Nowadays, cars are no longer related to horses, but we are still accustomed to using "horsepower" to measure engine power. This metaphor, born in the 19th century, was originally intended to help people understand the novelty of machinery - 'this engine can withstand the strength of ten horses'. Even though mechanical technology has long surpassed the limitations of horses, this term has been used to this day.

A16z believes that the current situation of stablecoins is similar to the experience of "Ma Li". The name "stablecoin" was born in the chaotic and disorderly early days of the cryptocurrency industry: at that time, the market was filled with extreme volatility, and token prices fluctuated by 20% in an instant, making it impossible to support daily financial activities such as transfers, savings, and loans. Just like how people need an asset to avoid the roller coaster like fluctuations of the Six Flag Park Jingda Card (which has now been discontinued), developers have designed assets with value anchoring and minimal volatility, giving rise to the name "stablecoin".

This name is straightforward yet somewhat defensive: it deliberately distinguishes itself from volatile encrypted tokens, accurately hitting the most urgent pain point in the industry at that time - avoiding price fluctuations. But just as "horsepower" cannot define the core value of modern engines, the label of "stablecoin" has long been unable to keep up with the development pace of this technology and has gradually become a "literal shackle" of the times.

Nowadays, "stability" is no longer the core value of stablecoins, but only their entry-level standard and essential prerequisite. Stablecoins have long departed from their position as a temporary alternative to volatility and evolved into the underlying infrastructure of a new global financial system, with their value surpassing that of stability itself.

It breaks down the barriers of traditional cross-border payments, enabling instant value transfer and settlement across borders, compressing the efficiency of traditional finance that takes several days to arrive in seconds, and reducing transaction fees to as low as 1/10 of the traditional SWIFT system. In 2024, stablecoin transaction volume exceeded the sum of Visa and Mastercard for the first time, demonstrating disruptive potential for the traditional payment system; It breaks the monopoly of intermediaries, allowing anyone with access to the internet to hold it directly without relying on intermediaries such as banks, truly achieving financial inclusion; More importantly, it runs on a programmable blockchain and has programmability that traditional currencies cannot match. It can deeply embed into various scenarios such as Web3 ecology, cross-border trade, and tokenized asset trading, becoming the core hub for activating the digital economy and promoting the evolution of currency from the traditional form of institutional control to a programmable form with software attributes.

This is precisely the core reason why the name "stablecoin" has become outdated: it has always remained at the original demand of "solving volatility" in the early days, but cannot reflect its core value as a financial underlying infrastructure today. This term frames these assets as a "temporary solution to repair volatility," rather than a new foundational component that can reconstruct the global financial landscape and support trillion dollar transactions, much like how "horsepower" firmly anchors people's understanding of engines within the old framework of the 19th century.

Nowadays, people's concern is no longer whether it can stabilize the currency price, which is already a basic ability that does not require verification, but how much innovative possibilities we can build with it: how to use it to reshape the cross-border payment pattern and reduce global trade costs; How to rely on it to activate the liquidity of real-world assets (RWA) and enable small investors to participate in high-value asset trading; How to unlock more application scenarios for the Web3 ecosystem and promote the deep integration of finance and technology through its programmability.

As the development stage progresses, people will naturally try to rename it, and terms such as "digital cash" and "programmable currency" have emerged one after another, which can more accurately summarize the essence of this technology, but always seem a bit awkward and rigid. There is a simple language rule behind this: the first popular name often has a permanent first mover advantage, and even if the meaning gradually evolves, people will habitually use it and no longer be confined to its literal meaning.

Just like how we are still "dialing" and making calls on smartphones - there is no longer a physical dial pad; Copy others in an email without copy paper - originally referred to the action of copying on copy paper; Using equipment without film to 'shoot film' images - already freed from the constraints of film. Stablecoins are likely to follow this peculiar path of etymological evolution: even if the pseudonym of "stablecoin" has long been disconnected from its actual value, it will still be used for a long time.

Of course, there is also another possibility: in the future, the name "stablecoin" will gradually fade out of daily context, and people will directly refer to the value carrier behind it - digital dollars, digital euros, or other types of on chain fiat currencies. But the most likely outcome is that this technology will completely retreat behind the scenes, integrate into every corner of daily finance, and become the default form of currency operation.

Just like when electric lights were first introduced, people would deliberately call them "electric lights" to distinguish them from traditional oil lamps; When it became a standard in daily life, people simply referred to it as a "lamp" and no longer deliberately emphasized its "electric" attributes. A16z expects that stablecoins will also replicate this process: as their scale expands to trillions of dollars, supporting global payment flows, and stabilizing at the core of various financial applications, becoming the core bridge connecting traditional finance and the digital economy, the name "stablecoin" will become increasingly irrelevant.

What is really important is that, for the first time in history, money has the same characteristics as the Internet - rapid circulation, programmability and ubiquity. When that day comes, "stablecoins" will no longer sound like a functional description, but will return to their original attributes: a metaphor left by the times, a mark of the industry's transition from chaos to maturity, quietly remaining on the eve of the global financial system being completely rewritten.