The Rise of Stablecoin Public Chains: Can Plasma and Stable Reshape the Global Payment Landscape?

Stablecoins are gradually penetrating traditional finance and retail markets. For example, some supermarkets in South America have begun to directly label product prices in USD stablecoins. This expansion trend may require support from new infrastructure. Recently, two blockchain projects related to stablecoins have emerged in the market: Plasma and Stable.

Similarities and Differences between Plasma and Stable

Both projects aim to achieve faster, cheaper, and more scalable stablecoin transfers. Their core idea is to attract funds from the old networks that are less efficient but still hold a large amount of stablecoin. Although there are some fundamental differences between the two, there may be more similarities, especially since they both revolve around USDT as the core hub.

Specifically, both projects have integrated USDT0, which is the anti-fragmentation version of USDT that can be natively exchanged between different blockchain networks via LayerZero. Currently, USDT0 is primarily based on the Arbitrum network and is expanding to emerging public chains. For end users, the usage experience is no different from regular USDT.

Features of Plasma

Plasma is built as a Bitcoin sidechain, inheriting Bitcoin's security through an anchoring mechanism while maintaining its own independent consensus mechanism. This system is designed for high throughput and fast confirmations, making it very suitable for the rapid transfer of USDT. It is worth noting that the underlying USDT transfers incur no fees at all.

The profit model of Plasma is to charge transaction fees on all other operations, attracting users with free transfers to create a scale effect. When it comes to transaction fees, users can choose to pay with USDT or Bitcoin. The platform is fully compatible with EVM, allowing developers to easily deploy Ethereum applications.

Characteristics of Stable

Stable adopts a different implementation approach. It is an independent first-layer network that uses a self-developed proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. Similar to Plasma, Stable is also EVM-compatible, and USDT transfers incur no fees, but other operations require a fee. It is important to note that Stable only accepts USDT as the currency for fee payments.

Stable seems to focus more on enterprise and institutional clients, offering some special features such as dedicated blockchain space services and USDT transfer aggregators.

Privacy Policy

Both networks place great importance on privacy protection. Plasma mentions the concept of Shielded transactions, while Stable adopts confidential transfer technology. These designs aim to protect transaction privacy while maintaining compliance.

Market Prospects and Challenges

These emerging stablecoin dedicated chains are targeting ecosystems with weak DeFi foundations, trying to attract their liquidity. Their goal is to build a hub centered around USDT payments and commercial settlements, leveraging the advantages of free transfers to surpass the inefficiencies of chain ecosystems.

This could give rise to a network similar to the new SWIFT system, specifically serving stablecoins. In this ecosystem, Tether not only issues stablecoins but also becomes a dual cornerstone supporting currency value and underlying infrastructure. Tether can benefit from the scale advantage of USDT, while Plasma and Stable can enjoy the dividends brought by the rapid flow of funds on its network.

However, other blockchain ecosystems still have room for development. Chains that focus on specific functions or application scenarios, such as Solana, Ethereum, and its layer 2 solutions, may continue to thrive.

Latest Developments

Plasma has gained significant attention through its public token sale, with total deposits reaching $1 billion within the subscription limit. Additionally, Plasma has established partnerships with several projects, including Yellow Card, which focuses on USDT transfers in Africa, BiLira Kripto, which connects the Turkish lira with stablecoins, and Uranium Digital, which brings commodity trading onto the blockchain.

Conclusion

The concept of "stablecoin chain" may just be a marketing strategy to create a spotlight effect for USDT and generate hype with the lure of zero fees. Essentially, this is a free value-added model in the trading domain.

Both chains are ready, but their future development will depend on how they differentiate themselves in competition, choose the best market channels, and whether they can create a sustainable business ecosystem. These factors will determine whether they can truly reshape the global payment landscape.