Earlier this week, I listened to an episode of the On the Block podcast, where the host, Matt Ross, Head of Investor Relations, sat down with Brad Axen, Principal Engineer for Data and Machine Learning at Block $XYZ. Brad built Goose, Block's open-source agent framework. The conversation was about how Goose got built.
This episode made me realize that Block’s MoneyBot and ManagerBot aim to be the Claude Code of money.
If you've used Claude Code, you already know what's coming for consumers and small business owners. If not, follow the link in the reply to read my latest @PopularFintech essay 👇🏻
Reading about the Coinbase Commerce Payments Protocol that will power USDC on Shopify. If I understand correctly, the protocol allows implementing rules similar to the rules currently enforced by Visa and Mastercard:
✔️ The protocol introduces two concepts: "Escrow" and "Operator"
✔️ Funds from payers are collected into the "Escrow" before being transferred to the merchant
✔️ The "Operator", which can be an "advanced smart contract", facilitates the transfer of funds from the "Escrow" to the merchant (or back to the payer)
✔️ "The protocol is not concerned with how the operator is implemented and just recognizes it as an address"
...so Visa or Mastercard can build their own "Operators" that implement the scheme's rules through smart contracts.
How cool is that?!!!
$COIN $V $MA