Money is already digital, highly automated and internationally scaled. The American payments/settlement system is arguably more decentralised than blockchains. Crypto brings unique attributes to the table. But being digital, automatable and international aren’t major differentiators.
To the degree we’re seeing a persistent class of winners in crypto, it’s not users. And it’s not VCs. It’s Wall Street. Because this is an old, dirty game. Some folks just gave it a new paint job.
There are two companies (Visa, MasterCard) that have a global oligopoly and full control. If you get on a blacklist for one you are done, your internet economic life is over (except crypto). I don't care if Wall Street is profiting by speculation if I'm not excluded myself, the problem is that WS is getting a lot of help with the US regulators that then regulate the global market in a way that excludes poor people.
> two companies (Visa, MasterCard) that have a global oligopoly and full control
For one set of rails. Wires, ACH, and a number of other payment rails exist and outclass Visa + MasterCard. (Also, technically, Visa and MasterCard are analogous to SWIFT. They process payment messages. Not the transfer of dollars per se. If they chose, they could execute transactions in Bitcoin with the issuing bank and merchant bank then settling the trade on the blockchain or whatever offline.)
To the degree we’re seeing a persistent class of winners in crypto, it’s not users. And it’s not VCs. It’s Wall Street. Because this is an old, dirty game. Some folks just gave it a new paint job.