief executive officer. In September 2025 Brale announced a $30 million round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.
In August 2025 Milne stepped off Dwolla's board, writing that after 17 years it was time to move on and that his remaining connection would be as a customer, through Brale's integration. In July 2026 CoinDesk, identifying him as Brale's founder and CEO, reported that the company supported more than 100 stablecoin programmes across over 30 blockchains and had introduced ION, a protocol that moves participating stablecoins between chains by burning them on one and minting them on another, without pre-funded liquidity pools.
Milne spoke at Proof of Talk Paris 2026 as founder and CEO of Brale, on two panels on the Taostats Stage. On 2 June he joined Rena Shah and Chad Master for "Rebuilding Bitcoin's Financial Stack: From Payment Rails to Programmable Value", moderated by Pete Rizzo. On 3 June he joined Dan Simerman, Sacha Ghebali and Luis Cuello for "Building Applications on Canton", moderated by Danish Chaudhry.
What Ben believes about the next ten years.
Years of shipping.
Lines that keep proving correct.
“I stepped off of Dwolla's board today. After 17 years, it's time for me to move on.”
“The liquidity between stablecoin programs is the No. 1 barrier to scaling bespoke stablecoins.”
“In Silicon Valley, people are looking for a silver bullet. I look at it like a Midwesterner: I have an ax and I'm going to cut down a tree.”
What they have built, written, and backed.
Built
- Elemental DesignsOnline audio-speaker business Milne started in 2001 with about $1,200 and grew through audio enthusiast forums without outside funding before selling it.
- DwollaBank-to-bank payments network founded in Iowa in 2008 with Shane Neuerburg; launched nationally in December 2010 and was named one of Fast Company's 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2014.
- Basis TheoryPayments data infrastructure company co-founded in 2020 with Brian Billingsley and Colin Luce.
- BraleStablecoin issuance platform founded in 2022; CoinDesk reported in July 2026 that it supported more than 100 stablecoin programmes across over 30 blockchains and had introduced ION, a burn-and-mint cross-chain protocol.
The next Proof of Talk is in Abu Dhabi.
Louvre Abu Dhabi, 3–4 December 2026. Admission is by application, and the room is capped at 2,000.
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