william hockey

Dollar denominates 75% of global trade including between adversaries like China/Russia, giving US unique financial warfare capability via sanctions; this reinforces demand for US financial infrastructure and makes dollar-based fintech strategically vital.

William argues AI companies themselves won't capture value; instead, companies with massive distribution (big brands, big banks) and high labor/tech costs will benefit most from AI efficiency gains, similar to how Standard Oil captured railroad value.

Countries with currency instability and low banking penetration innovate faster in financial services (mobile payments, super-apps) and rely heavily on USD, creating opportunity for US-regulated fintech infrastructure providers to serve global dollar demand.

VC money acts like heroin—addictive and hard to quit—forcing companies to optimize for next raise rather than long-term value; self-funding allows 10-year investment horizons, employee liquidity, and alignment between founders, employees, and customers.

Fed systems already offer 24/7 real-time settlement faster than stablecoins; the bottleneck is implementation at small banks due to business model constraints, not core infrastructure, creating opportunity for companies like Column to provide modern API access.

US uses dollar-based sanctions to enforce foreign policy without military risk; financial infrastructure companies are strategic national assets akin to defense contractors, and Silicon Valley increasingly recognizes its role in national security.

Current financial friction exists to protect 5-10% of vulnerable users from fraud; AI can detect fraud in real-time at human-level accuracy, allowing removal of friction for the majority while protecting the vulnerable, dramatically improving UX.