Polkadot

Nifty News: Yuga Labs scores court battle win, Mandala Metaverse to drop on Polkadot and more…

A metaverse/AR story game is coming to Polkadot, Square Enix has made another Web3 gaming play, and an NFT esports cricket game has launched on Tezos.

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) creator Yuga Labs has scored a key victory in its long-running court battle with Ryder Ripps, the co-creator of copycat nonfungible token (NFT) project RR/BAYC.

Yuga Labs initially filed a complaint against Ryder Ripps and his co-founder, Jeremy Cahen, back in July 2022, alleging that the duo had engaged in trademark infringement, false advertising and unfair competition, among other things.

In a pre-trial summary judgment ruling on April 21, the United States District Court for the Central District of California found that Ripps and Cahen had infringed Yuga Lab’s trademarks with their RR/BAYC NFT collection.

The court further ruled that Yuga Labs is entitled to an injunction and damages, the latter of which will be determined at trial.

In a message shared with Cointelegraph, a Yuga Labs spokesperson said:

“In a landmark legal victory for Web3, a federal judge found that Ryder Ripps and Jermey Cahen infringed Yuga Lab’s intellectual property. This isn’t just a win for us, it’s a win for the entire Web3 industry to hold scammers and counterfeiters accountable.”

Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen created RR/BAYC back in May 2022 as a satire and protest against Yuga Labs. The project essentially uses all of the same imagery as the original BAYC NFTs.

Copycat NFTs. Source: RR/BAYC

Ripps, in particular, is a leading proponent of the conspiracy theory that Yuga Labs purposely designed the BAYC artwork to convey racist caricatures. Additionally, Ripps also asserts that the project’s logo and branding have several nods to certain Nazi symbols and language.

Mandala Metaverse to drop on Polkadot

Upcoming cross-chain augmented reality (AR) game Mandala Metaverse has chosen Polkadot parachain Astar Network to host its first major NFT drop on April 28.

Mandala Metaverse is a story-based project with content spanning TV, graphic novels, gaming and AR. Its gaming elements have been developed in Epic Games’ AAA quality Unreal Engine.

The drop is called “Cryptonauts,” and the NFTs depict various avatars that will serve as playable characters in the game. The artwork was illustrated by comic artist Bruce Zick, who has worked with giants such as Disney and Marvel.

The Polkadot blockchain is not necessarily known for hosting gaming and NFT projects, with the network not even having any recorded sales data on aggregators such as CryptoSlam.

Regarding the decision to take the Cryptonauts NFTs to Polkadot, Mandala Metaverse CEO Jon Shanker noted:

“Polkadot has real future-proof NFT applications, such as nesting, staking and the ability to send NFTs over bridges – plus many other innovative ways to use NFT assets. We can now do things we didn’t think were possible.”

Square Enix partners with Elixir Games

Final Fantasy developer Square Enix has partnered with Web3 infrastructure firm Elixir Games to bring blockchain gaming to the mainstream.

The move was announced on April 19, though specific details on the partnership are still sparse.

Elixir hosts both traditional and Web3 games on its platform and also offers Web3 distribution features for its partnered games, such as NFT sales and marketplaces.

As such, Square Enix will likely take advantage of those features when launching games via Elixir, something the firm has become increasingly interested in doing over the past year or so.

Related: NFT.NYC: Games and tokenization are driving NFT industry maturation

“This partnership brings us closer to Web3 gaming mass adoption. Our team is incredibly excited to bring our technology to work, and we foresee Elixir users playing Web2 and Web3 games alike without distinction,” said Carlos Roldan, Elixir Games’ CEO, as part of the announcement. Roldan added:

“2023 has already seen more industry leaders enter the space with impactful projects, and we anticipate to see more as the year progresses. We’ve put all efforts to ensure we are ready for scalability.”

NFT cricket game on Tezos

A free-to-play multiplayer NFT cricket strategy game called Cricket Stars has been launched on the Tezos blockchain.

The game is being led by Tezos India — an organization that focuses on developing projects on Tezos — in partnership with esports game publisher GoLive Games. Despite the name, however, no licensing deals with actual cricket stars appear to be in place.

Cricket Stars. Source: GoLive Games

Cricket Stars follows a similar model to other sports NFT games, like Sorare, by offering player cards that can be used to have an effect on the game or traded on the marketplace. The game also offers player vs. player modes, knockout tournaments and esports tournaments.

