thejohnnycrypto on Nostr: a shipping container is a steel box with standard corners. any port in the world can ...

a shipping container is a steel box with standard corners. any port in the world can lift one, any truck can carry one, and nobody sends a check to the people who agreed on the size. the standard went everywhere and stayed free. hold that thought while you look at ethereum.

here is the setup. ethereum is a public network where anyone can run programs that move money. those programs are written for a rulebook called the evm. that rulebook is open, so any company can copy it and start its own network speaking the same language. a network that stands on its own is a layer one. a network that borrows ethereum’s security and reports back to it is a layer two.

three of these arrived recently and none of them are hobby projects. tempo is a payments network from paradigm and stripe, live now. arc is circle’s network for stablecoins and currency exchange, in public testing. a stablecoin is a token a company issues and promises to keep worth one dollar. robinhood chain is an ethereum layer two for tokenized assets, meaning ordinary things like stocks issued as tokens, built with arbitrum technology and in public testing since february.

look at what those sponsors already hold. stripe has the checkout button. circle issues the dollars. robinhood has the customers. each one can compete on distribution rather than technology, which means keeping the people they already serve inside their own walls.

so the risk to ethereum is quieter than a faster competitor showing up. the rulebook wins everywhere, while the fees and the stablecoins and the tokenized assets settle somewhere that already owns the customer.

the honest case against me. ethereum still holds the majority of stablecoins and tokenized assets today, and it is not close. the ethereum foundation is deliberately building its layer twos as one connected system rather than rivals. and a chain run by one company is easier to use and harder to trust, which costs something real when you are holding assets on it.

what would show me wrong: ethereum keeping or growing its share of stablecoins and tokenized assets while these new networks only pick up activity at the edges.

bitcoin never tried to be the place applications live. its whole claim is being an asset nobody issues and nobody can switch off. when the rails get picked by whoever owns the customer, that is the property worth checking.