Americans who want to transfer money online have options. They can go with services like Venmo and PayPal, make transfers from their personal bank, or do a transaction with stablecoins issued by cryptocurrency companies.

All those options have something in common that may not always occur to consumers: The transfers are offered by exclusively by private companies. That means users’ accounts aren’t stuffed with physical dollars, but rather with promises made by private companies to make the recipient whole.

Unlike with cash money, the system creates a middleman for every dollar spent — and an opportunity for them to make a profit off the digital equivalent of something so simple as handing someone else a bill.

There’s no way to send money digitally without involving a company that has a

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