Most of modern finance has been built for now: instant payments, real-time trading, same-day settlement, on-demand credit. We have made moving money effortless. Tap, swipe, trade, transfer—done.
But while the world raced to make money move faster, it neglected the half of finance that moves slower, the half that actually makes civilization work.
That other half is what I call Meanwhile Finance: savings, retirement, insurance, annuities, trusts, and long-term debt. It is the layer that turns cash into capital and time into prosperity. We are great at velocity but bad at duration.
The Age of “Now”
The “now” layer of finance dominates today’s innovation agenda. Stripe and Square made it trivial to accept payments. Robinhood and Coinbase made trading instantaneous. Stablecoins and digital wallets made money borderless.
These are remarkable achievements, but they are all about flow, not foundation. They circulate capital without compounding it. They optimize for convenience and liquidity, not longevity.
“Now” finance is transactional. It is designed to end, to settle, to be done. Yet real wealth, personal or societal, comes from commitments that persist.
The Neglected “Meanwhile”
The “meanwhile” layer covers everything that takes time: building savings, funding retirement, protecting a family through permanent life insurance, or securing lifelong income through an annuity.
Each of these depends on a credible promise that stretches across decades. They assume not only solvency but continuity. They are about keeping promises, not simply moving money.
Life insurance and annuities exemplify this world. They are the financial instruments that most clearly embody the logic of the “meanwhile” layer—converting time, trust, and uncertainty into stability. A permanent life policy transforms premiums into a guaranteed benefit for others long after the policyholder is gone. An annuity reverses that equation, turning a lump sum into predictable income that lasts as long as you do. Both require careful underwriting, disciplined investment, and an unwavering commitment to the future. They are promises extended across decades, backed not by speed or convenience but by solvency and stewardship.
This is where civilization’s true balance sheet lives. Life insurers, pension funds, and trusts collectively hold tens of trillions of dollars, more than the world’s annual GDP. Their patient capital funds our roads, hospitals, schools, and energy grids. Without them, liquidity would have nothing to build on.
When the “meanwhile” layer weakens, when people stop saving, when insurers retreat, when pensions underfund, societies become fragile. Speed without stability is motion without meaning.
What “Now” Innovators Miss
Most fintech founders ask how to make something faster. Few ask how to make something endure.
The “now” layer is mostly pre-funded. It assumes assets in hand and instant finality. The “meanwhile” layer runs on trust and time. It coordinates not only transactions but futures.
Payments solve synchronization; insurance, annuities, and trusts solve duration. One moves value through space; the other through time.
Digitizing Time
We have digitized money but not yet time.
Smart contracts and stablecoins made value programmable, but almost no DeFi has a term structure. A blockchain can settle instantly, but it cannot yet manage a permanent life policy, administer a multigenerational trust, or price an annuity that lasts for decades.
The next frontier in finance is not faster rails; it is durable rails. Infrastructure that lets individuals and institutions make, trade, and settle long-term commitments as easily as short-term ones.
Digital assets provide a global medium. Smart contracts provide enforcement. Artificial intelligence provides the intelligence to manage complexity and scale. Together, these tools can modernize the “meanwhile” layer, making savings, insurance, and trusts as seamless as payments became a decade ago.
To us, Bitcoin fits naturally into the “meanwhile” world. It is often described as fast money, but its real strength lies in permanence. Bitcoin is the first digital asset designed to last for centuries without counterparty risk or debasement. It can serve as long-term statutory capital for insurers, collateral for annuities, or the enduring reserve asset behind a family trust. Its transparency and programmability make it ideal for managing obligations that stretch across decades while preserving the independence and finality that traditional finance erodes. In a sense, Bitcoin is digital stone—something solid enough to build the next generation of long-term financial promises upon.
A Philosophy of Duration
We live our lives in the “meanwhile,” in the decades between milestones and the work between dreams and outcomes. Finance that serves only the “now” misunderstands the human condition. Most of what we value—family, home, education, legacy—takes time.
Permanent life insurance, annuities, and trusts exist so we can make promises to the future and trust that the system will still be there to keep them. They are civilization’s timekeepers, preserving value and intent across generations.
Payments move money. Promises move civilization.
The next financial revolution is not about instant settlement. It is about endurance: building institutions, assets, and technologies that last.
That is Meanwhile Finance: rebuilding the machinery of patience in a world addicted to speed. Not just making money move faster, but helping it wait better.