A Memo onGlobal Money

I have watched this crypto space evolve from the days when we didn’t even know what to do with this digital money to now, where you can spend it almost like money from a normal traditional bank card. But still, the problem is that we are stuck offering the same services which have already been normal in banking for many years. We still haven’t given users a proper reason to move their whole financial life into one app, and that is why most of these new neobanks still don’t feel like a complete financial product.

The world is already global

A freelancer in Brazil can work for a company in the USA and everything goes alright until the payment process starts. Most of the time there are delays, and secondly it is still expensive. One of my friends has been freelancing for years and pays around 2% on every payout, then his local bank also charges him. This is not the financial system anyone wants. The work is global, but getting paid is still slow and expensive.

Then there is one of the biggest financial markets that is still not properly solved: commodity markets. It is a market that handles trade across the whole world, with billions of dollars moving through payments for oil, metals, agriculture, energy and other commodities. These businesses are global by nature, but the financial system they rely on is still very traditional and fragmented.

Another huge market is remittance, which is one of the biggest contributors to many countries’ economies, especially in emerging markets. People living abroad send money back to their families every day, every week and every month, and they are still paying a big amount in fees. Existing fintech companies have improved this, but they still have not reached many of these markets properly.

And then there are internet businesses working with international clients. They sell products and services worldwide, and this market is growing rapidly with the internet. A small textile company in an emerging economy can sell its products to some of the biggest brands in the world. This is already pretty common in South Asia and many other regions.

We already have global access when it comes to business and communication. Everyone is connected to each other, work is global, companies are global and customers are global, but we still lack a financial account that is built for a global world.

The first generation of fintech improved the interface

A few years ago using any crypto app was so complex. Some of it had messy UI and a normal person didn’t want to go through chains, addresses and then wait for transaction confirmations. In the last couple of years at least neobanks have improved this a lot. Now you can just send payments through usernames and spend from one app.

And in cross-border payments, Wise and Payoneer have indeed made good progress and made life easier for many people who do business or want to send money globally. It is much easier than the old wire payment systems.

Cards also went global. You don’t need to convert money or cash out every time whenever you’re on a trip. You can just use your card, and almost every neobank is offering these cards. Some companies also offer premium services with these cards.

A lot of this runs on fintech APIs, and these APIs have improved access a lot. From on/off ramps to security and settling international payments, a lot now goes through these APIs and every new fintech company can benefit from them.

Stablecoins also made dollar payments programmable. Nowadays anyone from almost anywhere can hold dollars and spend them, which was not possible or easy before stablecoins.

So an average user now has a bank account, Payoneer, exchange, wallet, card, local bank and lender. But the point is that all of these are individual improvements. We still haven’t unified the financial relationship.

We should use big fintech companies as partners instead of replacing them. If we improve the user experience together, we can attract more users to these apps and give them access to global money from any financial product they already use.

Stablecoins changed the underlying rails

Before the progress of stablecoins it was difficult to have full control of your money. You had to spend or cash out dollars according to traditional bank guidelines. Basically you were not always in full control of your money. Banks also don’t offer every service throughout the week. Imagine you have an urgent payment to make but there is some issue with the bank services or their app isn’t working properly. Your payment might not go through until the bank fixes it.

Stablecoins changed this. You have 24/7 access to your money and you can use it or send it to anyone at any time. Every day is the same day in the stablecoin economy.

The global access you get with stablecoins was not really possible before in the same way. You can hold dollars and use stablecoins to spend globally. Stablecoin adoption keeps growing and it has become one of the most important sectors in crypto.

And one of the best things about stablecoins is that they are programmable. People can use them in DeFi protocols to earn yield or for lending and borrowing. Companies can use them to pay salaries and with the right payment infrastructure they can also be converted into local currencies.

They also make settlements much faster. If someone sends dollars from one corner of the world to another using stablecoins the transfer can settle within seconds or minutes depending on the network. That is a huge improvement especially for international payments where traditional financial systems can still take much longer.

For me personally it has always been difficult to get access to dollars where I live. The local currency loses value over time and people’s savings lose value with it. Countries like Argentina, Pakistan and Nigeria have strong demand for dollars because people want to protect their money from local currency depreciation.

