What happens when money becomes technology?

Another pressing topic for 2025 is the role of stablecoins in reducing transaction costs . Many businesses, especially in e-commerce and cross-border payments, grapple with high fees imposed by traditional financial systems. Stablecoins provide a compelling alternative, offering lower costs, faster settlements, and greater transparency. Businesses ... See more

In short, tangible money is insecure, inconvenient, easy to fake, and impractical for digital payments. Middleman-mediated money, or M3, solves these problems, but introduces problems of fees, lack of accessibility, and a different form of insecurity. Right now, we have to pick our poison.

Yet many other cryptocurrency believers, including a cross section of techies and businessmen who see a chance to disrupt the bank-centric payments system, are de facto chartalists. They describe bitcoin not as a currency but as a payments protocol. They are less concerned about its appeal as an intrinsically valuable thing and more with the underl

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