Thread by @hannah_h2s

Hannah, explain crypto to me--sth both excites me and gives me headache.
Over the weekend, 3–4 biz school friends asked me:
“What’s the real value of stablecoins?”
Here’s why it’s still so hard to explain — esp to smart & well-positioned people 🧵

1. In the U.S., people trust their banks, the dollar, and the system. But if you’re in Argentina, Nigeria, or Brazil — it’s a different story.

2. The use case is stronger for the globalized worker.
If your income and expenses span geographies — whether you’re remote, freelance, or working cross-border — stablecoins can be the fastest, cheapest, and most accessible option. But if you’re on a W-2 in the U.S., the benefits are much less visible.

3. People still think stablecoins = regulatory loophole.
The old narrative — "the government will shut this down" — still lingers.
But ironically, dollar-based stablecoins are increasing U.S. soft power abroad. I wrote a thought piece on this: substack.com/@hannahshen/no…

4. A hot take:
Stablecoin usage is the informal economy 2.0.
People who prefer getting paid in cash now want payment in stables — fast, global, and self-custodial.

5. Institutions have different motivations:
They're not here for freedom — they want efficiency & cost saving.
Faster settlement, 24/7 rails, fewer intermediaries.

The real hurdles?

Compliance

Accounting

Fraud detection

Tax handling
All the edge cases.
Blockchain isn’t a silver bullet — it needs robust infrastructure.

A student of political science, I came into crypto for one reason: Systems & Power Shifts.
Who builds them, who enforces them, how they change.
Stablecoins are a live experiment of a bottom-up and top-up transformation on money.

Stablecoins are not just a crypto story. They’re a policy, payments, and people story.
Still early. Still misunderstood. But very, very real.