“We understand the power of blockchain technology and its role in the gaming ecosystem. Our partnership with Tezos India is an astounding statement of blockchain technology becoming an integral part of the gaming industry,“ noted GoLive Games founder Ravi Kiran as part of the announcement. 

Polkadot restates its case that DOT has ‘morphed’ away from security status

The Web3 Foundation has reminded the world that, in its eyes, it has conformed to SEC requirements and DOT should no longer be considered a security.

The Web3 Foundation, which supports the Polkadot protocol, has again presented its argument that its native DOT (DOT) token is not a security. In a Twitter thread, the foundation emphasized its efforts to comply with U.S. securities laws, as well as Securities and Exchange Commission guidance on digital assets, and declared that DOT had successfully “morphed” and is software, not a security. 

The Web3 Foundation reposted an excerpt from a December Twitter Space where Angela Dalton, identified as an adviser to the foundation, described how representatives accepted the SEC’s invitation to “come in and talk to us.” Subsequently, the foundation claimed:

“The Foundation made sure the SEC’s full vision of token morphing was addressed, […] as well as taking steps to manage the distribution of the DOT token so that no individual holds a large percentage of the network, turning down purchases from VCs interested solely in investment purposes, and promoting the tech but not the token.”

“The Foundation is confident DOT has morphed and is not a security. It is software,” the foundation concluded. Polkadot is a multichain protocol that had 66 blockchains operating on it and its Kusama parachain network as of October 2022. The Web3 Foundation was founded by Gavin Wood, a co-founder of Ethereum, and released the Polkadot white paper in 2016. Polkadot completed its launch in December 2021 when it rolled out parachains, according to a Medium post.

“Our experience has been a positive one,” the foundation says in the post. “The SEC has welcomed meetings with the Web3 Foundation, and there has been a spirit of open communication and dialogue.”

Related: Staking on Polkadot, explained

The Web3 Foundation first declared DOT a non-security in November. Its position has apparently not received confirmation from the SEC. The foundation’s argument echoes key points in the SEC case against Ripple. “Morphing” is a concept put forward in a speech delivered by former SEC official William Hinman at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit in June 2018.

Polkadot incentivizes its community to fight scams through an “anti-scam bounty”

Polkadot said it rewards community members in a consistent manner with bounties paid in USDC.

Polkadot, a protocol that connects blockchains, has announced its latest initiative to help its ecosystem fight scams. 

According to the company, relying on security-minded individuals within its community to fight scams has proven to be an effective method of safeguarding its ecosystem. To incentivize the members of its community to continue to do the work, Polkadot consistently rewards them with bounties paid in USD Coin (USDC). 

Polkadot shared that its bounty is currently managed by the general curators, which for now, consists of three community members and two people from the W3F Anti-Scam department. However, in the long term, Polkadot hopes that the bounty will be eventually managed exclusively by the community. 

As part of the community-led anti-scam initiative, community members are tasked with finding and taking down scam sites, fake social media profiles and phishing apps, as well as protecting its Discord servers from raids. Additionally, the community will create educational materials for users as well as an Anti-Scam Dashboard to act as the central hub for all anti-scam activities in its ecosystem.

Overall, the initiative encourages participating members to come up with ideas for expanding anti-scam activities to other areas. By decentralizing its anti-scam efforts, the Web3 Foundation and Parity have shifted their decision-making process to the community. 

Related: Polkadot co-founder Gavin Wood steps down as CEO of Parity

Polkadot appears to be making the necessary strides to grow and strengthen its ecosystem. On Oct 17, Cointelegraph reported that Polkadot hit an all-time high in development activity. Project developers reported that 66 blockchains are now live on Polkadot and its parachain startup network Kusama.

Since its inception, over 140,000 messages have been exchanged between chains via 135 messaging channels. Together, the Polkadot and Kusama treasuries have cumulatively paid out 9.6 million Polkadot (DOT) and 346,700 Kusama (KSM) ($72.8 million total) to fund spending proposals in the ecosystem.

Inaugural Gam3 Awards to honor the best Web3 games of 2022

Following the announcement, a representative confirmed that the venture capital firm Bitkraft would also be joining as a partner and member of the jury.

The inaugural edition of the Gam3 Awards — a new Web3 gaming awards event hosted by Polkastarter Gaming — is set to take place on Dec. 15, according to an announcement provided to Cointelegraph on Nov. 14.

