SPONSORED POST*
This is a question that industry experts have been asking more and more since the presentation of Streamable Money a few months ago. A new concept of electronic money, programmable, streamable, safely deposited on your bank account or credit card as well as on your decentralized wallet. Equally spendable on-chain.
We at Cryptonomist also wondered whether Streamable Money will really put StableCoins in the dust, analysing various aspects, beginning with the basic concepts of why the world of stable coins exists.
Why StableCoins exist?
The Stablecoin concept first began to take off around 2014, with the introduction of Tether (USDT), one of the first widely accepted Stablecoins.
The founders of Tether were trying to solve a problem they had with a platform associated with them: Bitfinex.
Bitfinex and many other crypto exchanges needed to have a stable currency with the following characteristics:
- Be On-Chain, to be available for use on users’ wallets, mimicking a bank account.
- Be stable and without risk of volatility, to provide reassurance to users in using it as a form of payment.
- Survive from not being able to open bank accounts for Exchange platforms and thus offer a solution to daily settlement operations between VASP operators.
Did they succeed?
The answer is positive and therefore the goal has been achieved but not without problems.
Indeed, all StableCoins have always suffered (and still do) from a considerable number of problems, such as:
- Pegged to the 1:1 value of a FIAT currency. In fact, not all the StableCoins can claim to be 100% pegged to a currency. Just think that the USDT is 0.48% cash and 99.52% government bonds.
- Officially recognized as a currency. Being pegged to a currency does not mean being recognized. No government will ever recognize it as a subsidiary of its own currency, and therefore whatever problems happen to these StableCoins, there is no guarantee or responsibility from the traditional financial world.
- Security. The decentralised wallet that holds StableCoins is the total responsibility of its holder. Losing access to the wallet or receiving a hack would result in the total loss of one’s money with no one to support you in recovering it.
- Concentration risk. What happens, for example, if Theter (the company that guarantees USDTs) were to go bankrupt? There are dozens of possible answers to this question, but if we stick to the basic concept of corporate liability, the risk is obvious.
- Acceptance. It is not accepted by the traditional banking world. Therefore, it can only be used in the blockchain world.
- Considerable exchange costs. To buy a cryptocurrency, we must necessarily have a StableCoin and therefore do an initial exchange of FIAT vs StableCoin and then StableCoin vs Cryptocurrency. To return to FIAT the same route.
- Streamability. Old concepts such as Theter are not natively streamable. After all, we are talking about a 10-year-old design.
What changes with Streamable Money and why should they be better?
As we did with StableCoins, it is necessary to analyze and understand what Streamable Money is and why the market is starting to see it as a worthy replacement for StableCoins.
Es-Currencies
Let us start by saying that what is called “Streamable Money” is a new concept of electronic money as described by the main regulatory authorities:
US Federal Reserve: “In the United States, there are currently two types of central bank money: physical currency issued by the Federal Reserve and digital money held by banks at the Federal Reserve.”
European Central Bank: “Electronic money (e-money) is broadly defined as an electronic store of monetary value on a technical device that may be widely used for making payments to entities other than the e-money issuer. The device acts as a prepaid bearer instrument which does not necessarily involve bank accounts in transactions.”
Basically, except for the paper money in our purse, everything else (cards, current accounts, etc.) is electronic money.
Starting from this concept, the company Streamable Finance (https://streamablefinance.com/) together with the Ephelia Group (https://www.epheliagroup.com/) has developed a new concept of electronic money that ensures its officiality, safety and recognition but can be used on-chain, thus providing it with the unique features of immutability and programmability that only blockchain technology can provide.
A new scheme that has been coined ‘es-Currencies’, which stands for Enhanced-Streamable-Electronic-Money (https://www.es-currencies.io/)
The difference between the two is now quite clear
As we see, the StableCoin is a representation of value via a token that a private company makes available to third-party users.
The es-Currencies on the other hand are the money we use every day, which is available in our bank account but is also expendable on-chain.
In the following table, we have compared the USDT, which represents the history, the FSUSD, which many call an evolution of the USDT, and the es-USD, which is the electronic money that can be used on the chain
| USDT | FSUSD | Es-USD | |
| My money is safeguarded in an authorized financial institution |  |
|
 |
| If your company goes bankrupt I will get my money back | |
Unknown | |
| Can I deposit them in a current account of an authorized financial institution? | |
|
|
| When I send you the money, what happens to it? | About 0.48% remains cash the remaining is invested. | Jan 2024 Report declares is that are invested in US govies | 100% cash in a segregated and safeguarded account |
| Can I send them to my wallet, like MetaMask? | |
|
|
| Can I use them to top up my prepaid card and spend them wherever I like? | |
|
|
| This token complies with the new European MiCA directive, and can therefore be used within the European Union. | |
|
|
The MiCA European Directive
On this point we are forced to spend a few lines to compare them impartially.
