2) Trade settlement: less friction, less delay
Importers don’t just lose money through exchange rates. They lose through timing, clearance delays, and middlemen spread.
3) Digital finance isn’t optional anymore
A country can either shape its rails or become a consumer of someone else’s rails.
And Big Tech loves countries that become “consumers.”
Why The Public Smell Test Is Failing
Because Pakistan has a repeated pattern:
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big announcement
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elite photo-op
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public cost
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private upside
People in your thread didn’t invent skepticism. They inherited it.
When users say “money laundering,” “bribes,” “scammers,” they’re not just insulting crypto — they’re reacting to a familiar national template: outsourced decision-making + no accountability.
And when the partner is framed internationally as Trump-linked, the optics get even hotter.
The Real Risk Isn’t Crypto — It’s Capture
Here’s the danger that matters more than any token price:
If payment rails become political assets, your economy becomes hostage.
A stablecoin isn’t just “a token.”
At scale, it becomes a settlement dependency.
Now add:
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political connections
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opaque reserves
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hype-driven adoption
And you get a weaponized payments layer.
This is why regulators globally are worried about Big Tech in finance — not because apps are scary, but because control concentration is system risk.
