This post maps the six rails behind ~96% of global FX turnover - T2, TIPS, STEP2, Fedwire, FedNow, FedACH - and works out when it's worth owning the connection versus renting it.
The Price of Trust: Pre-funded accounts in Global Settlement
This post traces how money actually moves across borders, why trillions of dollars sit locked in pre-funded accounts to make that movement possible, and whether the emerging stablecoin infrastructure is genuinely replacing that model or merely relocating its constraints to a different layer.
The long road to $1 on-chain
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 long road to €1 on-chain
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.
Stablecoins beyond narrow banking
Presentation in which I explore stablecoins beyond narrow banking - and what it would take to reconnect money and credit onchain
Stablecoin Monetisation Models
Stablecoins appear easy to monetise. They are not. This note looks at the few models that can scale sustainably.
Stablecoins 2.0
Stablecoins, led by Tether (USDT) and USDC, now total $180 billion, with new entrants like yield-bearing stablecoins, PayPal's PYUSD, Agora and M0 trying to disrupt the market.
While USDT and USDC dominate, blockchain’s true potential could lead to disruptive changes in the future of money.
Against the hype: the story of Pix
The post analyses PIX the new Instant Payment schemes launched in Brasil: its main characteristics, success factors, and the impact that a widely adopted centralized instant payment scheme will have on the Brazilian financial ecosystem.
Buy now, pay later, a new payment standard?
The goal of this post is to provide a guide on what buy now pay later is, which are its main dynamics, why it is so successful and how profitable it will stay in the longer run.
Visa 10K: the mother of all protocols
The post presents an analysis of Visa 2020 10K and uses it to give more context around Visa's history, growth opportunities and potential threats.
