The Infrastructure Revolution of USDT: Can a Dedicated Public Chain Reshape the Global Payment Landscape?

Stablecoins are gradually penetrating traditional financial sectors and retail markets. For example, supermarkets in some South American countries have started to directly price goods in USDT. This expansion trend may require support from new infrastructure.

Recently, two public chain projects focused on stablecoins, Plasma and Stable, have emerged. Their design goals are to achieve faster, cheaper, and more scalable stablecoin transfers. The core idea is to absorb liquidity from older networks that are less efficient but still hold a large amount of stablecoins.

Both integrate USDT0, which is a fragmentation-resistant version of USDT that can be natively exchanged across different blockchains, currently primarily based on the Arbitrum network and continuously expanding. For users, the experience is no different from regular USDT.

Introduction to Plasma

Plasma is a Bitcoin sidechain that inherits the security of Bitcoin through an anchoring mechanism, while maintaining an independent consensus mechanism. The system is designed to support thousands of transactions per second and about 1 second for final confirmation, making it very suitable for the rapid transfer of USDT. The most notable feature is that transfers of the underlying USDT require no GAS fees at all.

Its profit model is to charge GAS fees for all other operations, attracting users through free transfers to form a scale effect, which boosts the volume of paid operations. Users can choose to pay fees using USDT or Bitcoin. The platform is fully compatible with EVM, allowing developers to easily deploy Ethereum applications.

Introduction to Stable

Stable is an independent Layer 1 network that uses a self-developed proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. It is also EVM compatible, with USDT transfers having no Gas fees, but other operations require a fee. The key feature is that Gas fees can only be paid in USDT.

Stable seems to focus more on enterprise and institutional clients, offering some special features:

• Dedicated blockchain space service for enterprises: ensures stable transaction speed, and fees will not surge.
• USDT Transfer Aggregator: Integrates multiple USDT0 transfers to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

Privacy Protection

Both networks place a strong emphasis on privacy. Plasma introduces the concept of Shielded transactions, while Stable employs confidential transfer technology, both aimed at protecting transaction privacy under compliance.

Development Prospects

The core strategy of this type of public chain is to target ecosystems with weak DeFi fundamentals for liquidity absorption. With the advantage of free transfers, it may surpass inefficient chain ecosystems, attract liquidity, and drive users and capital influx, giving rise to new DeFi protocols and ultimately building a vibrant ecosystem.

This may give rise to a new payment system specifically serving stablecoins. Tether not only issues stablecoins but will also become a dual cornerstone supporting currency value and underlying infrastructure. Tether can benefit from this, while Plasma and Stable will enjoy the dividends brought by the rapid circulation of funds.

Other blockchain ecosystems will not be eliminated. Solana, which focuses on debit card payments and fiat currency exchanges, Ethereum and its Layer 2 solutions that focus on DeFi, as well as emerging public chains with specific application scenarios, may continue to develop.

Recent Progress on Plasma

The Plasma public token sale subscription amount has reached 1 billion USD, and it will rank 12th in the stablecoin circulation ranking upon launch. Several collaborations have been advanced, including:

• Yellow Card: USDT transfer service for the African region
• BiLira Crypto: Connecting the Turkish Lira with stablecoins for cross-border payments
• Uranium Digital: Bringing commodity trading on-chain
• Axis: Launching interest-bearing synthetic US dollar (xyUSD)
• Collaborating with projects like Curve and Ethena

Conclusion

The concept of "stablecoin public chain" may just be a marketing strategy to generate attention for USDT and attract users with zero Gas fees. Essentially, it is a free value-added model in the trading field.

Two public chains are ready. In the future, attention should be paid to how they differentiate themselves in competition, choose the best market channels, and whether they can create a sustainable business ecosystem. This will determine whether they can truly reshape the global payment landscape.