willybest

I write about how systems shape human behavior especially where trust quietly breaks.

[jacobstec]

Most fintech products compete on speed. Few design for the moment speed breaks. Here’s how I approach trust during payment delays, clarity over silence.

jacobw25.substack.com

[jacobstec]

Stablecoins Are Becoming Infrastructure

The most important story in digital finance is no longer about crypto speculation. It is about the quiet transformation of how money moves a

The real story in fintech right now isn’t crypto adoption.

It’s the quiet emergence of stablecoins as global financial infrastructure.

New essay now live on Substack.

[jacobstec]

I’m exploring how stablecoins are shifting from hype to infrastructure open to conversations with builders, regulators, and institutions navigating this transition

[jacobstec]

Most people think stablecoins are a crypto story.

I think they're becoming an infrastructure story.

The interesting question is no longer whether stablecoins exist.

It's why companies like Mastercard, MoneyGram, and other financial institutions are beginning to build around them.

I've been researching what this shift means for payments, trust, cross-border money movement, and the future of financial infrastructure.

A new essay is coming soon:

"Stablecoins Are Becoming Infrastructure."

[jacobstec]

Trust Is the Invisible Currency

A driver refreshing a payout screen.

A freelancer waiting for rent money.

A merchant watching settlement timelines shift.

These aren’t technical failures. They’re emotional ones.

mbedded finance must design for human clarity, not just speed.

The Quiet Infrastructure Crisis Inside Embedded Finance

Why the next generation of fintech winners may not be the platforms with the most features but the ones users can still trust when systems f

[jacobstec]

Building Trust in Systems That Shape Us

I’m here to connect with people who care about the hard stuff: B2B, fintech, trust, founders, start‑ups, infrastructure, and Web3.

We all know speed and rails matter but trust is the real currency. Founders and builders who see beyond the pitch deck, who understand that invisible systems shape outcomes, those are the voices I want to read and share.

If you’re writing about these themes, or building inside them, let’s connect. Readers, writers, authors, editors this is the room we build together.

Here’s one of my recent pieces: https://jacobw25.substack.com/p/the-quiet-infrastructure-crisis-inside

[jacobstec]

Most fintech systems don’t fail publicly.

They fail psychologically.

A payout pauses. A transaction disappears. A user refreshes the app three times.

The infrastructure may still be operating correctly.

But trust has already started collapsing.

[jacobstec]

Identity is more than a document it’s the gateway to financial inclusion.

In African fintech, the question isn’t just who gets access to money, but who gets recognized in the first place. Decentralized identity could change that, opening doors for millions who are excluded by traditional systems.

The future of finance here depends on trust, recognition, and inclusion and the way we design identity will decide who gets left out, and who gets brought in.

👉 Read the full essay:

How Decentralized Identity Could Reshape African Fintech

Why the future of financial inclusion depends on who gets recognized, and who doesn’t

[jacobstec]

There’s a moment most financial products don’t design for.

Not when everything is working.

But when something pauses.

A transfer takes longer than expected.

The screen doesn’t update.

Nothing explains what’s happening.

That silence doesn’t feel neutral.

It feels like risk.

And in that moment, people don’t wait for clarity.

They create their own explanation.

That’s where distrust begins.

Lately, I’ve been working on a set of case studies around this

how small changes in language, timing, and structure

can turn those moments from confusion into clarity.

Not by adding more features.

But by making systems easier to understand

when people need it most.

jacobw25.substack.com

[jacobstec]

There’s a moment no one talks about.

When a system pauses…

and says nothing.

Not broken. Not failed. Just silent.

And in that silence, your mind fills the gap.

Did something go wrong?

Can I trust this?

I wrote about that moment—where trust actually begins to crack.

Because people don’t need perfect systems.

They need systems they can understand.

Read:

https://jacob25.gumroad.com/l/qoeaft⁠

[jacobstec]

I write about the infrastructure of trust in fintech why automation alone won't earn user confidence, and how human systems make financial technology durable.

If you're building fintech, DeFi, or payments: your users don't just want speed. They want to understand decisions made about their money.

I help companies explain that. DM me for thought leadership, white papers, or founder ghostwriting.

jacobw25.substack.com

medium.com/@jacob.william3

[jacobstec]

Most writing doesn’t fail because it’s bad.

It fails because it’s forgettable.

Clean sentences. Nice structure. Zero impact.

In a world flooded with content, clarity isn’t enough.

If your message doesn’t hold attention, build trust, and actually move people it’s already lost.

I don’t just write.

I take complex ideas fintech, systems, trust and turn them into narratives people understand, remember, and act on.

If you’re building something real and your message isn’t landing, that’s not a visibility problem.

It’s a clarity problem.

Let’s fix it.

[jacobstec]

Most writing doesn’t fail because it’s bad.

It fails because it’s forgettable.

Clean sentences. Nice structure. Zero impact.

In a world flooded with content, clarity isn’t enough.

If your message doesn’t hold attention, build trust, and actually move people it’s already lost.

I don’t just write.

I take complex ideas fintech, systems, trust and turn them into narratives people understand, remember, and act on.

If you’re building something real and your message isn’t landing, that’s not a visibility problem.

It’s a clarity problem.

Let’s fix it.

[jacobstec]

Something is coming soon.

Not loud. Not urgent.

Just a quiet question about the future:

What happens when the systems we trust… have to prove they’re still trustworthy?

[jacobstec]

Something is coming soon.

Not loud. Not urgent.

Just a quiet question about the future:

What happens when the systems we trust… have to prove they’re still trustworthy?

[jacobstec]

I write about the infrastructure of trust in fintech why automation alone won't earn user confidence, and how human systems make financial technology durable.

If you're building fintech, DeFi, or payments: your users don't just want speed. They want to understand decisions made about their money.

I help companies explain that. DM me for thought leadership, white papers, or founder ghostwriting.

jacobw25.substack.com

medium.com/@jacob.william3

[jacobstec]

AI is increasingly making decisions inside financial systems.

Fraud detection, risk scoring, transaction monitoring many of these processes now rely on automated models operating behind the interface.

But as these systems become more influential, a new question emerges:

Should governance remain invisible?

In this article published with The Fintech Guide, I explore the idea that AI governance may gradually become a visible layer of fintech product design, shaping how financial platforms communicate decisions and accountability to users.

Read the article here:

https://medium.com/the-fintech-guide/ai-governance-as-product-design-1bcb46aa7b59