Zeros

Trickle-Up Economics: How Stablecoins Perfected the Oldest Trick in Banking Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked demo last month showcased a partnership: USDC , live on stage, was integrated into Samsung Wallet . Circle hasn't confirmed it. Samsung hasn't named an issuer . But the image did its job — it got people talking about who actually profits when a stablecoin ends up in your pocket. The answer is more interesting than the demo. Circle, the company behind USDC, generated $653 million in revenue last quarter. Ninety-four percent of that came from one place : interest on the Treasury bills and cash backing every dollar of USDC in circulation. Not staking , not trading fees, not some exotic cryptic mechanism — plain old Treasury bill interest , the same thing available to anyone with a brokerage account. Circle just does it at a scale most of us can't. Here's the part worth considering : That interest exists because someone put real dollars into USDC. The ...

Welcome to the Growing World of Zesticain  For over a year now , many of you have been familiar with me through my posts on technology, digital currency, music, and pop culture. However, creativity has a way of opening new doors , and I'm excited to announce that Zesticain is expanding in two completely different directions. Today, I'm introducing two new blogs :  WordPress , zesticain.wordpress.com , and my new Substack , substack.com/@zesticain . Although both are part of the Zesticain social media foray, each has its own personality. My new WordPress website is dedicated to something I've become fascinated with: mobile puzzle games for relaxation . This isn't a site about walkthroughs, cheats, or racing to the finish line. Instead , it's about the experience . Think of those quiet moments when you settle into your favorite chair with a cup of cocoa, open a puzzle game , and simply enjoy the atmosphere . Beautiful artwork, relaxing music, satisfying a...

So Close, Again: Where the CLARITY Act Actually Stands There's a particular flavor of American tiredness reserved for bills that almost make it. I remember the credit card reform push years ago — the interchange fee fights, the swipe fee caps, the coalitions that formed and reformed and eventually just quietly stopped meeting. Nothing dramatic killed it. It just ran out of August. The CLARITY Act is starting to feel like that. It cleared the House back in July 2025 with a wide, almost startling bipartisan margin . It cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May, again with votes from both sides . It landed on the Senate calendar in June, formally eligible for a floor vote. And then it stopped , the way these things stop — not with a defeat , but with a Majority Leader telling reporters he doesn't expect to get to it before the summer recess . The obstacle this time is an ethics provision , the kind of thing that sounds like a technicality until you n...

Remember that scene in every superhero movie where someone walks into a glowing chamber and comes out looking completely different ? That's basically a caterpillar's daily planner. It disappears into a chrysalis looking like a fuzzy little leaf-munching machine and emerges as a butterfly ready for its close-up. If Hollywood pitched that script, we'd probably roll our eyes and say , "That's a bit much." Then along comes 10-year-old Japanese student Jo Nagai . Jo noticed that butterflies he had raised as caterpillars seemed to recognize him after their transformation. Scientists are still studying exactly how memory survives metamorphosis, but the idea alone is enough to make your brain do a double take . How does something that changes so dramatically still seem... well... like itself? Science has a solid answer . The caterpillar and the butterfly are the same organism, even though the body changes in extraordinary ways. ...

Imagine a room full of investigators staring at a giant screen covered in Bitcoin wallet addresses, arrows, charts, and enough hexadecimal strings to make anyone's eyes cross. One officer points confidently at a transaction and announces , "I think that's the culprit!" Another shakes his head and replies , "No, that's a wallet." A third quietly asks , "What's the difference?" Suddenly everyone is talking at once, papers are flying, keyboards are clacking, and the entire scene has the energy of an old Keystone Cops film with a dash of the Three Stooges thrown in for good measure. Reading about artificial intelligence helping law enforcement analyze blockchain transactions reminded me of those classic comedy routines where everyone is trying very hard to appear the smartest person in the room, while nobody wants to admit they just heard three words they don't understand . Digital currency has developed its own language ...

The Clones Are Tired : On Marilyn Manson's Front Toward Enemy Marilyn Manson has a new video out, and the premise is either deeply unsettling or deeply funny, depending on how much caffeine you've had.   Front Toward Enemy , directed by Henri Alexander Levy, previews his upcoming album One Assassination Under God – Chapter 2 , due August 14 on Nuclear Blast . The song itself has been sitting in a drawer since 2024, when it appeared as a CD-only B-side to Raise the Red Flag . Now it's been dusted off , remastered into a lead-up single, and handed a visual that nobody asked for, but everyone will remember . The video's central bit : Manson performs on a stark, white soundstage flanked by two child-sized doppelgängers , one on guitar and one on drums. Elsewhere he's doing pull-ups on a chrome-plated cross, prowling around in a cape like a warlock who forgot his own Halloween party, and at one point lying half-conscious on a gurney , while one of the mini-...