1/ After seeing this line chart created by @nic__carter showing stablecoin volume compared to established payment networks, we decided to partner with @AlliumLabs to create the Visa Onchain Analytics Dashboard as a public resource to take a closer look at stablecoin activity. 2/ The dashboard shows relevant metrics that our team closely tracks including stablecoin supply, transaction volume, and monthly active users for USDC, USDT, PYUSD, and USDP across five layer 1 blockchains and four layer 2s where stablecoins are issued

visaonchainanalytics.com

1/ We are excited to announce that Visa has expanded our stablecoin settlement capabilities to merchant acquirers launching pilots with @Worldpay_Global and @Nuvei utilizing the Solana blockchain

businesswire.com/news/home/2023… 2/ When a consumer uses a Visa card to make a purchase at a merchant, they experience the convenience of instant payment authorizations. What they don’t see is that the value for their purchase needs to move between their bank (the issuer) and the merchant’s bank (the acquirer).

1/ This story is inaccurate as it pertains to Visa, here’s the reality 👇🏼

reuters.com/technology/vis… 2/ We continue to partner with crypto companies to improve fiat on and off ramps as well as progress on our product roadmap to build new products that can facilitate stablecoin payments in a secure, compliant, and convenient way.

1/ I’ve been playing around with some on-chain data related to stablecoin adoption in retail payment use cases and found a few surprising insights. Thread below 👇 2/ By assigning a <$200 value heuristic to the on-chain transaction data, a base level proxy for payments can be created. Applying this to the top chains used for stablecoins provides an interesting picture.

1/ I just published a new post on the Dawn of a Black Digital Renaissance

Thread below 👇🏽

medium.com/@cuysheffield/… 2/ Over the past week, I've been reading about the Harlem Renaissance and the unique conditions that brought Black art, writing, and music to global popular culture with an eye towards how the internet and public blockchains can create conditions for a Black Digital Renaissance.

1/ I'd argue that central bank digital currency (CBDC) is one of the most important trends for the future of money and payments over the next decade.

Regardless of anyone's personal views of whether it's good or bad, the reality is that global interest in it is not going away 2/ As governments evaluate CBDC, the path that they decide to take will have major implications for privacy, monetary sovereignty, geopolitics, and financial inclusion, as well as global adoption of crypto dollars and Bitcoin

1/ One use case of crypto dollars that seems to be under discussed is their use in B2B payment flows between crypto native companies. Anecdotally, there seems to be a clear product market fit for this use case but very little public data or coverage of it.

Thread below 2/ First, it's helpful to think about an initial addressable market that consists of

- Companies that hold crypto on their balance sheet
- Companies that sell products and services to companies
that hold crypto on their balance sheet

1/ I've seen a lot of confusion around whether or not "blockchain" makes sense for future applications of central bank digital currency (CBDC)

Here's a thread that attempts to think through this question out loud. Would love to hear what others think as well 2/ First, I think it's important to unbundle the catch-all buzzword of "blockchain" into its distinct underlying components. @mrauchs and team provided a fantastic framework for this in @CambridgeAltFin paper from 2018 below

bit.ly/33YY5Ta

1/ This paper from @RaphAuer @BIS is a must read for anyone interested in design considerations for retail central bank digital currencies (CBDC) Here were some of the key takeaways...

bis.org/publ/qtrpdf/r_… 2/ "CBDCs promise to provide cash-like safety and convenience for peer-to-peer payments. To do so, they must be resilient and accessible. They should also safeguard the user’s privacy, while allowing for effective law enforcement"

1/ Fantastic thread from @brian_armstrong that got me thinking a lot about the relationship between dollars, cents, and sats and the consumer value proposition of Bitcoin micropayments enabled by the Lightning Network

https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1225554351466467330

2/ I'd argue there are some really interesting use cases and scenarios that could drive mainstream consumers to spend Bitcoin instead of traditional dollars or stablecoins in the future that are under discussed in Bitcoin, fintech, and traditional payments circles.

1/ Reading @opinion_joe's A Piece of the Action, it's interesting to consider the invention and mainstream adoption of credit cards as a successful example of consumer demand for increased financial self sovereignty and a parallel for future adoption of crypto lending or "DeFi" 2/ Before credit cards existed, "people would come into their bank four to five times a year, whenever they needed extra funds." If you wanted to buy a large household item like a TV or home appliance, you would need explicit "permission" from your banker for a small loan.

1/ I've been reflecting on the Augur launch and noticed several of the top markets were focused on the World Cup. I’m interested to see how important sports gambling will be as a vertical to drive mainstream adoption of the Augur protocol and Dapps in general.

Thread below...

https://twitter.com/spencernoon/status/1017992298326642693

2/ While new creative financial markets that weren’t possible before will likely be the most innovative use and largest total addressable market in dollar value, the overall number of users likely to participate in these will be low and likely limited to sophisticated investors

1/ This is a fantastic thread by @hosseeb on why security tokens might not make sense. It brings to mind a key question to explore with big implications that is "what problem does a public blockchain really solve here?" Let's start with immutability...

https://twitter.com/hosseeb/status/1009489572755935232

2/ As @hosseeb mentions it's helpful to use the thought experiment of what happens if an investor gets hacked and their security tokens are stolen? Most proponents claim that isn't a problem as new tokens would be re-issued and the stolen ones invalidated.

1/ One area that seems under discussed in crypto is the impact decisions from Apple and Google will have on the opportunity and adoption of decentralized applications within the iOS and Android operating systems which could determine success of the smart contract platform thesis 2/ While the crypto community promotes dapps as "unstoppable applications", these dapps still need easy to use interfaces to gain widespread adoption. Per most ETH supporters, this mass utility within dapps is needed for ETH to become "money" and held as a store of value

1/ This post highlights how far we are from mass adoption of DApps and got me thinking more about what might a "killer DApp" look like.

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2/ First, there is the common argument that it only makes sense for an app to be decentralized if it requires a significant level of censorship resistance. This limits the number of potential use cases to DEX, prediction markets, gambling etc which we are starting to see today