Except when someone who can program better than you can pick that money right out of your pocket (or so called "smart" contracts.)

I identify as a hacker, and I don't think all things should be programmable. Votes should not be programmable or hackable. I'm almost certain that at certain point money shouldn't be either, given how rife the abuse can be.

What does it mean to "program money" in ways that aren't just moving money around with APIs, which is what we can do already with the existing system?

Isn't moving money around with APIs just moving money around by sending messages, which is what we can do already by sending a check in the mail?

How many hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars of market cap is dedicated to providing: bank accounts, transfer services, security brokerage, options trading, credit default swaps, and other derivatives. You can easily implement the entire functionality of the entire global banking system on the blockchain. Rather than require hundreds of thousands of specialized bankers, you can do it with miners running nodes in the block chain. This is a huge efficiency improvement and allows for a more democratized system. You can think this is cool, or stupid, or dangerous, or all three. But if you aren't interested in the tech, why bother commenting on it?

Ah yes, programmable money. The Do Kwon special.