Broner noted that with fixed and marginal costs of building a fintech becoming lower, now “anyone can program money.” This means competition, which in turn leads to cheaper and better services that are more accessible, he wrote, adding:
“Speed & cost (< 1 second, 1 cent) matter, but it’s the permissionless programmability that’s going to change the market.”
In other words, stablecoins need to provide less than 1 second speed of transactions, and the cost needs to be around $0.01. However, it is the permissionless programmability that will usher in a revolution.
When Apple launched the first iPhone in 2007, it revolutionized the mobile phone industry, triggering a wave of programmable smartphone adoption. The iPhone moment, therefore, refers to a disruptive innovation that pushes the technology towards widespread adoption.
According to Allaire, the stablecoin industry is yet to reach that tipping point, but he foresees it to be “soon.” At that tipping point, “developers everywhere will realize the power and opportunity of programmable digital dollars on the internet,” he noted.
“Today, stables are more expensive relative to a range of other choices – leaving a subset of customers who they make sense for [sic] (i.e. those without other options).”