In 2025, Europe is set to enact MiCA legislation, which will outlaw the issuance of StableCoins by anyone other than an authorized financial institution that can guarantee 1:1 pegged value to users in a segregated and safeguarded bank account. The US and other major jurisdictions are already working on similar legal frameworks.
Tether and thus the USDT, along with other StableCoin issuers have already declared that they will withdraw their presence from the European Union.
Therefore, as of 2025, any Exchange or Financial Institution will no longer be able to offer USDTs as a bridge between the cryptocurrency world and FIATs.
Let us now review the following use cases and their main features
We took five real-life use cases to investigate in work practice how they perform and whether they really can overtake the StableCoin concept.
esRamp – Bank To Chain in less then a minute
Always bearing in mind that EsCurrencies is a tokenized electronic money, creating it via the es-Ramp platform requires very few steps:
- The customer onboards with the platform and receives a Wallet and an IBAN. The customer can also link his own Wallet;
- The customer transfers money from his bank to his IBAN on the es-Ramp Platform, or top it up with any debit or credit card;
- The platform does the rest. The customer does not have to do anything else.
From now on, the Customer can use his money on-chain to buy cryptocurrencies, make payments or simply exchange it. In a matter of seconds, he has had his money on-chain.
The reverse operation is identical. A few seconds to have the es-currencies available on your IBAN.
One note, the above is exactly the same if you send Cryptocurrencies instead of money. We sent Bitcoin and then ETH and immediately had them converted and spendable via our IBAN.
Exchange Evolution
The es-Currencies allow an Exchange to evolve into a banking platform as it will be able to offer spendable currency both on-chain and on regular IBANs. Thanks to the Ephelia Group’s Fintech-as-a-Service, it will even be able to provide its users with an IBAN and a card.
This for us is truly a game-changer that alone explains how es-Currencies can shift the paradigm of Cryptocurrencies
Pay-per-Use (Stream Button)
Pay per use is probably the best use of streamable money, Thanks to an easily integrable Button provided with an SDK, any website can integrate streamable payments.
The concept is to allow the user to send a flow of money to the merchant in exchange for products and services.
In this way the user is in full control of the expenses. The flow can be stopped anytime from the user, without being worried of exchanging credit card information or being billed for services not used or required anymore, many people can try new products and services.
The benefit of a technology able to implement for the first time a real pay per use are enormous:
- Creation of an economy of “instant” products (like for example instant insurances)
- Facilitate the trial of new product and services, gain extra users (the one that would not have accessed the full service because too expensive)
- Allow real time payments to the content creators or providers of the serivices: part of the flow of money received by the merchant can be sent in real time to providers and third parties
Regarding the last point, it is worth mentioning Skillforge.VIP, an e-learning platform that is integrating the Stream Button to offer video courses on a pay-per-use basis and pay video creators in real time.
Adaptive Direct-Debit & Fixed Income Streamable Yield
Streamable money can also be used for other disruptive financial applications.
We reviewed two banking solutions and discussed with the Ephelia Group the peculiarities they are developing.
The first, already live, is Streamable Invest, an investment platform that allows users to deposit money and cryptocurrencies for their investments and receive the return in real time (for fixed-income products), second by second, without having to wait for the product to expire.
The return received is immediately spendable and can be used, for example, to top up debit cards or to pay other expenses.
The second, still in development, is a module for a major bank that wants to provide its customers with a product to repay loans and mortgages in a more inclusive manner. The product leverages the programmability and fluidity of es-currencies to allow customers to speed up, slow down or pause the flow of money used to repay the loan in real time, using a simple slider in a mobile application.
Home Automation & Insurance
We have seen that the world of home automation and thus IOT devices can finally take advantage of blockchain technology in the world of traditional payments as well.
The concept of real-time billing and payment is now a product that can be used by all providers in this industry.
In the first use case we see a household connected via IOT devices to a current account that supports es-currencies.
The inhabitants of that house see their account start payments when they switch on a light and, at the same time, see them stop payments when they switch it off.
A new concept that thanks to es-currencies generates education and energy savings.
In the second use case we see an insurance company that triggers payments through the pay-per-use concept and at the same time rewards virtuous behaviour and penalises misuse.
It is now clear how the world of Streaming Money is the future of StableCoins and at the same time elevates the concept of on-chain spendability to the level of both institutional and practical everyday use.
A massive use supported by the financial industry will allow Web3 to excel more and more and become the daily occurrence, opening up fascinating new challenges for the players in the industry.
To explore the world of streamable programmable money, visit www.streamablefinance.com or connect with the team in person at CV Summit in Zurich, Switzerland, on October 1-2.
STREAM, the utility token from Streamable Finance, can already be purchased on the Cryptosmart Launchpad www.cryptosmart.it
*This article was paid for. Cryptonomist did not write the article or test the platform.
