It's an interesting article and it made me think. It's not just that "We're early™". It's that programmable money enables use cases that go far beyond merely replacing currency at the local coffee shop and deli. We are going to see Bitcoin used in places and situations where you simply can't use cash or credit cards. @sn is a great example of this. We zap each other here all day with pennies that are simply out of scope for credit card use or any "fintech".
The Bitcoin, Lightning, NOSTR, eCash stack ("the stack") are going to open up new use cases that fiat simply can't touch. E.g. when driverless vehicles charge up autonomously, I can guarantee you that a robotic arm will not extend and swipe a credit card at the charging station. Nope. It's going to be done digitally. Preferably with the stack. Not depressed at all.