Back in 1994, New York City's subway system underwent a quiet revolution. The MetroCard—a simple swipeable plastic card—replaced decades of physical tokens, bringing a technological facelift to one of the world's oldest mass transit networks. It sounds mundane, but this shift reveals something crucial about financial systems: sometimes the biggest breakthroughs aren't flashy innovations, they're practical upgrades that make daily transactions seamless. The token-to-card transition cut friction, improved user experience, and enabled better data tracking. Today, we're witnessing a similar pattern in the financial world. Payment infrastructure that seemed permanent just years ago is being reimagined. Whether it's real-time settlement, programmable transactions, or removing intermediaries—the underlying principle remains the same: modernizing how value moves matters. The MetroCard didn't reinvent subway travel, but it made the system work better. Sometimes that's exactly what markets need.