Since stablecoins work on blockchains they are also compatible with software. This means software can interact directly with money. You can automate things around balances, sending, spending and tracking instead of everything depending on manual banking processes.

What we learned from the evolution and growth of stablecoins is that they are a better settlement primitive around which better financial products can be built. They make moving money smoother and give us better rails to build the next generation of fintech products on top of.

Stablecoin products stop too early

Right now what we do with stablecoins is not something out of the box. What we are doing nowadays is receiving payments, holding dollars because local currencies are going down, sending money globally and lastly using a card for our daily purchases. Great, but these are just the basics of finance. In reality these markets are way bigger.

Everyone is still trying to sell the “money moves globally” line, but we barely discuss who actually gets access to this capital. There is a giant market where stablecoins are needed outside of crypto.

Think about it like this. A freelancer eventually needs equipment, emergency liquidity or working capital. A small business needs inventory, a payroll bridge or supplier finance. A commodity trader may need millions in working capital between purchasing and settlement.

So who gives them access to the capital?

This is where I think stablecoins can go further. We can help users get access to capital through financial partners, especially customers who already use our system and have built a financial history through it. Their payment history can be one useful signal alongside things like income, cash flow and repayment behavior.

The easier we make access to these financial products, the more useful the entire stablecoin financial system becomes.

If we want people to use a global payment system, we also need to give them access to the financial products they need around those payments.

Payments are the beginning of the relationship.

The opportunities

Global workers and remittances

Every year, a huge amount of money moves through remittances as workers send their earnings back to their families and countries. For many decades they have been using the same old methods of payment. Improvements in traditional banking have made this procedure a bit better, but they are still charging a big amount in fees.

Freelancers are always an important part of economies. They bring a lot of capital into the country, but in many markets the financial system still doesn’t serve freelancers particularly well. They may pay payout fees, conversion costs and then applicable local taxes. I talked with many freelancers about this and none of them are happy with the current payment systems. One of them told me that when he went for a payout, the bank manager told him, “Don’t send your dollar payments to our bank.” This is an unexpected response when we are living in the peak technology era.

Then we have migrant workers who consistently send money back home and waste part of their hard-earned money and a lot of time in the sending and receiving procedure. Most migrant workers still use familiar banks and remittance services, while stablecoin products remain unfamiliar or too complicated for many users. I would call this more of an awareness problem because many people still don’t know how stablecoins work, and I haven’t seen many neobanks so far targeting them properly.

Then we have international contractors who work, or want to work, with people around the world, but the payment system is still confusing. Their wages and payment options depend on which country they are from. In emerging countries people can receive lower income and part of it also goes into taxes and converting money into local currency.

Instead, we should think about it like this. Workers receive payments directly into their wallets, hold it in dollars instead of a currency that goes down every year, spend it with a card or digital payment system, and convert the money into local cash when they need it.

Also, we don’t think every existing payment company needs to be replaced. The more interesting opportunity may be connecting global payment platforms with better settlement and account infrastructure underneath.

Commodity trade

The same problem that exists for a $2,000 freelancer payment also exists at a completely different scale in global trade. But here the transaction value is much larger compared to the sectors we discussed before.

Commodity trade moves enormous amounts of money across borders every day through the buying and selling of oil, metals, gas, agriculture and other commodities. That is why transaction speed and safety matter a lot.

Also, multiple entities are involved in this whole procedure, so paying all of them at the right time is very different and requires more human capital and time.

Commodity trading is all about cross-border suppliers, and in this payment system they face many challenges. Different currencies, time zones and settlement systems involved make the process complicated.

24/7 liquidity requirements are still a challenge in commodity trading because many deals happen across different time zones and days. The banking operating system becomes an issue because sometimes services are not available. Traders need funds all the time, not just during banking hours, so they need liquidity whenever the trade requires it, which is still not properly offered by traditional banking.

Working capital for traders is also one of the biggest issues. Sometimes suppliers ask for money in advance, while traders also have to pay insurance and hold inventory. For all of this they need capital because the buyer may only pay after the shipment arrives.

