From POC to Production: Why Payment Innovation Stalls

Reflections on Tom Alaerts' pacs.crypto work: payment innovation does not lack POCs; it lacks production-grade adoption paths, and ISO 20022-aligned semantics may be the most practical bridge.

I have been following and contributing to Tom's pacs.crypto work, and this article hits a point that keeps coming back in payment innovation: the industry does not suffer from a shortage of POCs. It suffers from a shortage of production-grade adoption paths.

In my experience, the jump from pilot to live volume usually fails for three boring reasons:

The new rail does not fit existing bank operations.

The data model asks institutions to learn a new language.

The project measures participation, not actual money movement.

That is why I find the pacs.crypto approach interesting. It does not try to replace the bank operating model overnight. It starts from ISO 20022-aligned semantics and asks a more practical question:

How do we make blockchain payments and tokenised cash understandable to the systems, teams, and controls banks already rely on?

The most useful innovation is often the least theatrical one: reuse the standards, reduce translation cost, and make the first live corridor easier to operate.

Worth reading if you care about stablecoins, tokenised cash, ISO 20022, or why so many payment initiatives stall between demo and production.

Referenced article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-poc-production-why-innovative-payment-projects-stall-tom-alaerts-fytwc/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">From POC to Production: Why Innovative Payment Projects Stall, and What Actually Helps - Tom Alaerts

Original LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7454400990566576128/

Topics: ISO 20022, Payments, Stablecoins, Tokenization, Innovation