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“Think about all the economic rents that are derived by firms engaged in that sort of activity, and it was a very important activity, creating trust bridges,” said Epstein. “Now smart contracts do that for us automatically. Think about how long it takes to settle a transaction, and what percentage of the year the market is open. Everything will now settle instantaneously, markets can function for 100% of the year, and decentralized finance makes it all possible. There’s a lot of value in that, and it has nothing to do with algorithmic stablecoins.”