Plenty of entities are involved in commodity trading and everyone has their own records, so it is difficult to manage and track all the payments. We call this complex reconciliation.

A lot of this can be improved if we give them infrastructure built on blockchain and powered by stablecoins. It can make settlement faster, easier to track and available 24/7, depending on the payment route.

The underlying rail can serve both a freelancer and a commodity trader. The workflow, controls and financial products layered above it are different.

Credit

Credit is also one of the things we can offer access to for users. This is already a pretty big market in developed countries and it should have potential customers in emerging markets too. But before users get access to lending, we need to build enough financial records for lenders to make a decision.

For income, we can track the income coming through the account and build records around whether it is growing and whether it is coming on time until the user meets the target criteria.

For payments, we can also track payment activity, including the volume weekly and monthly and the usual size of payments.

For business revenue, we can keep records of monthly and yearly business revenue so lenders can make decisions based on the business and its potential earnings.

For supplier activity, we can keep records of whether the business continues paying suppliers and compare old and recent activity.

Balances can also be part of the financial record. How much a user usually holds in the account can help give more context about their financial position.

Repayment behavior is probably the most important part for growth in credit. We can track whether repayments are made on time, how late they are when there is a delay and build a repayment history over time.

Then, with the user’s permission, we can pass relevant information to lending partners so they can make lending decisions based on these records.

This is how the account evolves from a place where money sits into a financial relationship.

The account is the product

A financial life based around one account is more compelling than just trying to offer some basic banking services. Here’s the approach we’ll be exploring first for individuals and then for businesses.

Receive

You should be able to receive money anytime from anywhere simply by sharing your username rather than your complex blockchain address. You should also be able to receive payments directly from your eligible bank account in a few simple clicks. Receiving money shouldn’t be complicated. People don’t like complexity, and fast is good. We all live at the speed of life these days.

Save

Users can park money within the app in USD and watch it grow. Partner products can offer yield opportunities so that you can earn part of your saved money. Everything is handled in one place, so you don’t have to jump around between apps. Many people prefer to save and not invest, and the idea is to make that experience easier for them.

Spend

You should have control of your assets and be able to spend them whenever you need to. The app can offer quick payments for online and everyday spending, as well as a card and other supported payment options such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Convert

You should be able to convert your assets into local currency when you need to, including being able to withdraw local cash from an ATM wherever your card program allows it. Local money access builds trust by showing that your funds aren’t locked inside the app. This is especially useful for individuals who are frequently moving between countries where local money is required.

Borrow eventually

Users may not need credit now, but many individuals will eventually need to borrow. Over time, the account will build up a financial history based on your income, payment activity, balances, and repayment history. If you meet the lending partner’s criteria, then the app could offer you access to credit through that partner.

In summary: Receive → Save → Spend → Convert → Borrow eventually.

Business

Now, let’s take a closer look at the business side of our concept.

Collect. Every business needs a place to collect its payments. The app offers a place to do that by entering company details and receiving payments into a single account. Instead of checking different banks, payment platforms and wallets, the business can see incoming payments in one place and keep a clear record of where the money came from. The company should also be able to track what it receives weekly, monthly and yearly, and separate payments by client, country or type of business. This makes it easier to understand cash flow and keep financial records organized as the business grows.

Pay. Paying a large number of employees individually can be a long and time-consuming exercise. A business may have employees, contractors and other people it needs to pay every month, and setting up every payment again and again doesn’t make sense. Instead, the company can create a list of all employees inside the app, add their payment details once and keep that information saved for future payments. At the end of every month, the business can review who needs to be paid and send those payments from the same place. This can also help when different employees are getting paid in different countries or currencies. The company should be able to see who has been paid, who is still pending and how much total payroll is going out that month. The main idea is simple: paying people should not require the finance team to repeat the same manual work every month.

Treasury. Every business needs a solid financial management system that provides all of the important details in one place, such as how much money the company has, where it is, pending payments, and extra cash that can be put to better use. The app can offer an easier way to manage treasury than by using a number of different traditional financial apps.

