Over the past decades, we have witnessed the digitalization of information (the internet), communication (social media), and commerce (e-commerce). Yet, “money” itself has remained confined to centralized ledgers as mere numerical entries—an “analog value represented digitally.” In contrast, stablecoins that exist as tokens on a blockchain are inherently digital and constitute “programmable” assets, capable of embedding logical conditions. This signifies that payments are no longer the final step of a given process, but rather an organic element that can be embedded in and automated across all digital interactions.

Failing to establish an independent infrastructure for this new mode of value exchange would be a strategic mistake akin to foregoing national-level investment in internet backbone networks in the 1990s. Based on global regulatory trends and technological inevitability, this proposal argues why it is urgent for the Republic of Korea to adopt its own stablecoin-based payment system.