00:00:00 · Neil C. Hughes
[00:00:00] S0: Your agentic AI might not be secure even with real time data and proper guardrails, but Denodo makes sure your business has every avenue covered. By placing all your data platforms under one AI data layer, your business can reach semantic consistency safely and securely. So get your agents on the same page by visiting denodo.com, You can learn more about how to start trusting your agents to make business decisions. But now, back to today's before a payment can move across borders in seconds? Stablecoins, they're often described as a faster way to send money, but the payment, that still needs liquidity, identity checks, a route to its destination, and a way to reconcile exactly what happened. And today, I'm joined by the cofounder and CEO of a company called Noah. And together, we're gonna discuss the infrastructure and the business problems that stablecoins are intended to solve. And we'll also talk about where stablecoins can fit alongside existing payment systems, why banks remain part of the picture, and how a simpler customer experience can just require work underneath. You will hear more about the opportunities my guest sees alongside questions about trust, compliance, and responsibilities. But if you've ever wondered whether stablecoins need to appear in a customer experience at all, today's conversation will give you a useful way to think about what changes behind the familiar payment screen today and have a better understanding of exactly what stablecoins are. But enough for me. Let me introduce you to today's guest. So a massive warm welcome to the show. Kenny, tell everyone listening a little about who you are and what you do.
00:01:59 · Shah Ramezani, Neil C. Hughes
[00:01:59] S1: Hi. I'm Shah. I'm the founder and CEO of Noah. We are a stablecoin infrastructure paper company. We serve over 200 clients from enterprises to smaller companies. And, yeah, we've we've been growing 500% over the last year to date, and, yeah, it's been a very exciting space so far. [00:02:16] S0: Yeah. That success is one one of the things that put you on my radar, set off my tech spidey senses, and every day on here, I try and, demystify an area that people hear about but a little unsure. And stablecoins, I think they're often described as a faster payment rail, but for people listening that are hearing about them for the first time or know a little about them but not too sure, what problems do they solve better than maybe existing traditional systems?
00:02:16 · Neil C. Hughes, Shah Ramezani
[00:02:16] S0: Yeah. That success is one one of the things that put you on my radar, set off my tech spidey senses, and every day on here, I try and, demystify an area that people hear about but a little unsure. And stablecoins, I think they're often described as a faster payment rail, but for people listening that are hearing about them for the first time or know a little about them but not too sure, what problems do they solve better than maybe existing traditional systems? [00:02:42] S1: Yeah. So maybe taking short back. So existing traditional systems are heavily reliant on corresponding banking when it comes to cross border payments. So you can imagine this in a way where if you wanna make a payment from a to b, from one country to another, it goes through a number of hoops, and both these interacts with a number of banks. Banks have often legacy software, which ends up making a payment, delay by three to five days and costs quite high. And it's not very, into... Intuitive for what the, deep... Demand is today with everything moving towards agentic payments. They... You know, every... Everyone is pretty much used to instant... Everything to be instant. And Stablecoin solves all of that. So you're able to basically move money from a to b, from one country to another, or in many borders in, like, little less seconds, and it settles in real time. And then once you connect to local payment methods, you have basically instant global money movement from one currency to another.
00:02:42 · Shah Ramezani, Neil C. Hughes
[00:02:42] S1: Yeah. So maybe taking short back. So existing traditional systems are heavily reliant on corresponding banking when it comes to cross border payments. So you can imagine this in a way where if you wanna make a payment from a to b, from one country to another, it goes through a number of hoops, and both these interacts with a number of banks. Banks have often legacy software, which ends up making a payment, delay by three to five days and costs quite high. And it's not very, into... Intuitive for what the, deep... Demand is today with everything moving towards agentic payments. They... You know, every... Everyone is pretty much used to instant... Everything to be instant. And Stablecoin solves all of that. So you're able to basically move money from a to b, from one country to another, or in many borders in, like, little less seconds, and it settles in real time. And then once you connect to local payment methods, you have basically instant global money movement from one currency to another. [00:03:40] S0: And to bring to life what we're talking about here, probably the best way is to share maybe a customer story. You don't have to name any names, but just something that shows what access to a global financial system changes for a person or indeed a business in real practical terms. Any stories you can share there?
00:03:40 · Neil C. Hughes, Shah Ramezani
[00:03:40] S0: And to bring to life what we're talking about here, probably the best way is to share maybe a customer story. You don't have to name any names, but just something that shows what access to a global financial system changes for a person or indeed a business in real practical terms. Any stories you can share there? [00:03:57] S1: So let's say pick one. Right? So I'm I'm a customer in The US. I wanna pay in Argentina. So normally, it would take a few days. It will cost anywhere from five to 8%, FX included. But now with stablecoins, you have the ability to actually make instant payments. You have the ability to move from US dollar to Argentinian pesos or actually settle the the person also in USD, basically stablecoins, which gives the recipient the option to actually keep dollar because a lot of these currencies around the world are more inflationary towards dollar. So basically, many, many users from consumers to businesses are... Have an interest in naturally keeping stablecoin, in their wallet or as as a store of value. So you have these, like, flexibility in one, what currency you wanna hold and what exposure you wanna have. You have the better speed. You have less fees. So there's a number of benefits that kind of benefit the user. But also the other one is traceability. You know exactly what the payment is at any moment in time because they're all tracked. The blockchain is obviously public. Everyone can monitor everything, which is pretty, good in a way that it gets more transparency to the user.
00:03:57 · Shah Ramezani, Neil C. Hughes
[00:03:57] S1: So let's say pick one. Right? So I'm I'm a customer in The US. I wanna pay in Argentina. So normally, it would take a few days. It will cost anywhere from five to 8%, FX included. But now with stablecoins, you have the ability to actually make instant payments. You have the ability to move from US dollar to Argentinian pesos or actually settle the the person also in USD, basically stablecoins, which gives the recipient the option to actually keep dollar because a lot of these currencies around the world are more inflationary towards dollar. So basically, many, many users from consumers to businesses are... Have an interest in naturally keeping stablecoin, in their wallet or as as a store of value. So you have these, like, flexibility in one, what currency you wanna hold and what exposure you wanna have. You have the better speed. You have less fees. So there's a number of benefits that kind of benefit the user. But also the other one is traceability. You know exactly what the payment is at any moment in time because they're all tracked. The blockchain is obviously public. Everyone can monitor everything, which is pretty, good in a way that it gets more transparency to the user. [00:05:07] S0: I'm curious. If we were to take a little peek under the hood, what is it that has to happen technically behind the scenes for a stablecoin payment to feel simple when liquidity, settlement, compliance, and local currency, all these different aspects are involved? What's going on then?