I traced $1 from a US bank account to USDC on-chain: same architecture as the €1 journey, different legal foundations underneath every layer.
The $1 road and the €1 road are the same length. One is paved, but everyone in crypto uses the other.
The marketing version of a stablecoin on-ramp takes three seconds to explain. The plumbing version takes five layers of infrastructure, two different finality regimes, and a 1996 compliance rule that blockchain was never designed to satisfy. This is the plumbing version.
Agentic commerce introduces a new financial actor: the individual as a “corporation of one”, delegating spending authority to multiple AI agents.
This post explores the emerging infrastructure required to support this model: from identity and guardrails to fraud systems and machine-native payment rails.
Presentation in which I explore stablecoins beyond narrow banking - and what it would take to reconnect money and credit onchain
Stablecoins appear easy to monetise. They are not. This note looks at the few models that can scale sustainably.
A systematic look at the DeFi insurance landscape, its structural constraints, and the design trade-offs shaping on-chain risk markets.
Stablecoins are, in essence, the first large-scale experiment in narrow banking. Every USDC or USDT is (or supposed to be) fully backed by reserves – cash or short-term Treasuries – sitting safely off-chain. This architecture is what makes these tokens stable, but it also sterilizes capital: every dollar deposited creates no new credit, no new economic activity. In contrast, the...
After several years publishing as Fintech Ruminations, I am introducing a new name: Lombard Notes. The change reflects a broader focus, extending beyond fintech to the wider architecture of financial systems — from historical innovations to emerging digital markets. The content remains consistent in spirit, with only the name evolving. A few months ago, in my post Stablecoins 2.0, I suggested...
Tokenization promises “stocks on-chain,” but the legal wrapper decides what you actually hold. This post compares Robinhood, Securitize, and Backed to show how different wrappers translate into very different rights for investors.
This post outlines the core components of a tokenization engine and highlights the legal and ecosystem factors that will shape its real-world viability, especially as traditional assets like US equities begin to move onchain.