📰 After spending six months on Web3 payments and visiting Yiwu, Shuibei, Putian, and Mexico, the author ultimately decided to stop.
It wasn’t that the product couldn’t be built. The further they got into the field, the more they realized that payments aren’t won on features. Banking relationships, licenses, capital efficiency, and long-term risk management are the real hurdles that can’t be avoided. Many businesses that look profitable are essentially earning a risk premium—they just haven’t run into trouble yet.
🔥 Reports often cite Yiwu as an example of stablecoin payments having reached scale. But from what the author saw on the ground, real-world use was mostly scattered, driven by personal connections, and tucked within existing systems. Mexico, Shuibei, Putian, and places like Africa and Argentina have also yet to develop a stable, replicable mainstream path.
💡 By contrast, Web2 use cases such as payroll, B2B payments, task payouts, and cross-border services do have a clear need for faster, cheaper, and more reliable money transfers. The problem is that no matter how good the application is, it first needs stable, compliant fiat and digital currency rails that can be used over the long term.
Honestly, after the U.S. passed the GENIUS Act in May, capital and projects flooded in, and the industry suddenly looked much livelier. But a buzz doesn’t mean the model has been proven. For founders, the real challenge may not be launching a product, but being able to weather problems before they arise.
🤔 If it were you, would you keep building a payments app, or first tackle the two toughest problems: payment rails and compliance?
#Web3支付 #稳定币 #跨境支付 #创业复盘
It wasn’t that the product couldn’t be built. The further they got into the field, the more they realized that payments aren’t won on features. Banking relationships, licenses, capital efficiency, and long-term risk management are the real hurdles that can’t be avoided. Many businesses that look profitable are essentially earning a risk premium—they just haven’t run into trouble yet.
🔥 Reports often cite Yiwu as an example of stablecoin payments having reached scale. But from what the author saw on the ground, real-world use was mostly scattered, driven by personal connections, and tucked within existing systems. Mexico, Shuibei, Putian, and places like Africa and Argentina have also yet to develop a stable, replicable mainstream path.
💡 By contrast, Web2 use cases such as payroll, B2B payments, task payouts, and cross-border services do have a clear need for faster, cheaper, and more reliable money transfers. The problem is that no matter how good the application is, it first needs stable, compliant fiat and digital currency rails that can be used over the long term.
Honestly, after the U.S. passed the GENIUS Act in May, capital and projects flooded in, and the industry suddenly looked much livelier. But a buzz doesn’t mean the model has been proven. For founders, the real challenge may not be launching a product, but being able to weather problems before they arise.
🤔 If it were you, would you keep building a payments app, or first tackle the two toughest problems: payment rails and compliance?
#Web3支付 #稳定币 #跨境支付 #创业复盘