Plain Talk: 'These are North Dakota residents living next to you'

MINOT — "Banking has been on payment rails that are old and traditional," Don Morgan said on this episode of Plain Talk. "They were built in 1970. They're antiquated."

Morgan is the president of the Bank of North Dakota, which recently announced a new blockchain currency called the Roughrider Coin — a "stablecoin," in the parlance of the industry. He came on the show to talk about how that will serve the interests of North Dakotans.

The answer? It won't. Not directly. At least not at first. As Morgan's analogy about "rails" makes clear, the best way to think about this new currency is as infrastructure. This is a "blockchain-enabled transaction framework," Morgan said.

Right now, when you make an online payment or you swipe your debit card at the grocery store, your transaction is pro