The rise of another type of crypto asset

For a long time, I have held a relatively indifferent attitude towards the application of two types of crypto assets:

One is payment based on crypto assets (such as stablecoins);

The second is purchasing tokenized stocks or tokenized physical assets on-chain.

(Note: Here, I specifically refer to scenarios where humans, rather than AI, use crypto assets. I have already shared my optimistic views on AI using crypto assets in previous articles.)

For users in China, who live in a situation completely covered by internet payments, I really cannot see why we still need payment based on crypto assets when WeChat and Alipay are so developed.

In fact, even if crypto assets are legal in our country, I still cannot see what their advantages are in daily payment scenarios compared to WeChat and Alipay.

Transferring money with crypto assets is not as fast as WeChat or Alipay; the transaction fees are higher than those of WeChat and Alipay; the use of wallets and the storage of keys are also more complicated than WeChat and Alipay…

Not only in our country, but even in the United States, where crypto assets are completely legal, I also do not see their particular advantages. From what I have observed, aside from some companies in the crypto ecosystem pushing for crypto payments in combination with AI, it seems that crypto payments are still not mainstream in the daily lives of Americans.

As for purchasing tokenized stocks or tokenized physical assets, it is even more so:

Here, many people can legally purchase stocks from other countries; why would they take the risk of breaking the law to convert fiat currency into stablecoins, and then use stablecoins to buy tokenized stocks?

In the United States, it goes without saying that people can legally and compliantly use all means to purchase all assets; why would they take a detour?

Of course, trading tokenized stocks on-chain can achieve uninterrupted trading around the clock, but this is only meaningful for high-frequency trading users; for most ordinary retail investors and long-term investors, the significance does not seem that great.

Recently, while listening to an audio clip, a trend expert from the internet era mentioned a scenario:

Nearly 2 billion people around the world still cannot access the internet, let alone enjoy modern financial services. In the future, this group will achieve connectivity through Starlink and, at the same time they go online, will also have unobstructed access to crypto assets. This group will be the native population of crypto assets and a potentially significant user base for crypto assets in the future.

After hearing this prediction, I thought it made logical sense, but I still felt it was too far from me because I found it hard to imagine their circumstances and situations, so I merely regarded it as a kind of vision and expectation.

Until recently, I read an article from "Dongcha" titled "Underground Argentina: Jewish Money Houses, Chinese Supermarkets, Laid-back Youths, and the Returning Poor Middle Class" (the original text can be found in the reference link at the end of this article), which greatly changed my perspective on the two crypto application scenarios mentioned above.

In this article, the author depicts how ordinary people in Argentina, a South American country suffering from inflation, use crypto assets (more accurately, stablecoins) to protect their assets, obtain remote income, and conceal their tax information…

In this country, the use of crypto assets is by no means the lofty "idealism" it sounds like, nor is it a flashy behavior; rather, it is an important means of economic survival for both the wealthy and the common people.

This resilient and widespread use throughout society is the most solid and substantial use case for technology, and it is also the most vital and persuasive evidence of technology's impact.

If payment based on stablecoins has become an absolute necessity in a country like Argentina, then in the future, when the newly emerging middle class and wealthy class in this country want to invest and manage their finances, what will be the most convenient means?

Undoubtedly, it will be fully on-chain assets based on blockchain technology. In that virtual world, they will not be restricted by banks, brokers, or precious metal exchanges; they can freely purchase and invest in any asset in the crypto world through a wallet, including native crypto assets, tokenized government bonds, tokenized stocks, tokenized derivatives, and tokenized precious metals…

All of this is reminiscent of what is happening today in our country: many young people have long stopped using banks and brokers, instead directly buying precious metals and index funds through Alipay and WeChat…

So, from this perspective, for the people of Argentina, payment based on stablecoins and investment in RWA assets must be a necessity.

In the past, we mainly focused on ourselves and developed countries. In these countries, due to a very mature and developed financial system, we seem to see no high-frequency use cases and necessary scenarios for crypto assets in daily life, but only their use as investment or speculative products.

However, for countries like Argentina and even some more underdeveloped developing countries, the role that crypto assets may play in their daily lives is fundamentally important and unimaginable to us.

The example of Argentina also illustrates that today's crypto assets and applications are no longer high-tech gimmicks; rather, they are rapidly becoming inclusive technologies and applications spreading globally at an unimaginable pace.

Reference link:

https://x.com/BeatingOfficial/status/1997880282163134587