Sad, but true.  Here’s why…first, a story.

When I was kid, the only phones we had were in the house.  Attached to the wall.  One in the family room.  The other in the kitchen.  Then, we got a cool new “cordless” phone.  It was shiny white, with a pull out antenna.  Super cool.  Suddenly, you could talk to your friends and NOT be in the kitchen.  Life changing!  Cell phones take that to the extreme.

Everyone in crypto shouts about stablecoins being cheaper, faster, better.  And sure, they are. But sometimes it feels like we’re asking consumers to go back to talking on the kitchen phone.  Stablecoins suck for consumer payments because no one has these magic internet beans, and no merchants accept them.  While everyone already has an awesome payment tool in their wallet, or on their phone (V/MC/Amex).  Which is obviously why we don’t see consumer demand for stablecoin payments in markets with larger card penetration and acceptance.  

So, and you’ve heard this before, but it bears repeating, stablecoins aren’t consumer facing.  They’re plumping and money improvements.  At least, at this stage.  Consumers just want to pay for lunch and get on with it.  They can’t do that with stables right now.  Distribution is king, and all that.  With incumbents deeply entrenched, might be better to start with replacing the backend, instead of the front end (cards; wallets; payment apps).

Hence, you see crypto wallet with a debit Card attached.  Essentially this equates to a “top-up” wallet, which is certainly a big market to go after.  Most still cater to crypto natives.  Meaning you have to load with stablecoins you already hold.  But not all.  Eitherway, those players seem focused on what you can think of as “onchain debit”.  Awesome!  Love it.  

What about onchain credit? 

Because you know what consumers love more than anything?  Float.  

So, for consumer payments to move onchain, I think we need to build an onchain credit card product.  Stitch together a defi liquidity pool with stablecoins and a card, and you can start to see it.  Give people what they want (float).  Incentivize adoption with higher rewards due to savings from cutting out banks/intermediaries. And reshape consumer payments.

At the end of the day, in payments, consumers care about a few main things - trust, convenience, broad acceptance, rewards, privacy and security.  Many of those are table stakes, such as privacy, rewards and security.  Stables are inconvenient.  The average consumer doesn’t trust them.  And merchants don’t accept them.  

Until all that changes, stablecoins remain in the background.