How can stickleins revolutionize how we pay? There is another payment revolution before our eyes. This time based on blockchain.
Payment revolutions
Every few decades, a revolution occurs in the payment world. For example, in the 18th century, a check appeared on the market. This seemingly banal invention was created in Great Britain, where in 1772 a company was established, which issued “travel letters”, which were de facto checks – a form of simple transport transport. However, the breakthrough came in 1839, when George Best from London launched the first travel checks to the market. The revolution was that they could have been implemented in every branch of his bank. The news was seen by Thomas Cook & Son, which broadcast its own checks. In the 1860s, checks were already common in Europe and the USA. They were issued by banks, hotels, railway lines and travel agencies. They became a form of payment for services, and they slowed down the owner from the need to carry a lot of cash with them.
Sounds great, but remember that the money still had to be physically transmitted between banks. This type of internal payments, between institutions, were settled in coins, which had to be transported from one bank branch to another – depending on who had paid and where. Every day, even 50 porters employed by banks went from one unit to another, armed with the accounting book, checks and gold coins. If the value of the presented checks was higher than the received, they collected the difference in gold. If the opposite – they left a lot of coins on the spot.
This system worked well, but in the mid -nineteenth century there was a problem – there were too many banks, so the porters could not get to everyone and settle accounts in one day. The system’s capacity was too low.
Then another revolution was launched. In 1853, New York Clearing House was created – each bank settled with Clearing House, banks did not settle accounts with each other. This reduced costs – banks needed fewer messengers. In addition, it significantly increased safety – in the end the risk of mistakes fell, but also transporting money to various places.
After some time, another innovation was added – banks began to deposit their gold in Clearing House in exchange for cash certificates – paper receipts secured with gold. This simplified and accelerated the settlement process.
Today, there is no need to employ porters: their place was taken by digital accounting systems, which may soon be supplemented with blockchains.
Stablecoin
Current banking systems allow almost immediate settlements, but only in a fairly narrow circle of regulated financial institutions and only at normal working hours. And Stablecoin can change this.
Stablecoin is digital assets that are a representation of a given good – Fiat currencies, gold, etc. – and are stamped on blockchain. So it is a reflection, transfer of physical assets in the web3 world. Technology is crucial here – thanks to the fact that they are based on blockchain, they work 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. This means that they can be sent between wallets during this period. Do you want to make a purchase on Sunday? No problem – stablecoin will be transferred to the store right away. You don’t have to wait for the capital to leave the bank on Monday morning and will go to another account in the best scenario after a few hours.
Behind all this is the issuer of Stablecoin, a company that creates Stablecoin and then manages it. Importantly, the rules must stick to: Stablecoin must have coverage in external goods. If one unit is to be worth one American dollar, on the other side, i.e. in the treasury of the Issuer, Stablecoin must have its reflection in the form of 1 USD or assets that are just worth so much.
The most famous Stablecoin is USDT (belonging to Tether), USDC (Circle property), which occurs in dollar and euro, or binanceusd, Stablecoin Binance Stock Exchange. Currently, the total capitalization of the Stablecoin market is over USD 200 billion.
The use of stableleins
It is worth emphasizing that stablecoin performs various functions.
On the cryptocurrency market, stablecoins are so -called “safe haven” – if the traders feel little confidently at a given moment, they do not know if the bitcoin course will fall or increase, they like to change BTC into stablecoin, which have a constant value (of course expressed in dollars or euros, i.e. FIAT currencies). And actually so many years were approaching “stable” cryptocurrencies.
Today, stableleins are thought differently – as something that can potentially revolutionize international trade, send a value from one hemisphere to the other and very quickly, even in a second, and without the involvement of banks and the SWIFT system.
Exactly! Swift! This is an association for the world -based financial telecommunications, an international organization of financial institutions maintaining a telecommunications network used to exchange information. It sounds innocent, but in practice it is a mechanism that allows the West to control the flow of capital. Thanks to it, the US can cut off hostile countries from access to capital. And now – in the era of geopolitical tensions – stableleins appear again, which make the world become independent of Washington’s interests. It is enough for, for example, that Iran can trade oil with stableleins, and the USA has a serious problem!
Anyway, it’s not just about hard, geopolitical interests. Stablecoin can help people in developing economies, where banking simply has not developed. In addition, this type of cryptocurrency can be encouraged by intelligent contracts, which will make payments with their help automatic, which further facilitates various transactions.
Market condition on 2025.
All this sounds really revolutionary, but what is the actual state of the market for 2025. The case was examined by Fireblocks, which conducted a survey with about 300 companies from the fintech market and banks. Data are optimistic: as many as 90% of companies are interested in Stablecoin, and 48% of Fireblocks interlocutors believe that stableleins are an interesting solution due to the speed of transactions. 71% of companies from the Fintech industry from Latin America use Stablecoin to make cross -border payments.
So far, Stablecoin has already reached, among others Stripe, Mastercard, Visa, Coinbase, PayPal or Moneygram.
Summary
Payment history is the history of breakthroughs – from travelers in the 19th century to digital accounting books. Today, stablecoins are standing at the threshold of the new revolution. They guarantee 24/7 availability, speed and global range and flexibility of applications. This market is growing dynamically: the total value of Stablecoin already exceeds USD 200 billion. Global players like Visa, Stripe or PayPal reach for this type of solution. Studies show that up to 90% of financial companies are actively interested in this solution.
Stablecoin, however, is not only technology: it is a change in the paradigm – how we pay and to whom we entrust control over the value.
