Programmable money is currency that can incorporate and follow instructions (e.g., release on delivery, expire in 30 days, only spendable with approved vendors). When rules are part of the money, secure payment systems become even more valuable infrastructure. This is a shift in how businesses move value, control risk, and build automatic financial workflows.

The shift towards programmable money is already underway at the institutional level: a 2024 survey found that 91% of central banks are actively exploring central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which are digital versions of national currencies that can carry programmable features. Below, we’ll discuss how programmable money works, where it’s already operational, and what it enables for companies ready to build with it.

What’s in this article?

• What is programmable money?
  
• How does programmable money function on blockchain networks?
  
• What platforms support programmable financial transactions?
  
• What efficiencies result from programmable monetary systems?
  
• What are the compliance and governance issues around programmable money?
  
• How can organizations explore use cases for programmable money?
  
• How Stripe Payments can help
  

What is programmable money?

Programmable money is currency that can follow instructions. Specifically, it’s digital currency with logic attached. The built-in rules tend to outline how, when, or by whom the money can be used. The currency knows what to do and when to do it, without needing external approvals or triggers.

Programmable money can be coded to:

• Release automatically when a job is completed

• Expire after a set time (e.g., 90 days)

• Restrict spending to certain categories or businesses

• Trigger based on real-world events (e.g., a shipment arriving, a weather threshold being exceeded)

The concept gained traction with the rise of blockchain payments and smart contracts. A smart contract is a piece of code that automatically moves funds when certain conditions are met. That means payments can react in real time to inputs or conditions.

While this began with blockchain networks like Ethereum, the idea has expanded. Today, programmable money might include:

• Stablecoins (e.g., USDC) with rules enforced by smart contracts

• Bank-issued digital tokens that enable settlements 24/7

• CBDCs that include expiration dates or spending limits

Whichever form it takes, programmable money can move on its own terms, driven by code.

How does programmable money function on blockchain networks?

Blockchains make programmable money viable at scale. They provide the infrastructure rules that govern how assets are moved and stored. Everything—the ledger, the assets, and the logic—lives on the same system.

Here are the main components:

• Digital ledger: The blockchain keeps a shared, tamper-resistant record of who owns what.

• Smart contracts: These are pieces of code stored on the blockchain that prompt actions when certain conditions are met.

• Tokens: These represent the money. That might be a stablecoin pegged to fiat (e.g., USDC) or another type of cryptocurrency.

• Oracles: Many smart contracts rely on practical data, such as weather, shipment delivery, and stock prices. Oracles feed that off-chain information to the contract so it can react.

• Application programming interfaces (APIs): Users and businesses don’t interact with raw smart contracts. Instead, they use APIs or apps built on top of them, and these tools translate the information into usable actions.

Ethereum made this model programmable for general purposes. You can write any logic into a smart contract, whether it’s escrow, royalties, or subscriptions. The contract will then execute exactly as written. So a contract might say, “If this product is delivered and confirmed, release payment,” and that’s it. No one has to chase invoices or match spreadsheets. The code handles it automatically.

Bitcoin also includes basic programmability. Its transactions can include simple conditions, such as requiring multiple signatures to release funds. Networks built on top of Bitcoin, such as the Lightning Network, extend this for real-time micropayments and faster transfers.

Newer blockchains build on these ideas with faster throughput or different trade-offs, but the principle is the same. Keep the code and money in the same system, and transactions can occur without intermediaries.

What platforms support programmable financial transactions?

Programmable money is emerging across multiple layers of the financial world, from public blockchains to bank infrastructure and central bank pilots. Four main use cases have emerged.

Public smart contract platforms

The most mature examples of programmable money live on blockchains. Ethereum was the first mainstream platform to support full programmability through smart contracts. Developers who use it can encode payment logic, escrows, and royalties—whatever rules they want the money to follow.

Newer blockchains like Solana and Avalanche soon followed. They use a similar structure, but each chooses different performance trade-offs. All of them support programmable tokens, contracts, and logic. These networks host everything from customers’ wallets to decentralized finance lending protocols, and the code functions as the treasury, contract, and auditor.

Stablecoins with rules

Stablecoins like USDC are programmable by default when they’re used on platforms. They’re often pegged to fiat currencies, which makes them easier to use in financial flows, but they move with the same precision and logic as any crypto asset.

Stablecoins are commonly used for payments such as automated payroll, streaming payments, and conditional vendor payouts. Their price stability makes them better suited for business adoption.

Bank-issued tokens

Big banks are adopting the same playbook. JPMorgan Chase’s JPM Coin is an example of a tokenized bank deposit, digital dollars that move 24/7 and can be wired to respond to business logic such as payment netting and settlement triggers. Bank-issued tokens are real deposits that can be programmed to settle automatically, reflect intraday liquidity shifts, or route themselves through preferred paths.