The awards ceremony intends to recognize this year’s best Web3 games, highlight the developers behind them, and showcase blockchain as a net plus to the gaming industry. In the announcement, the Gam3 Awards said it hopes to celebrate the future generation of Web3-gaming builders by inviting game studios to nominate and recognize their own employees, developers and professionals across specializations who represent the future of Web3 gaming.

The event is set to be simultaneously broadcast across Polkastarter Gaming’s Twitch, YouTube and Twitter channels and will feature a jury comprising over 30 gaming and Web3 thought leaders, ecosystem partners and media outlets. Winners of the first Gam3 Awards will receive a portion of the $300,000 worth of prizes from sponsors such as ImmutableX, Blockchain Game Alliance, Machinations, Naavik and Ultra.

The event is set to bring together industry leaders, ecosystems and media outlets to reward the top game developers and content creators within the Web3 gaming ecosystem. Speaking with Cointelegraph, a representative confirmed that the venture capital firm Bitkraft would also be joining as a partner and member of the jury.

Judges will weigh each game based on multiple criteria including core loop, graphics, accessibility, replayability factor, fun elements and overall playing experience. Winners will be awarded based on categories such as “action game,” “mobile game,” “adventure game,” “casual game,” “RPG,” “shooter game,” “graphics,” “strategy game,” “card game,” etc.

Related: Crypto gaming needs to be fun to be successful — Money doesn’t matter

Despite the continuing bear market, Web3 and blockchain-based games appear to be growing in popularity and doing quite well. According to the analytical service DappRadar, blockchain games and metaverse projects raised $1.3 billion in the third quarter of 2022. The company’s research revealed that “gaming activity accounted for almost half of all blockchain activity tracked by DappRadar across 50 networks, with 912,000 daily Unique Active Wallets (UAW) interacting with games’ smart contracts in September.”

Web3 Foundation makes bold claim to SEC: ‘DOT is not a security. It is merely software’

According to CLO Daniel Schoenberger, the team developed a “workable theory of how token morphing may be achieved” for DOT based on the SEC’s concerns and federal securities laws.

The entity supporting research and development of Polkadot as well as overseeing fundraising efforts for the blockchain has argued that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission should not consider the DOT token a security under its regulatory purview.

In a Nov. 4 blog post, the Web3 Foundation Team’s chief legal officer Daniel Schoenberger said Polkadot’s native token (DOT) had “morphed” and was “software” rather than a security. Schoenberger said the claim was “consistent with the views” it had shared with the SEC following discussions it began in November 2019.

“While the Polkadot vision had not contemplated that the blockchain’s native token would be a security, we understood that the SEC’s view was likely to be that the to-be-delivered token would be a security, at least at the time of delivery,” said Schoenberger. “Whatever it took in order for DOT, the native token of the Polkadot blockchain to be — or to become — a non-security, we were willing to do it.”

The CLO said the Web3 Foundation had met regularly with the SEC’s fintech wing, FinHub, as part of chair Gary Gensler’s long-standing offer to crypto firms to “come in and talk.” According to Schoenberger, the team developed a “workable theory of how token morphing may be achieved” for DOT based on the SEC’s concerns and U.S. federal securities laws.

Though the fundraising entity said it “shared this theory many times with the SEC” on DOT not qualifying as a security, it’s unclear whether the federal regulator will respond to the claims seemingly infringing on their purview. The SEC has often used enforcement actions as a basis for regulation — in July, the regulator specifically identified nine tokens as “crypto asset securities” in a case against a former product manager at Coinbase.

Related: Polkadot hits all-time high in development activity

Schoenberger’s outright claim that the DOT token should be considered outside much of the regulatory control of the SEC mirrors that of many XRP (XRP) advocates. Ripple is currently engaged in a legal battle with the SEC over allegations the firm, co-founder Christian Larsen, and CEO Brad Garlinghouse raised more than $1 billion through unregistered securities sales using XRP. Ripple’s supporters have argued that the token was not a security and criticized the SEC for overreaching its authority.

Web3 Foundation makes bold claim to SEC: ‘DOT is not a security. It is merely software’

According to CLO Daniel Schoenberger, the team developed a “workable theory of how token morphing may be achieved” for DOT based on the SEC’s concerns and federal securities laws.

The entity supporting research and development of Polkadot, as well as overseeing fundraising efforts for the blockchain, has argued that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission should not consider the Polkadot (DOT) token a security under its regulatory purview.

