# Christian Catalini

> Founder, operator, economist. Co-founder of Lightspark, co-creator of Libra at Meta,
> founder of the MIT Cryptoeconomics Lab. Research and writing on the economics
> of AGI, verification, stablecoins, and digital markets.

All pages have markdown twins: append `.md` to any URL.
Full corpus in one file: https://catalini.com/llms-full.txt

## Ideas
- [The Economics of AI: Verification as the New Scarcity](https://catalini.com/ideas/economics-of-ai.md)
- [The Economics of Stablecoins](https://catalini.com/ideas/economics-of-stablecoins.md)
- [The GENIUS Act: A Federal Framework for Stablecoins](https://catalini.com/ideas/genius-act.md)

## Writing
- [Why An Open Standard Will Win The Stablecoin…](https://catalini.com/writing/open-standard-stablecoin-race.md): Forbes, Jun 2026
- [Intelligence Wants to Be Free](https://catalini.com/writing/intelligence-wants-to-be-free.md): Substack, Jun 2026
- [Nadella’s Test: What’s Left When The AI Model…](https://catalini.com/writing/nadellas-test.md): Forbes, Jun 2026
- [The Moral Of Fable](https://catalini.com/writing/the-moral-of-fable.md): Forbes, Jun 2026
- [Where Self-Improving AI is the Beginning of…](https://catalini.com/writing/self-improving-ai-beginning-of-infinity.md): Substack, Jun 2026
- [Bot Chargebacks, Voyages, and AI Liability](https://www.pressreader.com/foryou?popupArticleId=281870125106551): The Korea Herald, Jun 2026
- [The Banks Would Like To Dye Your Stablecoins…](https://catalini.com/writing/banks-dye-stablecoins-pink.md): Forbes, Apr 2026
- [Agents Are Starting to Operate Real Systems —…](https://a16zcrypto.substack.com/p/agents-are-starting-to-operate-real): a16z crypto, Apr 2026
- [Software Eats the Brokerage](https://catalini.substack.com/p/software-eats-the-brokerage): Substack, Mar 2026
- [Babysitting The Slop](https://catalini.com/writing/babysitting-the-slop.md): Forbes, Mar 2026
- [Software Eats The Brokerage—AI Lowers Cost,…](https://catalini.com/writing/software-eats-the-brokerage.md): Forbes, Mar 2026
- [The Most Valuable AI Tool in Fintech Isn't an…](https://catalini.com/s/The-Most-Valuable-AI-Tool-in-Fintech-Isnt-an-LLM-Its-a-Banking-Charter-Christian-Catalini.pdf): CPI, Jan 2026
- [What Stablecoin Regulation Means for Business](https://sloanreview.mit.edu/issue/2026-winter/): MIT SMR, Winter 2026
- [How Banks Learned To Stop Worrying And Love…](https://catalini.com/writing/banks-love-stablecoins.md): Forbes, Dec 2025
- [Crypto Is Ready To Be Boring Now](https://catalini.com/writing/crypto-ready-to-be-boring.md): Forbes, Dec 2025
- [The Trillion-Dollar Battle for Money’s…](https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10617819): The Korea Herald, Nov 2025
- [The Unwitting Kingmaker: Why Washington’s…](https://catalini.com/writing/unwitting-kingmaker.md): CPI, Sep 2025
- [Stripe’s Tempo And The Ghost Of Facebook’s…](https://catalini.com/writing/stripes-tempo-libras-ghost.md): Forbes, Sep 2025
- [Does Bitcoin Belong on Your Balance Sheet?](https://hbr.org/2025/09/does-bitcoin-belong-on-your-balance-sheet): HBR, Sep 2025
- [Economists Are Still Puzzled By Bitcoin—Should…](https://catalini.com/writing/economists-puzzled-by-bitcoin.md): Forbes, Aug 2025
- [Stripe Is Building A Blockchain: Can Openness…](https://catalini.com/writing/stripe-blockchain-branded-rails.md): Forbes, Aug 2025
- [Washington’s New Stablecoin Law Has a…](https://www.lightspark.com/news/insights/washingtons-new-stablecoin-law): Lightspark, 2025
- [Can Crypto Go Mainstream Without Losing Its…](https://www.lightspark.com/news/insights/can-crypto-go-mainstream-without-losing-its-soul): Lightspark, 2025
- [What Gets Measured, AI Will Automate](https://catalini.com/writing/what-gets-measured-ai-automates.md): HBR, Jun 2025
- [What Everyone Gets Wrong About Crypto Adoption](https://catalini.com/writing/crypto-adoption.md): Forbes, May 2025
- [The Stablecoin Wars](https://catalini.com/writing/the-stablecoin-wars.md): Forbes, Apr 2025
- [With Dollar Hegemony At Risk, Could This Be…](https://catalini.com/writing/dollar-hegemony-cryptos-moment.md): Forbes, Apr 2025
- [Trump’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve: Balancing…](https://catalini.com/writing/trumps-strategic-bitcoin-reserve.md): Forbes, Mar 2025
- [Bitcoin Reserves Won’t Secure America’s…](https://catalini.com/writing/bitcoin-reserves-platform-play.md): Forbes, Feb 2025
- [The Internet Of Money Wants To Be Free](https://catalini.com/writing/internet-of-money-wants-to-be-free.md): Forbes, Jan 2025
- [Should the United States Implement a Bitcoin…](https://catalini.com/writing/bitcoin-strategic-reserve-a16z.md): a16z crypto, 2025
- [Can Crypto’s Scarcity Tame AI’s Infinite…](https://catalini.com/writing/crypto-scarcity-ai-abundance.md): Forbes, Dec 2024
- [Decentralizing AI—Big Dreams, Bigger Hype?](https://catalini.com/writing/decentralizing-ai.md): Forbes, Nov 2024
- [Why Everyone Is Wrong About Stablecoins](https://catalini.com/writing/everyone-wrong-about-stablecoins.md): Forbes, Nov 2024
- [Crypto Policy Needs to Empower Builders, Not…](https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/crypto-regulation-us-election-trump-bitcoin-boosterism-gives-harris-an-opening-by-christian-catalini-1-et-al-2024-09): Project Syndicate, Sep 2024
- [How The SEC’s Attack On NFTs Harms Creators](https://catalini.com/writing/sec-attack-nfts.md): Forbes, Aug 2024
- [Why Big Tech Can’t Solve The Content Moderation…](https://catalini.com/writing/big-tech-content-moderation.md): Forbes, Aug 2024
- [The Race to Dominate Stablecoins](https://catalini.com/writing/race-to-dominate-stablecoins.md): HBR, Aug 2024
- [Are Stablecoins Winner-Take-All?](https://catalini.com/s/2-ARE-STABLECOINS-WINNER-TAKE-ALL-Christian-Catalini-Jai-Massari.pdf): CPI, Jul 2024
- [Forget Antitrust, Regulate To Let Tech Disrupt…](https://catalini.com/writing/forget-antitrust.md): Forbes, Apr 2024
- [Is Crypto’s Killer App Finally Here?](https://catalini.com/writing/cryptos-killer-app.md): Forbes, Feb 2024
- [The Hidden Breakthrough Behind Bitcoin](https://www.lightspark.com/news/insights/the-hidden-breakthrough-behind-bitcoin): Lightspark, 2023
- [Do Crypto Prices Actually Mean Anything?](https://catalini.com/writing/crypto-prices-mean-anything.md): HBR, Jan 2023
- [How Digital Currencies Can Help Small Businesses](https://hbr.org/2022/05/how-digital-currencies-can-help-small-businesses): HBR, May 2022
- [Can Web3 Bring Back Competition to Digital…](https://catalini.com/s/Can-Web3-Bring-Back-Competition-to-Digital-Platforms.pdf): CPI, Mar 2022
- [Stablecoins and the Future of Money](https://hbr.org/2021/08/stablecoins-and-the-future-of-money): HBR, Aug 2021
- [It’s Time to Knock Down the Walled Gardens of…](https://www.americanbanker.com/opinion/its-time-to-knock-down-the-walled-gardens-of-the-payments-system): American Banker, 2021
- [DeFi, Disintermediation, and the Regulatory…](https://www.theregreview.org/2021/05/10/massari-catalini-defi-disintermediation-regulatory-path-ahead/): The Regulatory Review, May 2021
- [Bitcoin and Beyond](https://www.project-syndicate.org/onpoint/bitcoin-and-new-digital-ledger-applications-by-christian-catalini-et-al-2021-04): Project Syndicate, Apr 2021
- [Facebook Will Be Unable to Control Libra](https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-facebook-will-be-unable-to-control-libra-1001303874): Globes, 2019
- [Why Blockchain Can Be Good For Competition](https://catalini.com/writing/blockchain-good-for-competition.md): Forbes, Oct 2017
- [Seeing Beyond the Blockchain Hype](https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/seeing-beyond-the-blockchain-hype/): MIT SMR, Mar 2017

