USDT Infrastructure Innovation: Can Dedicated Public Chains Reshape the Global Payment Landscape?

Recently, the stablecoin market has seen the emergence of two notable new projects - Plasma and Stable. These two blockchain networks, specifically designed for stablecoins, aim to provide faster, more economical, and more scalable stablecoin transfer services. Their emergence is to meet the growing application demand for stablecoins, especially in emerging markets.

Similarities and Differences between Plasma and Stable

Plasma, as a sidechain of Bitcoin, inherits the security of Bitcoin while maintaining an independent consensus mechanism. It supports thousands of transactions per second, with a confirmation time of about 1 second, making it very suitable for the rapid transfer of USDT. The most notable feature is that the underlying USDT transfers are completely free.

Stable is an independent first-layer network that uses a self-developed proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. Similar to Plasma, Stable is also compatible with EVM, and USDT transfers are free. The difference is that Stable only accepts USDT as the payment currency for gas fees, while Plasma allows the use of USDT or Bitcoin.

Both integrate USDT0 - a version of USDT that can be natively exchanged across different blockchain networks. Additionally, they both focus on privacy protection and offer confidential transaction features.

Potential Impact and Market Strategy

The core strategy of these dedicated chains is to attract liquidity from old networks that have low efficiency but still hold a large amount of stablecoins. By offering advantages such as free transfers, they have the potential to surpass the existing low-efficiency chain ecosystems.

This could give rise to a stablecoin-specific network similar to the new SWIFT system. In this ecosystem, USDT is not only a stablecoin but will also become a dual cornerstone supporting currency value and underlying infrastructure. Tether can benefit from this, while Plasma and Stable can enjoy the dividends brought by the rapid flow of funds on the network.

However, other blockchain ecosystems still have room for development. For example, Solana focuses on debit card payments and fiat exchanges, Ethereum and its layer-two solutions focus on the DeFi space, while other emerging chains may play a role in specific application scenarios.

Development Status

Plasma has raised a significant amount of funds through public token sales and has advanced multiple collaborations, including partnerships with USDT transfer service providers in Africa, a Turkish payment company, and a commodities trading platform. The specific progress of Stable remains to be seen.

Conclusion

Whether these "stablecoin chain" projects can achieve product-market fit remains to be seen. They may be a clever marketing strategy, creating a spotlight effect for USDT while attracting users with the gimmick of free transfers. Essentially, this is a free value-added model in the trading sector.

In the future, the key lies in how these projects engage in differentiated 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 or merely remain at the level of marketing narratives.