Central banks and programmable fiat

Even governments are exploring their own versions of programmable money these days. CBDCs such as China’s e-CNY and Nigeria’s eNaira include built-in rules such as expiration windows and business restrictions for targeted disbursements.

What efficiencies result from programmable monetary systems?

When money runs on code, it doesn’t wait for bank hours, batch files, or approvals. That allows a different level of speed and reliability, especially for systems built for high-volume, conditional, or cross-border payments.

Here are some of the biggest benefits:

• 24/7 settlement: Programmable payments settle in minutes or seconds, regardless of time zone.

• Global scale: A USDC transfer from the US to Europe takes as little time as sending a text.

• Fewer intermediaries: You don’t need clearing houses, brokers, or reconciliation teams for each step in the chain. That can lower fees and latency.

• Viable micropayments: You can send 2¢ for an API call or per-stream royalties because the cost of moving money drops close to zero.

• No mismatched logic: The contract and the funds are always synchronized.

• Real-time workflows: Payouts activate on delivery, loans repay themselves from incoming revenue, and subscriptions adjust based on usage.

• Traceable transactions: On-chain payments come with their own receipts.

• Proactive compliance: You can set rules that block disallowed transfers, flag exceptions, or automatically route taxes.

The big shift overall is that money becomes dynamic. It can react, execute, and enforce its own terms, which opens the door for leaner operations and entirely new financial models.

What are the compliance and governance issues around programmable money?

Programmable money can increase risk when funds move based on code. You must carefully design the rules, safeguards, and oversight, just as you would the logic that moves the money. There are a few challenges for the industry.

Varying regulations

In some jurisdictions, a programmable token might count as money. In others, it might be treated like security. The same asset can be defined differently across locations, depending on how the regulations are structured.

Those regulations are also still developing. For example, the US has the GENIUS Act and the EU has the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).

Code risk

Bugs, edge cases, or poor logic can lock up funds or, worse, leak them. If the logic misfires, there’s usually no way to undo it. And unlike with traditional systems, in which a support team can reverse a transaction, here the code is the transaction. Without human oversight, you need to audit your contracts, and governance needs to include clear controls regarding who can update or pause logic when needed.

Key security

The attack surface changes with programmable money. You’re no longer securing a payment API; you’re securing private keys that can move millions. Wallet design, access control, and custody matter as much as the contract itself.

Privacy and visibility

Records on a blockchain are auditable by design. That’s good for oversight, but it’s risky if not managed well. New techniques (e.g., the cryptographic method of zero-knowledge proof) are starting to solve this issue by allowing verification without exposing sensitive details.

How can organizations explore use cases for programmable money?

You don’t need to rebuild your financial system from scratch to start experimenting with programmable money. The most effective path is to gradually explore, test, and learn. Here are some basic steps you can take when you get started with programmable money.

Start where money slows you down

Look for payments that depend on conditional logic or involve high coordination overhead, such as payouts tied to milestones, cross-border transfers with foreign exchange risk or delays, and subscription flows that need real-time metering. If the workflow already sounds like, “If X happens, then pay Y,” that’s a potential use case for programmable money.

Run a small pilot

Start with a stablecoin payout test or create a smart contract prototype that mirrors a business rule. Some companies use programmable payments internally. This could involve sweeping idle funds or releasing supplier payments automatically. Others begin with an isolated geography or contractor flow.

Lean on existing systems

You don’t need to build the infrastructure. Stripe, for example, supports stablecoin payouts in over 100 countries. Other platforms provide tools for deploying contracts, managing custody, or integrating Know Your Customer (KYC) controls at the protocol level. Start where the value is obvious, then scale with what you learn.

How Stripe Payments can help

Stripe Payments provides a unified, global payment solution that helps any business—from scaling startups to global enterprises—accept payments online, in person, and around the world. Businesses can accept stablecoin payments from almost anywhere in the world that settle as fiat in their Stripe balances.

Stripe Payments can help you:

• Optimize your checkout experience: Create a frictionless customer experience and save thousands of engineering hours with prebuilt payment UIs and access to 125+ payment methods, including stablecoins and crypto.

• Expand to new markets faster: Reach customers worldwide and reduce the complexity and cost of multicurrency management with cross-border payment options, available in 195 countries across 135+ currencies.

• Unify payments in person and online: Build a unified commerce experience across online and in-person channels to personalize interactions, reward loyalty, and grow revenue.

• Improve payment performance: Increase revenue with a range of customizable, easy-to-configure payment tools, including no-code fraud protection and advanced capabilities to improve authorization rates.

• Move faster with a flexible, reliable platform for growth: Build on a platform designed to scale with you, with 99.999% historical uptime and industry-leading reliability.

Learn more about how Stripe Payments can power your online and in-person payments, or get started today.