Overview
Tom Brown breaks down an idea most people in payments still gloss over: for more than a century, we’ve treated payments as messages — not transfers of ownership. The “payment” is really the message, not the transfer of ownership itself.
Money is property, yet we typically think of payments as information rather than ownership transfers. Historically, “the ledger change, not the message instructing it to happen,” determined who owned electronic money — a system that enriched banks.
Brown argues this is “the most important moment in U.S. payments since 1913,” fundamentally disaggregating functions bundled since the Federal Reserve’s creation.
Three Legal Game-Changers
- UCC Article 12: Creates “controllable electronic records” where controlling a private key equals ownership — similar to possessing physical cash
- GENIUS Act: Establishes federal framework for payment stablecoins as distinct financial instruments, requiring high-quality reserves and regular audits
- Regulatory Guidance: OCC, Federal Reserve, and FDIC clarified that banks can custody digital assets and issue deposit tokens on blockchain
Financial Implications
Banks currently pocket approximately $600 billion annually from the convenience premium on deposits. This revenue stream becomes “suddenly contestable” once stablecoins and deposit tokens fully operate.
Brown positions stablecoins and deposit tokens as genuine alternatives to traditional banking infrastructure — not just faster payment rails, but a fundamental restructuring of how ownership of money works in the digital age.