Supplier payments. Tracking all of a company’s supplier payments is usually not that easy. If the app allows businesses to manage invoices inside the app, they can see how much they need to pay each supplier and when each one is due. It would also be useful if suppliers could be verified and even divided into groups, so the company can see what is due to each supplier by supplier type. Wherever payment rails support it, the company can pay suppliers in USD or other currencies directly from the same system.

Working capital. A company with a strong payment and financial history is eventually going to find itself needing some working capital. That’s when financial records come in handy; partners can use those records to make lending decisions. There are plenty of cases where working capital is needed, such as paying salaries and suppliers, purchasing inventory, covering shipping costs, or paying bills and other short-term expenses while waiting for customer payments. Instead of looking for a separate product, lenders integrated with the app can offer financing within the same financial relationship. When the business eventually receives payments from its customers, it can repay the relevant lender according to the terms of the working-capital product.

The interface should remain simple even as the underlying infrastructure becomes increasingly sophisticated. The app makes things simple by providing an easy experience while solid financial infrastructure and partners work behind the scenes.

Why existing financial companies are part of this future

The logic for building upon existing foundations and partnering rather than replacing is compelling.

The simple fact is that there is no need to replace a great company like Visa or Payoneer or a bank or a lender when they are already playing an important role in the fintech ecosystem and providing a number of services that fintech companies would otherwise need to build themselves. Replacing them would be difficult, as creating a new service that provides the same level of existing products and services is no small task on its own and could take years in many cases.

Further, these larger, established firms operate in many countries and have built up licenses, compliance systems and partnerships to operate in a complex landscape. These things do not come easily; they take time and are hard to rebuild from zero.

Distribution means building on an existing user base, and millions of people already use these financial products every day. Make no mistake, partnering with an established financial company does not automatically translate into every user using your service, but it provides an incredibly strong foundation to build on.

The advantage of existing relationships with the rest of the banking system is also pretty compelling, as companies such as Visa, Payoneer and others have spent many years building their relationships with banks and financial institutions and being trusted and relied on for critical services. It is not just payment rails that fintech products are about; it is also credit. Credit is a big market, and partnering with existing lenders can make access to credit easier while allowing the lending partner to handle the underwriting, the lending decision and the risk. If a new fintech company wants to offer credit, bringing in someone who already has those capabilities will save them lots of time.

So, what can a new fintech company offer? Well, better software. Better use of stablecoin rails, which can help with faster and 24/7 settlement of digital dollars, with lower costs in many cases. A new account architecture that can open the door to connecting many services through one account, with shared infrastructure connecting different financial services. A better user experience, helping users more easily manage, move, spend, save and access financial assets across different systems. The list goes on, and fintech is an extremely fertile field for innovation.

So, fintech’s future looks really bright, building upon what came before. As fintech develops and matures, the winners will be the products that can connect with the systems that came before and draw from their strengths to make everything work better together.

What we’re interested in building

We are building a global account right now, centered around ownership and simple money movement. But over time, we are interested in building three deeper financial relationships around that account.

Global Income (Remittances)

This market is focused on global workers and people living abroad who send money back home. There are hundreds of billions of dollars flowing through remittances every year, but stablecoins are still barely playing into the picture. I haven’t seen a stablecoin neobank that has a real hold on the remittance market yet. One of the big reasons could simply be distribution. If you’re trying to build a global account product, it makes sense to find your core users first, figure out exactly what holds them back, and understand how we can get them there.

Once you find the right distribution channels, it’s possible that a neobank with a global account can become a real contender in this market in the future.

Global Commerce

When I think about global commerce, I’m really talking about commodities. Oil, gas, metals and agriculture represent some of the largest flows in global trade.

And I think we should definitely try to play into that sector. If we were able to figure out exactly what the challenges of these commodity companies are, we’d probably have great insight into how to build the right financial products or services for them to grow and be more successful.

I know that commodities seem far away for a startup to play in. But as soon as you start thinking about all the companies involved in that ecosystem, you realize how big the opportunity can be. Even a very small share of these payment flows could translate into significant volume for a financial platform.

The same logic applies to global commerce more broadly. Many companies that operate across borders will have a use case for a better financial relationship. And once you can figure out their workflows and provide something useful around them, they can become long-term customers. That could create a strong business for a financial product.

