Most agencies use electronic benefit transfer to deliver funds to prepaid cards, but recipients who need access to cash are often caught in a bind, with fewer convenient or free ATMs available in an increasingly digital payments landscape.
As Congress and the SEC were taking steps to regulate alternative currencies, they required a deep knowledge of the cryptocurrency market and technologies. For those who put off their crypto education, Facebook's Libra is a wake-up call.
In the eyes of regulators, Facebook and bitcoin have a lot in common. Both challenge citizens' relationship to privacy, and both use technology in ways that current laws were unprepared for.
Facebook is focusing the initial discussions around its cryptocurrency project as a preemptive strike against the privacy and legal concerns the public and politicians have about the huge social network.
The ride-sharing heavyweights Uber and Grab built their markets by making payments seamless, and their expansion plans are similarly hooked into improving payments and other financial services.
