We tend to judge payment systems by the metrics we can immediately see and feel, namely speed, fees, convenience and user experience. But according to Joshua Tate, co-founder and CEO of ForumPay, those metrics only reveal part of the story. Beneath every transaction sits an economic structure, which, for decades, has shaped how money moves, and in many ways, why it moves so slowly.
“What many people don’t realize”, Tate says, “is how much banks are actually making simply from the amount of time they hold on to your funds.” It might be a simple observation, but it’s one that skews our perspective of contemporary payment systems. We often assume the financial system is designed to move money as quickly and efficiently as possible. But as Tate argues, delay itself has become part of the business model.
“When I learned the amount of money that banks earn during even the limited time they’re holding your funds during a wire transfer, it completely changed how I viewed the infrastructure,” he explains. “Every second that the bank holds those funds, they’re earning interest on them. So they’re disincentivized to actually move money quickly.”
At an individual level, those delays may appear insignificant, but when inflated to a global scale, the economics become enormous. Across clearing windows, settlement cycles, correspondent banking relationships, and internal processing systems, value is being continuously generated as money remains in transit. The operational friction encountered by consumers is often a byproduct of the way legacy financial institutions derive profit from the very process of moving funds.
That same complexity is built into the architecture behind card payments. Tate recalls one of the moments that most shaped his understanding of the industry: “One of the biggest realizations for me was understanding how many participants are involved in a simple credit card transaction,” he says. The average card payment can involve anywhere between six and nine separate entities before a merchant ultimately receives funds. Issuers, acquirers, processors, gateways, networks, settlement providers and banks all sit within the transaction flow, each introducing additional layers of cost, timing and dependency. “It’s stacks on stacks on stacks,” Tate says.
Over time, those layers became normalized. Financial infrastructure evolved around fragmented systems, delayed settlement and intermediaries that were never truly optimized for transparency or interoperability. Instead, the industry adapted around legacy incentives that rewarded control over the movement of money rather than the efficiency of it. According to Tate, this is exactly what makes blockchain-powered payment infrastructures such a revolutionary innovation.
“Newer payment rails, particularly those built on blockchain systems, reduce the need for extended processing cycles and intermediaries by enabling direct settlement between parties,” he explains. “The result is a system where speed becomes the baseline expectation.”
For Tate, the real significance of crypto payments extends far beyond speculation or digital assets themselves. The larger transformation lies in creating infrastructure that allows different forms of value to become interoperable in real time. “I think there’s a general misunderstanding of the concept of the digitization of the dollar, for example”, he says. “It’s not just about a CBDC or replacing traditional money. It’s about creating a digital representation of assets, be that cash, stocks, equity, crypto, and making them usable.”
ForumPay’s design is built upon this very principle. Joshua Tate describes the company not just as a processor for cryptocurrency transactions, but as the infrastructure needed to connect traditional financial systems with digital assets in everyday commercial environments.
“ForumPay essentially has the capability to turn any digital asset into something you can actually use to pay for things every day.” The implications extend well beyond crypto-native consumers. Tate sees a future in which everyday transactions don’t require the cumbersome process of off-ramping investments, transferring capital across banks or enduring lengthy settlement periods. Instead, purchases would be completed with a level of fluidity that traditional financial systems currently lack.
“Imagine not having to liquidate stock in order to buy a house,” he says. “You could convert tokenized stock into cash the same way we turn Bitcoin into cash today.” In that future, payment systems become less dependent on siloed banking infrastructure and more dependent on fluid networks capable of transferring value instantly between different asset classes. “It turns everything into money,” Tate adds.
Stablecoins are already accelerating that transition. Tate argues that the fundamental value of stablecoins lies in their role as efficient settlement infrastructure, rather than in the common public focus on adoption or regulation.“Try and make a wire transfer for $10 million and see how long it takes,” he says. “Then make a $10 million transfer using USDT and see how long that takes.” The difference is significant, and it is structural. “There are numerous examples of how the provision and transfer of funds anywhere in the world is simply more efficient leveraging stablecoins,” he explains.
Tate believes these developments are part of a much broader transition toward global digital financial infrastructure adoption. While he acknowledges that legacy systems won’t vanish overnight, he views these current advancements as part of a realignment. “There will still be demand for traditional systems,” he says. “But the dominance will move toward digital infrastructure as Web3 evolves, as AI evolves, and as the broader financial ecosystem becomes more interconnected.”
Under Joshua Tate’s leadership, ForumPay is building the infrastructure needed to integrate digital assets into the very fabric of daily transactions. As businesses, consumers, and digital asset users embrace this evolving ecosystem, ForumPay will provide the means to bridge blockchain-based assets with real-world commerce.
Because, if Tate is right, blockchain’s greatest contribution to payments is not merely faster settlement, but the transformation of value itself into something more fluid, interoperable and seamlessly transferable.
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