Global Capital

A huge portion of the world’s financial system revolves around capital. As long as there’s demand for paying suppliers, buying inventory or covering expenses before revenue comes in, there’s a need for capital. And this is also tied directly to global commerce.

Any company operating on a daily basis has to manage cash flow and, at some point, may need access to capital. If you don’t have a global account or a trusted lender to connect to, it becomes much harder to manage this workflow efficiently.

So I think we should try to find ways to integrate lending partners with this type of global account. There are existing credit companies and lending platforms that could potentially provide the lending layer, so there’s a lot of opportunity for us to integrate this into the global account.

This could eventually lead to working capital, financing and more.

Income → Commerce → Capital.

The risks, and what must be true

This is probably the most critical point new startups must think about, which is risk. Everything in the world carries risk, and I’ll touch upon the kinds of risks I’ve seen so far.

Stablecoins may remain infrastructure rather than a consumer product

In many developing countries, the desire to save in USD but spend locally makes sense, as local currency is universal. Still, stablecoin adoption remains a big challenge because most companies still prefer to settle in local currency. Perhaps this is due to crypto still needing more time to become mainstream.

For instance, when I visit my village here in my country, there’s only a very small population that knows what crypto is. Even then, most of those who know about crypto know it through trading rather than blockchains, stablecoins or financial infrastructure.

Existing fintechs can adopt the same rails

This is an inherent risk for any product, and this is why sometimes new ideas that seem fresh succeed. But then again, now it feels like almost everything has been done already. You either have to be extremely special or improve the product continually as time goes by.

What I see is that many existing fintechs have their own stablecoin, like PayPal, or they have acquired stablecoin infrastructure companies, like Stripe acquiring Bridge. They have distribution channels, customers and financial relationships. By continuing to roll out new technology, they could easily compete with new startups. This is one of the largest risks for a startup facing the giants.

Credit remains local

We are building around global finance and global capital movement. Yet credit isn’t global. One of the main reasons is regulation. Each country has different policies for credit and financial services, which makes it slow to roll out.

There are many stakeholders involved, and even though the account is global, credit still has to accommodate local laws, regulators and local lenders.

High-value commodity transactions

Commodity traders often have high-value transactions, which makes things difficult when you need everything to run properly. Companies trading globally must follow different compliance requirements such as source-of-funds checks, trade documents and duties.

Hence, engaging with commodity companies, financial partners and compliance mechanisms is essential as we look into large payment opportunities.

Users don’t always want another financial account

Finally, users don’t necessarily want another financial account. Many are satisfied with existing banking systems. Others still feel crypto payments are complex or carry too much risk, so they prefer not to use them.

Any new financial app faces one of its greatest challenges in acquiring users from products they already trust. The importance of a robust distribution plan is evident here.

That being said, I believe we still need to enhance the existing banking system. Money isn’t fast enough and payment systems are more complicated than they need to be. Financial systems must continue to evolve over time.

If we stop building because we are afraid of risk, we will never build the next generation of companies and products that can create real value for people.

What we believe

Today, work is global due to the internet revolution. You can now work anywhere in the world for anyone else. Thanks to how fast the world is moving these days, it’s also possible for me to enjoy the benefits of working for a company that operates across multiple regions and countries.

I think the same holds true for trade. Trade is a timeless business. It existed before software, before the internet and even before modern forms of money. However, as the speed of the world has accelerated, so too has commerce, and the cost and difficulty of doing business globally have decreased significantly.

And with this rapid acceleration, I believe the next logical step is to enable programmable money to accelerate trade around the globe. The transition from cash to digital money is already underway. Next will be money becoming increasingly programmable and agentic.

We believe blockchain can play a role in giving users greater control over their money, in addition to enabling a programmable approach to how money moves and is used.

As someone in a local market, my ability to borrow from global institutions or access global capital is still limited.

We’re not trying to make local regulation disappear. Instead, we’ll try to enable people with a global financial experience while working with local partners for the financial services that still need to remain local.

Today’s businesses can use blockchain technology to make cross-border settlement more efficient and improve access to global liquidity. However, the future requires a much greater scale to fully benefit from a global economy.

That future begins with building a global financial account for every user.

This is our vision.