In this article, I trace how payment and money transfer systems in Cuba have expanded from underground courier services to digital platforms such as Airbnb and Bitcoin wallets. I focus here on payments being halted and deferred because of U.S. embargo restrictions that prevent correspondent relationships with Cuban retail banks and constantly flag transactions initiated in Cuba. Cubans and visitors to Cuba operating on these digital platforms are therefore exposed to new risks and forms of precarity. In the absence of a robust payment infrastructure, electronic transactions between the two countries have to be propped up and secured by networks of cash circulation. A social infrastructure of trust and informal networks emerges through which digital payment rails get repurposed to settle accounts, particularly when electronic payments get detained. This complicates the premise that cashless futures make payments more inclusive, efficient, secure, or in some cases decentralized, by showing how the histories of U.S. sanctions impede and cripple the ways electronic payment infrastructures work in practice, creating forms of exclusion for those located in “prohibited” regions of the globe.

中文翻译：

---

被拘留的定居点：美国和古巴之间的数字金融交易的基础设施和时间性

在本文中，我追踪了古巴的付款和汇款系统如何从地下快递服务扩展到数字平台，例如Airbnb和比特币钱包。我在这里关注的是由于美国的禁运限制而停止和推迟付款，这些禁令阻止了与古巴零售银行的往来关系，并不断标记在古巴发起的交易。因此，在这些数字平台上运行的古巴人和古巴游客面临新的风险和不稳定的形式。在缺乏健全的支付基础设施的情况下，必须通过现金流通网络来支撑和保障两国之间的电子交易。形成了信任和非正式网络的社会基础设施，通过该基础设施，数字支付轨道可以重新用于结算帐户，特别是在电子支付被扣留时。