The back-and-forth between Tesla CEO Musk and Twitters board appears to be close to closing after months of uncertainty. On Wednesday, Musk shared a video of himself entering Twitters offices, and a deal might be ironed out by Friday, Reuters reported.

The takeover saga started in April when Musk first struck a deal to buy Twitter. In July, concerns over the real number of spam accounts proliferating on the platform prompted Musk to try to  exit the deal, sparking a legal challenge from Twitter that had been set to go to court this month.

Musk has since re-entered talks and seems set to close the deal this week, but caught in the crossfire of his will-he-wont-we story with Twitter have been its employees. Theyve followed Musks possible ascent as the companys next CEO with trepidation after he promised to impose his trademark demanding leadership style on Twitter. Musks promise to loosen content moderation policies also sparked fears among Twitter users that the platform could become even more of a destination for fake information and racism.

The deal is not over the line yet, and could still potentially be subject to a government inquiry into whether Musks bid involves foreign investors. Regardless, Musk tried calming the waters on Thursday with a statement published on his Twitter account, revealing his motivations behind the takeover and promising that the changes he had in mind would not facilitate disinformation and hate speech on the platform.

Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences! he wrote.

The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of healthy beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence, he added, saying that his vision for Twitter would counter polarization and extremism in traditional media.

That is why I bought Twitter. I didnt do it because it would be easy. I didnt do it to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love.

Common digital town square

Musk says he wants to turn Twitter into a common digital town square where thoughts and opinions can be spread across ideological lines, although not everyone agrees with him.

Some of the incoming boss intended policy changes at Twitter include promoting free speech on the platform by loosening content moderation policies and reinstalling some previously blocked accountsincluding that of Donald Trump, whom Twitter banned last year in the wake of his incendiary comments surrounding the Jan. 6 riots.

But in his quest to promote free speech, Musk may also facilitate the spread of disinformation on Twitter. When news of the deal broke in April, conspiracy theorists and far-right groups that had been banned from the platformincluding QAnoncelebrated the looming acquisition, hoping that Musk could reinstall their accounts as well.

In his statement on Thursday, Musk insisted that Twitter would continue adhering to the laws of the land and remain warm and welcoming to all, suggesting users could customize their experience on the platform in the same way they could choose to watch a family-friendly movie or a more mature one.

But Musks takeover has also sparked concerns that his Twitter might not have the capacity or workforce large enough to police misinformation or hateful rhetoric. 

Last week, the Washington Post reported that Musk intended to lay off 75% of Twitters current staff, or around 5,600 employees, leaving the company gutted. Musk has since walked back those rumors, telling employees he does not plan to cut 75% of the staff, Bloomberg reported this week citing internal sources. However, Musk has made it clear for months that some layoffs and cutbacks at the company will be inevitable after he takes over.

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There are three leading contenders for the future of moneya central theme of the Blockchain Research Institutes upcoming event, W3B and Blockchain World. The first are public cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which was designed from the outset to be a peer-to-peer electronic cash systemin other words, digital cash. The second are privately issued digital dollars, backed by dollars or some other collateral. These stablecoins today are mostly backed 1:1 to the U.S. dollar but could be designed to hold a peg to a basket of currencies, like Facebooks ill-fated Libra project. The third are central bank digital currencies, aka CBDCs, created by governments and central banks. Each is radically different in composition and potential impact.

The great majority of people in the Middle Ages never saw any money at all during their entire lives, James Burnham, a noted 20th century intellectual and historian, said of the feudal economy, which was based on subsistence farming and barter. Capitalism changed the role of money from mere medium of exchange (a convenient way to exchange for goods when barter was not an option), to capital more generallysomething that by its nature could be used to earn more money by investing in physical plant like factories, lending to entrepreneurs and so forth.

As in ancient times, precious metals like gold served as the foundation for money during the early industrial era of capitalism. Money, according to John Locke, was something that people by mutual consent would take in exchange for the truly useful, but perishable supports of life. In other words, gold is useful as a store of value and medium of exchange because it is not truly useful. Golds preeminent role as money began to wane in the late 19th century, starting with the U.S. civil war, when the federal government issued paper notes backed only by faith in the government itself. It ended a century later when President Richard Nixon finally closed the gold window and ended international convertibility of the U.S. dollar into gold. Today, currencies float against each other and are issued by government fiat.

