Payment Systems Have Reached Saturation:

We Are Waiting for an Entirely New Paradigm 

You know a technology has hit its saturation point when users start asking, “Even if something better comes, what would actually change?”

At the end of 2025, that’s exactly where we stand with payments.

1. Current Systems Have Peaked

- Pix, UPI, FedNow, SEPA Instant → 24/7 instant transfers are now in everyone’s pocket 

- Alipay & WeChat Pay → 3-second payments have been the norm for a decade 

- Stripe + USDC → Cross-border costs dropped to 0.3% 

- Apple Pay Tap to Pay → Your phone is now a POS terminal 

- BNPL → 12-month interest-free instalments have become ordinary 

From the user’s point of view, there is simply nothing left to improve in speed, cost, or accessibility. The current stack has technically reached saturation.

2. Users No Longer Feel the Difference

Global studies in 2025 (McKinsey, Accenture, BCG) all point to the same conclusion:

- 73% of consumers say “I don’t see a meaningful difference between payment methods anymore” 

- Checkout conversion uplift from new payment options has been stuck below 0.7% for years 

- Gen Alpha barely registers “making a payment” as a conscious action; money just moves

Innovation continues, but the perceived user experience has flatlined.

3. The End of Today’s Core Assumptions

Every single payment system today is still built on four fundamental assumptions:

1. Value must move from one account to another 

2. That movement requires an intermediary 

3. Identity verification is a separate step 

4. Money is still treated as discrete “units”

All four of these assumptions will break between 2026 and 2030.

4. The Next Paradigm: Payments That Aren’t Payments

The future system won’t make you “pay” at all. Three major streams are emerging:

A. Value-as-a-Stream 

B. Programmable Money + Autonomous Decisions (Smart Money) 

C. Identity-Native Payments (you are the credential)

5. By 2030 the Phrase “Payment System” May Become Obsolete

In 2030 these conversations will sound perfectly normal:

“Did you pay?” 

“Pay for what? The car just settled the fuel itself.”

Because value flow will no longer be an event; it will be a continuous stream, just like the internet evolved from “dial-up → you’re online” to “you’re always connected.”

Final Word

2025 marks the final year of major innovation within the current payment paradigm. 

From 2026 onward, we won’t be competing on “faster, cheaper, safer.” 

We will be building a world where payments, as we know them, simply cease to exist.

The first seeds of that world are already being planted by visionary players like Finorys, who stopped designing “payment systems” a long time ago and started designing the seamless flow of value itself.