When people ask me about stablecoins, they usually expect a debate about whether Tether really has the reserves it claims or whether Circle’s USDC is ‘safer’. The real story, however, is historical, revealing something deeper about the relationship between the state and markets. Stablecoins are the latest chapter in a long-running struggle to balance private ingenuity with public authority in money. If we study the precedents carefully – from Babylonian ledgers to Florentine bills, or from the Bank of Amsterdam to Britain’s industrial tokens, the pattern is unmistakable. Thousands of years ago in Babylon, merchants ... (full story)