If gold was the basis for the early industrial age and fiat currency the basis for our modern globalized economy, then some form of digital money will form the basis for the digital economy. Once again, we are on the brink of another epochal shift in money. But which one will succeed?

Three contenders

Bitcoin has been a remarkable success story. It is worth nearly half a billion dollars and is used everywhere as a store of value and a medium of exchange, and has been a lifeline to the unbanked who can stomach its volatility and sluggishness. It is permissionless and censorship resistant, which makes it a favorite of freedom fighters as well as alt-right groups. It is also energy-intensive and volatile, much like gold and other commodities. It will likely grow more important as a store of value but fall short as a medium of exchange.

CBDCs are touted by governments and central bankers as a better alternative that can make the economy more inclusive, reduce volatility, and improve the responsiveness of central banks to crises. But CBDC boosters must answer some tough questions. For example, how exactly do we protect privacy rights when the government can see in real time how every dollar is being spent in an economy? Because of the worrying impact on civil liberties, CBDCs are likely to find more success in authoritarian regimes like China than in the U.S. or Canada, where I expect theyll be met with fierce resistance by some.

This brings us to the final contender to be the money of the future: stablecoins. A synthesis of CBDCs and cryptoassets like Bitcoin, they are digital assets issued by companies backed by fiat currencies held in financial institutions. The leading versions, USDC and USDT, are worth more than $100 billion combined. Facebooks attempt at a stablecoin, Libra, originally was based on a basket of assets. This was met with fierce resistance by the U.S. government, which squashed it as a potential threat to the dollar systema cautionary tale for any company trying to reinvent money.

There are also synthetic decentralized stablecoins, which are backed by assets held in smart contracts (like a piece of software with a bank account). DAI is an example, though even it is somewhat centralized as much of its collateral is in USDC and now U.S. treasuries. A decentralized stablecoin is the synthesis of privately issued money and public cryptoassets. They are pegged to the U.S. dollar but are permissionless and do not rely on a third party to work. They are hard to shut down, and free to use by anyone. Though small in comparison to others (the DAI outstanding is worth about $6 billion), they are the frontier of money, and we should all be paying attention. Intuitively, one would assume the decentralized digital economy of Web3 should adopt these kinds of decentralized money, but at this point it appears centralized stablecoins like USDC have the product market fit and first-mover advantage.

Alex Tapscott is a co-founder of The Blockchain Research Institute, host of W3B and Blockchain World, in Toronto, Nov. 8-9. Alex is also managing director of The Ninepoint Digital Asset Group. This article is for information purposes only and should not be relied upon as investment advice. A version of this article originally appeared in Ninepoints weekly note, Digital Asset Digest.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not reflect the opinions or beliefs of Fortune.

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She had a good credit rating and enough cash for a down payment. Yet dealerships in the Detroit area didnt have any suitable vehicles. Or theyd demand she pay $3,000 to $6,000 above the sticker price. Months of frustration left her despondent.

I was depressed, Hudson said. I was angry, too.

A breakthrough arrived in late September, when a dealer called about a 2022 Chrysler Pacifica. At $41,000, it was hardly a bargain. And it wasnt quite what Hudson wanted. Yet the dealer was asking only slightly above sticker price, and Hudson felt in no position to walk away. Shes back in business with her own van.

It could have been worse. Hudson made her purchase just as the prices of both new and used vehicles have been inching down from their eye-watering record highs and more vehicles are gradually becoming available at dealerships. Hudsons van likely would have cost even more a few months ago.

Not that anyone should expect prices to fall anywhere near where they were before the pandemic recession struck in early 2020. The swift recovery from the recession left automakers short of parts and vehicles to meet demand. Price skyrocketed, and theyve scarcely budged since.

Prices on new and used vehicles remain 30% to 50% above where they were when the pandemic erupted. The average used auto cost nearly $31,000 last month. The average new? $47,000. With higher prices and loan rates combining to push average monthly payments on a new vehicle above $700, millions of buyers have been priced out of the new-vehicle market and are now confined to used vehicles.

