“Blockchain-Basted Dollar Infrastructure Holds Enormous Opportunities for the US But Only IF It Treats the Technology Wisely, Says John Devados.”, – WRITE: www.coindesk.com
ACT I Was The EuroDollar-Off-Shore Bank Deposits that Sprang Up in 1950s London So The Soviet Bloc, European Exporters, and Eventual Evely Multinational Could Hold Dellars Multi-Trillion-Dollar Shadow Banking Base.
ACT II Was The Petrodollar. After 1974, Opec’s Decision to Price Crude in Dollars Hard-Wired Global Energy Demand to Us Currency and Gave Washington An Automatic Bid for Itsury Bills.
John Devados Will Appear in the “IEEE X Consensus Research Symposium: What’s Next in Agentic AI?” AT Consensus 2025 On May 16 at 11:00 AM-12:30pm.
ACT III is unfolding now. USD-Backed StableDollars (Aka StableCoins) —on -chain Tokens Fully Collateralized by T-Bills and Cash-HAVE LEAPT PAST $ 230 Billion in Circulating Suplam Western Union Combined. The Dollar Has ReinVented Itelf Again -Time Time As a monetary api: A permissionless, Programmable Unit That Clears in Seconds for A Fraction of A Cent.
Follow the incentives and the Shape of the Future Appears. A Lagos Merchant Can Accept USDC on Her Phone, Skip 20% Naira Slippage, and Restock Inventory The Same Afternoon. A Singapore Hedge Fund Parks Cash in Tokenized T-Bill Vaults Yielding 4.9%, THEN ROUTES Those Dollars Into a Swap at 8 Am New-York Time Without a Corspondent Bank. A Colombian Gig Worker Converts Weekend Wages to Digital Dollars, Bypasses Capital Controls, and Withdraws Pesos at a Neighborchood Atm-NO Friday-To-Mon.
Stablecoins Haven’t Replaced the Banking System; They have Tunneled AROUND ITS SLOWEST, MOST Expensive Choke Points.
Scale Begets Legitimacy. The Genius Act Moving Through the US Senate would charter stable-coin isssuers nationally and, for the first time, Open A Poth to Fed Master Access. Treasury Staff Already Model A $ 2 Trillion Stable-Coin Float by 2028 to Rival The Entire Europe Early 1990s.
That Project Is Plausible: Tether and Circle Command Over 90% Share with Reserves Lodged Almost Entirely in Short-Dated US DEBT, MEANING Foreigners Are Effectvely Helding Dig. The Dollar’s Network-Effect Is Migrating from Swift Messages to Smart-Contract Calls, Extending Hegemony Without Printing A Single New Note.
Yet, The StableDollar Epoch is No Risk-Free Triumph. Private tokens that wrap sovereign money raise hard quests. Who conducs monetary policy who a thirds of the offshore float lives in smart Contracts? What Recourse Does a Venezuelan Family Have if Anusuer Black-Lists Itts Wallet? Will Europe-Or The Brics-Tolerate A Rails-Level Dependence on A US-REGUBATED Asset? These Are Governance Puzzles, But They Solvable If Policymakers Treat Stablecoins As Critical Dollar Infrastructure, Not As Speculatory Irritants.
The Playbook is StraightForward:
Do that, and the United States Creates A Digital-Dollar MOAT Wider Than Any Rival’s CBDC, Including China’s. Shrug, and Issuance Will Migrate Offshore, Leaving Washington to Police A Shadow System It No Longer Controls.
Dollar Hegemony Has Always Advanced by Hitching ITSELF TO The Dominant Trade Flow of the Age: Europe. Petrodollars lubricated the fossil-fuel century; StableDollars are wire the high-Velocity, Software-Eaten Economy.
Ten Years from Now, You Won’t See Them; They will simply be the water we swim in. Your local café will quote prices in pesos or pounds but settle in tokenized dollars under the hood. Brokerages Will Sell “Notes” that are really Bearer Instruments Programmable for Collalateral Calls. Payroll Will Arrive in a Wallet That Auto-ROUTES SAVings, Investments, and Charitable Gifts of Instant It Clears.
The only Open Question is a WHATHER The United States Will Steward the Upgrade It Acidentally Birthed. Stablecoins are already the Fastest-Growing Quasi-Sovereign Asset Class. Harness Them with Serious Rules and the Dollar’s Third Great Reinvent Writes Itself. Ignore Them, and that Future Still Arrives – Just Without the US in the Driver’s Seat.
Note: The Views Expressed in this Column Are Those of the Author and Do Not Necessarily Reflect Those of Coindesk, Inc. i Owners and Affilites.