In a Nov. 4 blog post, the Web3 Foundation Team’s chief legal officer Daniel Schoenberger said Polkadot’s native token had “morphed” and was “software” rather than a security. Schoenberger said the claim was “consistent with the views” it had shared with the SEC following discussions it began in November 2019.

“While the Polkadot vision had not contemplated that the blockchain’s native token would be a security, we understood that the SEC’s view was likely to be that the to-be-delivered token would be a security, at least at the time of delivery,” said Schoenberger. “Whatever it took in order for DOT, the native token of the Polkadot blockchain to be — or to become — a non-security, we were willing to do it.”

The chief legal officer said the Web3 Foundation had met regularly with the SEC’s fintech wing, FinHub, as part of chair Gary Gensler’s long-standing offer to crypto firms to “come in and talk.” According to Schoenberger, the team developed a “workable theory of how token morphing may be achieved” for DOT based on the SEC’s concerns and U.S. federal securities laws.

Though the fundraising entity said it “shared this theory many times with the SEC” on DOT not qualifying as a security, it’s unclear whether the federal regulator will respond to the claims seemingly infringing on their purview. The SEC has often used enforcement actions as a basis for regulation — in July, the regulator specifically identified nine tokens as “crypto asset securities” in a case against a former product manager at Coinbase.

Related: Polkadot hits all-time high in development activity

Schoenberger’s outright claim that the DOT token should be considered outside much of the regulatory control of the SEC mirrors that of many XRP (XRP) advocates. Ripple is currently engaged in a legal battle with the SEC over allegations that the firm, co-founder Christian Larsen and CEO Brad Garlinghouse raised more than $1 billion through unregistered securities sales using XRP. Ripple’s supporters have argued that the token was not a security and criticized the SEC for overreaching its authority.

Polkadot hits all-time high in development activity

It’s been almost one year since the start of the ecosystem’s signature parachain auctions.

According to data from programming repository GitHub, Polkadot recognized more than 500 contributions each day in September — an all-time high for the multichain protocol. Simultaneously, data from Polkadot’s cross-consensus interoperability standard XCM show that a record 26,258 messages were sent between its parachains. In total, 14,930 contributions from developers were recorded on Polkadot’s GitHub in the month of August.

As told by project developers, 66 blockchains are now live on Polkadot and its parachain startup network Kusama. Since its inception, over 140,000 messages have been exchanged between chains via 135 messaging channels. Together, the Polkadot and Kusama treasuries have cumulatively paid out 9.6 million DOT and 346,700 KSM ($72.8 million total) to fund spending proposals in the ecosystem.

Parachains are individual layer-1 blockchains that run in parallel on Polkadot and are first tested on Kusama. Auctions for parachain slots are held in the form of crowd loans, with the position going to the highest bidding project. The first of its kind took place last November. 

Moving forward, Polkadot founder Rob Habermeier has recently published a roadmap on enhancing Polkadot and Kusama’s scalability. Highlights include asynchronous backing, or the de-coupling of the extension of parachains from the extension of the relay chain, as a potential mechanism for cutting parachain block time by 50% while increasing block space tenfold. The upgrade, should it go live, will increase network speed to between an estimated 100,000 and 1 million transactions per minute.

The asynchronous backing upgrade is scheduled for development on Kusama by the end of the year and then on Polkadot. Another network upgrade, which will introduce “pay-as-you-go” parachains, would theoretically combine launching a blockchain on Kusama with simultaneously launching smart contracts. The move would shorten the development process for building on Polkadot.

Polkadot: How parachains are changing a blockchain-centric ecosystem

Parity chief marketing officer Peter Ruchatz discusses the ins and outs of Polkadot’s focus on interoperability at Token2049.

Smart contract blockchains have played a pivotal role in creating wide-ranging functionality after the advent of Bitcoin in 2009. Ethereum led the way in this regard, but innovative technology stacks like Polkadot have brought a new paradigm to the sector.

It’s been just less than a year since Polkadot’s Relay Chain went live in December 2021, and the platform’s ecosystem continues to grow as interest in Web3 increases across the world. Polkadot shares an intrinsic link to Ethereum given that its creator Gavin Wood played a role as a co-founder of the preeminent smart contract platform some seven years ago.

Cointelegraph explored the burgeoning Polkadot ecosystem in a wide-ranging conversation with Parity Technologies chief marketing officer Peter Ruchatz during the Token2049 conference in Singapore in September 2022. From inception to its growing use cases, the parachain-pioneering Polkadot ecosystem suggests that blockchain technology will continue to evolve through interoperable systems.