The high prices are yielding substantial profits for most automakers despite sluggish sales. On Tuesday, for example, General Motors reported that its third-quarter net profit jumped more than 36%, thanks in part to sales of pricey pickup trucks and large SUVs.

Still, as Hudson discovered, many vehicles are becoming slightly more affordable. Signs first emerged weeks ago in the 40-million-sales-a-year used market. As demand waned and inventories rose, prices eased from their springtime heights.

CarMax said it sold nearly 15,000 fewer vehicles last quarter than it had a year earlier. The CEO of the used-vehicle company, based in Richmond, Virginia, pointed to inflation, higher borrowing rates and diminished consumer confidence.

A buyers strike is how Adam Joans, an auto analyst at Morgan Stanley, characterized the sales drops a dynamic that typically foretells lower prices. And indeed, the average used vehicle price in September was down 1% from its May peak, according to Edmunds.com.

Ivan Drury, director of insights at Edmunds, cautions that it will take years for used prices to fall close to pre-pandemic levels. Since 2020, automakers havent been leasing as many cars, thereby choking off one key source of late-model used vehicles.

Similarly, rental companies havent been able to buy many new vehicles. So eventually, they are selling fewer autos into the used market. Thats crimped another source of vehicles. And because used cars arent sitting long on dealer lots, demand remains strong enough to prop up prices.

When auto prices first soared two years ago, lower-income buyers were elbowed out of the new-vehicle market. Eventually, many of them couldnt afford even used autos. People with subprime credit scores (620 or below) bought only 5% of used vehicles last month, down from nearly 9% before the pandemic. That indicated that many lower-income households could no longer afford any vehicles, said J.D. Power Vice President Tyson Jominy.

Higher borrowing rates have compounded the problem. In January 2020, shortly before the pandemic hit, used-vehicle buyers paid an average of 8.4% annual interest, according to Edmunds. Monthly payments averaged $412. By last month, the average rate had reached 9.2%. And because prices had risen for over two years, the average payment had jumped to $567.

The 1% average drop in used prices will help financially secure buyers with solid credit scores who can qualify for lower loan rates. But for those with poor credit and lower incomes, any price drop will be wiped out by higher borrowing costs.

The new-vehicle market, by contrast, has become an option mainly for affluent buyers. Automakers are increasingly deploying scarce computer chips to make costly, loaded-out versions of pickups, SUVs and other outsize vehicles, typically with relatively low gas mileage. Last month, the average price of a new vehicle was down slightly from August but remained more than $11,000 above its level in January 2020.

Glenn Mears, who runs five dealerships south of Canton, Ohio, says the Federal Reserves interest rate hikes, by contributing to pricier auto loans, are slowing his showroom traffic.

We can feel some pullback, he said.

Analysts generally say that with shortages of computer chips and other parts still hobbling factories, new-vehicle prices wont likely fall substantially. But further modest price drops may be likely. The availability of vehicles on U.S. dealer lots improved to nearly 1.4 million vehicles last month, up from 1 million for most of the year, Cox Automotive reported.

Before the pandemic, normal supply was far higher around 4 million. So historically speaking, inventory remains tight and demand still high. Like Hudson, many buyers are still stuck paying sticker price or above.

Its extraordinarily expensive these days, said Jominy, who estimates that there are still 5 million U.S. customers waiting to buy new vehicles.

Despite recent stock market declines, many such buyers have built up wealth, especially in their homes, and are rewarding themselves with high-end autos. In the San Francisco Bay area, for example, notes Inder Dosanjh, who runs a 20-dealership group that includes General Motors, Ford, Acura, Volkswagen and Stellantis brands, many people have received substantial pay raises.

Theres just a lot of money out there, he said.

In its earnings report Tuesday, GM noted that its customer demand is holding up. Though GM and other automakers would like to produce more vehicles, at the moment they are benefiting from slower production, which typically means higher prices and profits.

Next year could be a turning point, suggested Jeff Windau, an analyst at Edward Jones. With the economy likely to weaken and possibly enter a recession, prices could fall as consumers become more focused on their financial situation and what theyre willing to bite off from a payment perspective.