The financial system does all kinds of gymnastics to get back to the simplicity we once had with cash. When I hand you $100, you have it, and I no longer do. The transaction settles instantly and there's nothing to reconcile. Adding electronic rails gave money global reach. But making cross-border payments feel instant requires trillions in pre-positioned capital sitting idle in bank accounts around the world. And armies of people to track and reconcile it all. Those costs fall hardest on emerging markets, where cross-border payments become more expensive or uneconomic to offer at all. Tokenized money offers a way to restore the simplicity of cash, but at a global scale. Payment and settlement can happen at the same time, without the gymnastics required to create the illusion of cash. It can free up enormous amounts of capital, automate reconciliation, and make more markets economically viable to serve. I wrote about how stablecoins restore the best properties of cash for the @wef. Full article below.