On Friday, Christian Catalini, co -author of the Libra project on Facebook, warned that the rhythm in Stripe and Circle’s Arc may succeed commercially but at the expense of decentralization in encryption.
It was launched in 2019, Scale Meta was the bold attempt to create a global digital currency supported by a basket of stable assets. The project promised to make smooth payments such as correspondence, but it sparked an immediate violent reaction from the organizers concerned with financial sovereignty, regular risks and user privacy. By 2022, the Diem -renovated balance was closed in an attempt to reset his image – and its assets were sold.
Catalini, who held the position of chief economists in Al -Mizan, used September 5 The topic is on x To reconsider the early concessions of the project and explain the reason for the importance of that now. He said that the original open design, which was developed with an economist at Harvard Scott Commons University, was reduced to a short attachment after months of organizational negotiations.
He wrote, the first main retreat is to abandon the non -guardian portfolio. The organizers insisted on a “clear environment”, and this means a responsible mediator they can contact – and punish – if the problems arise.
For the supervisors who are accustomed to medium financing, a world in which users carry their money is really unacceptable. “For them, killing the self -body was not an option, it was a clear necessity,” he remembered.
Note Catalini the paradox: Today, open networks develop the original compliance tools for Blockchain that can address these concerns more effectively than traditional frameworks. But at the time, Al -Mizan was forced to strip decentralization, a change that he described as an early reference to the location of the companies led by companies.
His broader lesson was blatant: “As long as there is a single throat to strangle – or a committee of them – you cannot really re -connect the system. Worse, any network with an architect living in a wig.”
Sagittarius in the spotlight
Catalini placed Stripe and Circle in this context. Both are a new Blockchains that are explicitly designed for payments, which are promoted as an infrastructure from Stablecoin for institutions and technology.
circle Firing ARC on August 12, offers it as a 1 layer network specifically designed to finance Stablecoin. Unlike general chains that depend on volatile gas symbols, the Arc USDC is used to obtain fees, providing predictive and paid costs.
It merges the built -in foreign exchange engine, returns at a second end, and includes privacy features. Serkel said that ARC will support the cross -border payments, ONSAIN credit systems, distinctive capital markets, and programming mechanical payments.
Just weeks later, tape and model unveil The rhythm on September 4, describing it as payments for the first payments capable of dealing with more than 100,000 transactions per second.
The network is characterized by EVM compatibility, and features dedicated payment sailors with support for notes and access menus, and allows users to pay both transactions and gas in any stablecoin. Strip said early design partners include Visa, Deutsche Bank, venous, Nubank, Shopify, Openai, Noteropic and DooRdash.
Both projects have been marketed as steps towards circulating Stablecoin payments. But for Catalini, they caused deeper concern.
Revolution or a failed coup?
Catalini argued that companies -led chains such as ARC and Tempo Risk simply rebuilding the old financial system with new officials. Instead of removing card and bank networks, warned about it, they can raise the Fintech giants to the same domination position. “The throne will have new passengers, but it will be the same throne,” he wrote.
He also expected that these geological networks will be broken, as it is unlikely that Western and Eastern blocs will participate in a single infrastructure led by companies. He said that the result will compete for the financial empires instead of being the first defenders of the novice system in the system.
In the end, Catalini described Strip as a “referendum on the ghost of the scale.” If it flourished, it has been proven that the scale has failed due to the timing and not the design – and it appears that the dream of open money without permission has been overlooked through more realistic and central solutions.
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