Core Concepts
The Value Propositions of Stablecoins
Stablecoins offer four key value propositions:
- Permissionless: Anyone, anywhere can access stablecoins (and therefore digital dollars), without intermediaries and middlemen like banks.
- Programmable: Each stablecoin is a smart contract, unlocking programmability for money. Developers can program conditions into how money moves with stablecoins.
- Cheap: Money can move globally between wallets at an extremely low cost through stablecoins and blockchain technology.
- Fast: Global money movement with stablecoins can be settled substantially faster than traditional, legacy payment rails.
The Role of Stablecoins in Payments
With these value propositions, stablecoins offer four key use cases for payment applications:
- Save: Stablecoins allow people and businesses from all over the world to access a reliable store of value.
- Spend: Stablecoins can be spent with certain merchants as a new form of money.
- Send: Stablecoins can be sent across borders, to any business or person, everywhere.
- Earn: Stablecoins offer permissionless access to interest and yield-bearing opportunities.
Why Plasma for Payments
Purpose Built for Stablecoin Payments
Purpose Built for Stablecoin Payments
Most blockchains weren’t built with stablecoins in mind. Plasma is. It’s a purpose built Layer 1 blockchain for stablecoin payments. Unlike legacy, general-purpose blockchains that cater for a wide variety of onchain applications, Plasma is designed from the ground up for high volume, low cost payments and delivers the scale, speed, and reliability stablecoins demand.
Native USD₮ Support
Native USD₮ Support
USD₮ sits at the heart of Plasma. This is achieved through free transfers for USD₮ and the stablecoin being a whitelisted gas token. As a result, stablecoin payments with USD₮ on Plasma enable an abstracted experience for people and businesses globally.
Low Fees and Near-Instant Finality
Low Fees and Near-Instant Finality
Stablecoin payments transfers on Plasma are extremely cheap, and in the case of USD₮ transactions, free. Furthermore, the network features a high transaction per second (TPS) throughput and near-instant finality.
Simple User Onboarding
Simple User Onboarding
Plasma’s vertically integrated payment stack enables simple, efficient user onboarding. People and businesses can seamlessly create wallets and access stablecoins on Plasma in a variety of ways, including WhatsApp, Google, AppleID and other popular social logins.
Integrated Stablecoin Infrastructure
Integrated Stablecoin Infrastructure
Plasma provides robust infrastructure and tooling for developers and merchants to integrate stablecoin payments into their applications. From APIs and SDKs to point-of-sale modules and webhooks, the network supports seamless integration for a wide range of use cases. This enables businesses to build payment flows, accept USD₮ at checkout, automate payouts, and embed stablecoin functionality with minimal overhead.
Liquidity
Liquidity
Plasma will launch as one of the most liquid stablecoin networks globally, with over $1 billion in USD₮ ready to move from day one. Developers can build on a network where deep liquidity is available from the start.