## Research
- [The Digital Privacy Paradox and Choice Architecture: Evidence from an Experiment in Fintech](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2916489): MIS Quarterly, 2026
- [Some Simple Economics of AGI](https://catalini.com/research/some-simple-economics-of-agi.md): Working Paper, 2026
- [Syndication in Equity Crowdfunding: Performance and the Evaluation of Experts](https://catalini.com/research/): Research Policy, 2025
- [Proximate (Co-)Working: Knowledge Spillovers and Social Interactions](https://catalini.com/research/): Management Science, 2024
- [Some Simple Economics of Stablecoins](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3985699): Annual Review of Financial Economics, 2021
- [Some Simple Economics of the Blockchain](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2874598): Communications of the ACM, 2020
- [When Early Adopters Don’t Adopt](https://catalini.com/research/): Science, 2017

## Media
- [From Libra to Open Standard’s OUSD: What Facebook’s Failed Stablecoin…](https://open.spotify.com/episode/3TNVy6Wxz2u1lbnAzlWSu5): CoinDesk Podcast Network, Jul 2026
- [Anything AI can measure can be automated](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcPIzPSG02c): Beyond the Prompt, Jun 2026
- [The Unexpected Economics of AGI - with Christian Catalini, Tech…](https://open.spotify.com/episode/25R8So9alj6pOW9h7Rh2X4): Beyond The Prompt - How to use AI in your company, Jun 2026
- [Verification Is the Bottleneck of the AI Economy - Christian Catalini…](https://open.spotify.com/episode/5gTlGmgwm8yr89AKfcHR4x): PostAGI Podcast, Jun 2026
- [Some Simple Economics of AGI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J1nZonrDFs&t=504s): Luohan Academy, Jun 2026
- [Verification Is the Bottleneck of the AI Economy - Christian Catalini…](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96R-4bY5198): Eigen Labs, Jun 2026
- …and 46 more: https://catalini.com/media/

## Optional
- [Notes](https://catalini.com/notes/): 57 X threads unrolled — full text in llms-full.txt
- [Ventures & Advisory](https://catalini.com/ventures/) · [About](https://catalini.com/about/) · [Writing index](https://catalini.com/writing/)
- [CV (markdown)](https://catalini.com/cv.md) · [CV (PDF)](https://catalini.com/cv.pdf)