Last week TBD, the bitcoin-focused subsidiary of payment services firm Block (the parent entity of Square) confirmed its partnership with Circle, issuer of the USDC stablecoin, to bring cross-border USDC transfers and savings to investors globally. Block is lead by Twitter Co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey. Its subsidiary, TBD, is an open-sourced developer platform that has been working on a so-called Web5 decentralized identity platform and a decentralized exchange called tbDEX.
The collaboration between TBD and Circle plans to establish standards and open-source technologies aimed at enabling global-scale, mainstream adoption of digital currency in payments and financial applications. This includes building accessible fiat on and off ramps and self custody wallets to allow users in developing countries to access stablecoins for global remittances. The project plans to focus on US-Mexico remittances initially.
Emily Chiu, TBD's chief operating officer said:
The U.S. dollar is the reserve currency today, and we think bitcoin might be the reserve currency of tomorrow. Stablecoins are the bridge in between.
According to TBD, the partnership aims to make a significant impact on peoples’ everyday financial lives. It offers the potential for crypto to emerge as a mainstream payments system while establishing decentralized identity as the model for building trust in a scalable and privacy-preserving way.
Circle’s USDC, is the second largest stablecoin with a reported $49 billion in circulating supply. Its initiative with TBD seeks to tackle the traditionally inefficient and expensive global remittance market and follows reports that MoneyGram are also looking to incorporate stablecoins into their remittance offering. The news represents a positive step in seeking to lower the cost and enhance transparency in global remittances by enabling new payment rails based on blockchain technology.