Marcelo Prates

Bitcoin, stablecoins, CBDC, cash: which will survive the money wars? If you want to know more about the recent evolution of money, you can now download the published form of my article here: ssrn.com/abstract=37812…

Full coverage of this fantastic World Cup: @the_futbol_corner?si=XUJYdunRrrN3aN4Y" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">youtube.com/@the_futbol_co…

Brazil playing in the World Cup? The analysis comes with knowledge and passion — lots of passion! youtu.be/RSQCmWPGzqE?is… Same passion displayed by the great @ESPNFC team: @KayLMurray @ShakaHislop @AleMorenoESPN

Full coverage of this fantastic World Cup: @the_futbol_corner?si=2LVvQa6ksFRI2tcz" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">youtube.com/@the_futbol_co…

Why the US fans should #believe in their team: youtube.com/shorts/knlGAlO… Agree? @MenInBlazers @AlexiLalas @jasongay @TedLasso

GAME, SET AND MATCH: FONSECA 🇧🇷 #RolandGarros

Stellar continues to be one of best blockchains for real world use.

0/ You cannot simultaneously be permissionless cypherpunk resistance money and also be the mainstream global financial system. Those are two different things, and they are opposites of each other. You literally cannot do both at once.

Unfortunately, he’s right: Stellar has no “economic security” :( You have to choose your counterparties. No spicy anonymous Russian validators. You can’t front-run users. There’s no MEV market. You can’t upcharge fees. Validators don’t get paid. You can’t pull reorg attacks. Instant finality. You can’t hide shady behavior. Validators are public. You can’t buy authority. The community has to give you its trust. You can’t get away with bad behavior. Anyone can revoke their trust. Terrible system.

DTCC and the Stellar Development Foundation announced today plans to enable the tokenization of DTC‑custodied assets on the @StellarOrg network. This collaboration advances DTCC’s multi chain strategy and expands how traditional assets move across digital ecosystems. DTC‑tokenized assets are expected to be made available on the Stellar network in the first half of 2027, supporting the evolution of a more open, interoperable, and efficient financial ecosystem. Get the full story: dtcc.com/news/2026/may/…

One: very interesting move by @the_dtcc moving onto an actual public blockchain. This is starting to move their project away from pure theater for private entities only towards the possibility of self-custodial, composable building onchain. A very positive step and I salute both DTCC and Stellar for this move. Two: For a long time, I have been saying that there are a subset of blockchains better suited to institutional adoption than others. Those with structured and customizable controls around assets, validators, and trust assumptions are likely to dominate (e.g. @StellarOrg, or if you want another option, @avax). These are some of the most disfavored by crypto natives, but the thing to understand is the institutional preferences are not the same. Institutions care more about open access + credible neutrality amongst each other + appropriate controls than maximum decentralization. Think open banking, not cypherpunk.

Banks that aren't scared of "open" technology are the ones winning. The openness of blockchain actually allows institutions to move faster and at a lower cost, while enabling stronger compliance and risk management. The good news: it's not too late to "go open." americanbanker.com/opinion/banks-…

@BrazilBrian Not pão de queijo?!

Baked potatoes, the smell of arrival at Congonhas!

@mcagney @Figure Sure, but as several other fin intermediaries, brokers also have fin privacy obligations. They have to protect your private/confidential info, and any illegitimate disclosure will get them (and their bosses) in legal trouble.

@MarceloMPrates @Figure Your broker knows your position. And by broker, generally anyone working at the broker.

I’m about two weeks late (two years in blockchain time) around this privacy movement on blockchain, but I’m going to chime in anyway because it’s something we’ve put a lot of thought into.. First, there are certain things that can’t be public on chain. When @Figure originates a loan on chain, we can’t put your name, social security number, etc. in the hands of 100 random validators to write to and be discoverable from a public blockchain. But we do need a way to validate that data to appropriate parties (such as when the loan is traded, or foreclosed on). And we can put the loan on and the wallet that holds it, it’s payment history, etc. directly on chain. This is why we created @provenancefdn. When we put a loan on Provenance Blockchain, private data is encrypted and kept in an object store. A hash of that object is written - along with non-private details on the loan - to the public chain. When someone trades a loan, for example, the buyer is able to validate the object store data to the hash, and decrypt the private data. It’s part of why the utility token on Provenance Blockchain is called $HASH. I further get - to some degree - the need to obfuscate certain data, like orders in a marketplace to avoid front running large transactions. Most limit order books operate off chain for partly this reason, with settlement on chain. That seems to satisfy this need. What I don’t understand is keeping the movement and holdings of blockchain native assets private. Why does it matter if you know how much BTC is in my wallet? What legitimate reasons do you have to shield digital asset movement/holdings (crypto, stables, equities - soon, etc.)? Isn’t part of the point of blockchain - displacing trust with truth - to be able to know true provenance (also, why it’s called that). As a corollary, you know how much stock I own in Figure and how much I have bought or sold because it’s public data, and somehow the world still works. As an aside, part of my views here are exacerbated by my skepticism of zero knowledge proofs. This might be my own naivete, but I’m not sure how I can prove (pun intended) they are doing what they are supposed to do and not lying through a centralized actor. Curious of others thoughts here.

@mcagney @Figure Securities laws and regulations set the situations/thresholds that trigger public disclosure, like being an officer/director, owning more than 10% of a pub co stock, owning more than 5% of a pub co voting power.

@MarceloMPrates @Figure What is the dollar value threshold of "I have enough that I want to keep private, but not so much that I have to report it"?

@mcagney @Figure The goal of market transparency only supersedes individual privacy if you hold influential or significant positions on a given stock. Otherwise, privacy is not only expected but legally mandated (financial privacy rules).

@mcagney @Figure >As a corollary, you know how much stock I own in Figure and how much I have bought or sold because it’s public data, and somehow the world still works. Yes, but that's because you're a "corporate insider." Privacy is still the rule if you’re *not* an insider or large holder.

@tomerweller @zashi_app @NEARProtocol FYI @paulbrigner

Zcash is getting a lot of well deserved attention. If you're in the Stellar ecosystem and want to get into Zcash it's as simple as installing @zashi_app and swapping $XLM to $ZEC through @NEARProtocol's intents. near-intents.org Upwards, confidentially.

Disappointing indeed, @faryarshirzad! A good part of our work at @StellarOrg Policy has been to debunk myths and misconceptions, but they keep popping back up. This is our latest effort on that front, which applies to this NYT piece: omfif.org/2025/09/what-c…

The truth is every major blockchain is chasing institutional adoption. We are too. The difference is on Stellar those same rails also serve the millions left out of traditional finance. Shared some thoughts w/ @Coindesk below.