Mintchip and cryptocurrcies urge us to better understand how money and payments relate. We have taken both for granted as separate topics; but they are like two sides of the same coin. Mintchip can provided useful insights in existing payment practices.
As (value chain) models are simplistic representations of reality chances are not enough understanding is passed on. But misconceptions can be pretty harmful. Example: 4 corner model: banks created blind spot for changes in the value chains of their customers.
Walking to the office this morning it struck me that the evolution of (physical) currency in relation to payments could show us the long term development of digital money as well: step by step the currency has been developing until at a certain moment in time the transaction will be done directly between the payer and the payee.
The removal of the middle man function in an exchange based on the bitcoin protocol does not automatically lead to the disappearance of the companies (and their interests) performing these today. The middle man function will slowly but surely erode with the advent of the bitcoin protocol, the middle man of today (parties) will be the gate(way)keepers of tomorrow.
Looking at a wallet based payment chain (P2P) the central pivot point is the wallet itself. The wallet needs to have the values available either in the wallet or immediately on call by a service provider. Euro’s – or any other currency for that matter – could be provided by a gateway provided per bank based on the PAAS conception.
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