I remember the early days of the internet when the main problem was the ‘Last Mile Problem’ - how to get high speed internet to phones and off dial-up modems. That problem was effectively solved with ADSL modems that enabled high- speed (1 Mbps, at the time) to run over the existing copper wire and freeing up the family phone.

Then the internet went BOOM!

Now we have a similar dynamic with payments. We have the equivalent of the internet (bitcoin/lightning/nostr/cashu) - we now need to focus on the ‘last mile’ so the payment rails can go BOOM! and open a whole new wave of innovation.

Stablecoin issuers feel like the wave of ISPs of the late 90s. They made dial-up and access to the internet easy. But when the telcos started to eat the ISP business and roll out ADSL modems, they withered away (remember AOL?)

I predict the same fate as the stablecoin issuers - hot for now, but they will wither away once global infrastructure providers get into the mix with open protocols. I don’t now how this will play out, but I see the global payment rail stack to be: bitcoin/lightning/nostr/cashu->local fiat.