1. Introduction: The Internet of Currency has not yet been truly completed
We are used to saying: Stablecoins are the dollar of Web3.
Its speed of circulation, openness, and borderless characteristics indeed allow value to spread freely like information.
But this 'spreading' still remains at the surface —
Funds move on-chain, but do not enter the underlying logic of the financial system: clearing and settlement.
It's like you can send emails, but there is no post office;
You can transfer files, but there is no notarization;
The circulation of stablecoins has never been the circulation of settlement.
What XPL (Plasma) aims to do is to establish an order of 'currency settlement civilization' for global stablecoins.
2. Why 'settlement' is more important than 'payment'
The blockchain world often treats 'payment' as the endpoint, but in the real financial system, payment is just the beginning.
What truly gives currency financial significance is clearing and settlement.
Phase definition: Who is responsible for Payment - user initiates instructions in wallet/frontend; Clearing - transaction matching and accounting reconciliation by intermediaries/contracts; Settlement - final fund transfer and irreversible clearing network/central bank-level system.
On-chain, USDT and USDC solve payments;
XPL is responsible for completing the settlement layer.
It is not a new 'currency,' but the 'settlement track' of existing currencies.
3. Plasma: System transformation from chain to track
The design philosophy of Plasma can be summarized in one sentence:
"Let stablecoins be delivered securely worldwide like internet packages."
It simplifies the 'execution layer' of traditional L1 to three core functions:
Finality Layer: Each transfer is confirmed within 1 second and is irreversible;
Fee Optimization: Transaction fees are constant and extremely low;
Inter-Stable Settlement: USDT ↔ USDC ↔ PYUSD seamless exchange.
This means:
Individual users can send money like sending a message;
Enterprises can complete clearing like calling an API;
National-level central bank digital currencies can directly connect to this track.
Plasma becomes the internet backbone of the currency layer.
4. Macroeconomic significance: the true landing of 'de-intermediation' of currency
The goal of Plasma is not to seize market share, but to rewrite settlement standards.
This is highly symbolic in global financial history.
For the past 50 years, the power of settlement has been held between SWIFT and central banks;
Today, decentralized networks may finally take on this role.
In the next three years, we may see:
Stablecoin trade is block-chained (clearing within Southeast Asia, South America regions)
Traditional banks and on-chain settlement layers operate in a hybrid manner
The emergence of stablecoin 'currency alliances'
6. Conclusion
Stablecoins are the beginning of currency digitization,
Plasma is the starting point of settlement civilization.
When currency can walk and clear on its own, the subject of the financial world becomes 'code' for the first time.
