The Friction of Fiction

Why Batch Processing is Failing the Streaming Era

For decades, we’ve told ourselves a comforting fiction: that batching is efficient. Batch payments, batch reporting, batch risk reviews, batch decisions.

It worked when economies moved slowly.

But today, value is created continuously, while money still moves in bursts. That gap is not neutral. It creates hidden cost, hidden risk, and hidden leverage. What we often call “liquidity” problems are, in reality, timing problems. Batch processing embeds credit into every delay. It pushes financing costs downstream, distorts prices, and forces households, companies, and governments to carry risk they never agreed to take. And capital they don't need.

Streaming economies need streaming finance.

When money, data, and decisions move in step with real activity, capital works harder without increasing leverage. Margins improve. Risk shrinks. Trust rises.

The future is not about faster batches. It’s about removing the batch altogether.

Time is not a metaphor in finance. It is the variable we forgot to measure. For decades, we’ve told ourselves a comforting fiction: that batching is efficient. Batch payments, batch repayment of loans, batch reporting, batch risk reviews, batch decisions.

It worked when economies moved slowly.

But today, value is created continuously, while money still moves in bursts. That gap is not neutral. It creates hidden cost, hidden risk, and hidden leverage. What we often call “liquidity” problems are, in reality, timing problems.

Batch processing embeds credit into every delay. It pushes financing costs downstream, distorts prices, and forces households, companies, and governments to carry risk they never agreed to take, supported by capital they shouldn't agree to deploy.

Streaming economies need streaming finance.

When money, data, and decisions move in step with real activity, capital works harder without increasing leverage. Margins improve. Risk shrinks. Trust rises.

The future is not about faster batches. It’s about removing the batch altogether.

Time is not a metaphor in finance. It is the variable we forgot to measure.