Yesterday, the Visa system globally crashed for 10 minutes, and I instantly understood what $XPL is stitching.
Isn't it a coincidence that yesterday afternoon, Visa's global network was stuck for about ten minutes, and Twitter exploded in an instant—how many people couldn't even get a cup of coffee in that time? In the past, we would have just scolded the bank, but now I'm thinking differently: are we too reliant on those few 'centralized gateways'?
Once the gateway shakes, the entire flow has to stop. What Plasma is doing is simply reconstructing the 'riverbed.' It doesn't contest your ownership of the gateway; it gives you a set of protocols that allow the water (payments) to find the fastest and cheapest path to flow. Plasma's Paymaster acts like an intelligent dispatcher, 'digesting' friction costs like transaction fees within the system, so merchants and users are almost unaware.
What does this mean? Payments are no longer a 'monopoly business' of any one company; they will become an infrastructure as fundamental as air—you won't feel its presence, but it must always be there. Plasma is laying down this oxygen supply system at the base. $XPL is the 'energy unit' that maintains the system's operation; the more the ecosystem is used, the stronger and steadier the breath becomes.
So next time you encounter a card failure, don't just complain. Think about it, if the underlying payment system is a network woven by protocols that no one can unilaterally sever, then that would truly be 'always online.' What Plasma is stitching might just be the first stitch of that network.
