Bitesize Payments

40 Episodes

Reverse

Identity, Privacy, and Surveillance

2026-08-1019:49

The expanded Substack essay is here https://bitesizepayments.substack.com/p/identity-privacy-and-surveillance Orwell said privacy would be taken. Huxley said we'd hand it over. On digital payments, we managed both. And it's left us arguing about the wrong thing. Total transparency or total anonymity. Surveillance state or crypto shadows. Pick one. That framing is tidy, and it's false — because it misses why cash worked in the first place. Cash was never a principled privacy design. It ...

The New Settlement Reality

2026-06-1924:18

Welcome back to Bitesize Payments: Digital. I’m Paul Thomalla. There is an extended version of this on my Substack channel here. Last time we talked about programmable money — the idea that value itself could carry rules and conditions. Today we’re going somewhere that sounds like pure upside but isn’t. We’re talking about settlement. Specifically, we’re asking: what happens when settlement becomes instant? Not faster. Not near real-time. Actually, genuinely, irrevocably instant. Because he...

Programmable Value

2026-05-1418:36

Welcome to Bitesize Payments: Digital. I’m Paul Thomalla. The expanded Substack version is here :- https://bitesizepayments.substack.com/p/programmable-value Imagine a banknote that could decide whether you’re allowed to spend it. Or a coin that automatically splits itself when certain conditions are met. Or money that flows continuously from your account without you touching it, based on rules it’s executing. Money that acts. Money with agency. Money that doesn’t just sit there wai...

When Scarcity Isn’t the Constraint

2026-04-2620:04

Welcome to Bitesize Payments: Digital. I’m Paul Thomalla. You use money every day. You work for it. You worry about it. You plan your life around whether you have enough of it. But what is it? Not what does it buy. Not how does it work. Not who controls it. What actually is it? This seems like an obvious question. Of course we know what money is. It’s the thing in your bank account. The numbers on your screen. The stuff you use to buy coffee. But here’s what’s strange: when you tr...

The Physical-to-Digital Break

2026-03-3022:42

There is also an expanded read here on my Substack channel here Remember the Gringotts scene in Harry Potter? Those carts racing through underground tunnels, goblins moving gold from one vault to another, the physical reality of value stored in specific locations, transported through space, guarded by dragons. That's still how we think about payments. In 2025. You tap your phone at the coffee shop. The payment happens instantly. Money moves from your account to the merchant's account. Digital...

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