Parity CMO Peter Ruchatz at the Polkadot exhibit at Token2049 in Singapore.

As a starting point, Ruchatz agreed that Polkadot and its older proof-of-stake (PoS) siblings Ethereum and Cardano are in a state of harmony, co-existing despite providing similar blockchain-based use cases to decentralized applications (DApps) and projects running on their infrastructure.

Ruchatz highlighted the disruptive nature of the fundamentally new technology that influences various industries, drawing parallels to how Amazon Web Services powers Netflix while the end-user is oblivious to the underlying cloud technology:

“I think we are again at an inflection point and at that early stage in a technology shift, you have many experiments, many emerging platforms and approaches and the shakeout will happen over time. Sometimes you continue having five leading, maybe three leading or hopefully just one leading platform and it gives options and choices.”

There are fundamental differences between the concepts, opportunities and value propositions of Ethereum, Cardano and Polkadot, and Ruchatz believes a major hurdle is articulating and educating people on why each project is useful. In the case of Polkadot, the potential use cases and needs of its parachain functionality are important to consider.

Recent: Demand for talent in crypto less dependent on market as industry matures

Polkadot’s Relay Chain is a major attraction to potential users, according to Ruchatz, with the base layer providing a means to create custom blockchains with their own tokenomics or business parameters to suit specific needs.

This is a draw card that he believes differentiates the platform from other general-purpose, “one size fits all” blockchain protocols like Ethereum, Avalanche, Cardano and Solana, which Ruchatz suggested cater more toward building DApps and smart contract functions and services:

“If you truly want to innovate and explore a completely new industry or use case and have the appetite to build something revolutionary, something new and build for the long term, you cannot not build your own blockchain.”

Compounding effects

Polkadot’s signature parachains are separate blockchains that run in parallel while achieving consensus and security through the network’s base Relay Chain. This differs from other smart contract blockchains like Ethereum and Cardano, which need to facilitate all transactions, smart contract and DApp activity on a single chain or through layer solutions.

As Ruchatz explained to Cointelegraph in Singapore, Polkadot provides the foundation, security mechanisms, validations and consensus through the Relay Chain. Developers make use of the ecosystem’s software development kit (SDK) Substrate to develop proprietary blockchains that are able to work in tandem with the wider ecosystem.

Parachains benefit from each other by importing functionality from other parachains that have been built, allowing the use of code from other parachains on a blockchain level:

“Another thing which we now see happening with so many parachains live is a compounding effect, a synergistic effect, because of Polkadot’s architecture with interoperability and upgradability. We’ve upgraded the runtime already many, many times. I think no other system can do it.”

This collaborative ecosystem is a key driver of new users, according to the Parity chief marketing officer, with use cases emerging that have the potential to disrupt centralized products and services currently being used by the wider public around the world:

“A good example is the KILT protocol which is building an authentication service disrupting DocuSign. That alone is a big use case however the edification is something that other parachains don’t need to rebuild anymore.”

Ruchatz also highlighted innovations like NFT 2.0, programmable nonfungible tokens (NFTs) that pull cross-chain composable architecture from multiple chains, as well as blockchain-based music marketplaces competing with the likes of “Napsters or Spotify.” The team at Merklebot has even built a Polkadot-connected DApp to connect and control Boston Dynamics’ Spot mobile robots.

Interoperability and Ethereum

Ethereum’s highly-anticipated move from proof-of-work (PoW) to PoS consensus finally came to fruition in September 2022. With interoperability part of Polkadot’s DNA, Ruchatz said that connecting to Ethereum in certain ways was being looked into by some ecosystem participants:

“We are excited to see Ethereum finally join the proof-of-stake club. They still have a long way to go and have solved just one of their challenges. Nevertheless, this opens up collaboration and interoperability and we have some parachains teams that are exploring that already. We don’t want to be a closed shop.”

Part of the focus on interoperability and parachain functionality is part of a broader philosophical goal of the Polkadot ecosystem to become what Ruchatz described as “unstoppable.” A clear commitment to decentralization and transparency in governance structure has been central to Wood’s goal for Polkadot to achieve “coded democracy,” as Ruchatz explained:

“It goes as far as saying that Parity and the Web3 Foundation should be redundant at one point and become obsolete. We want the community to carry Polkadot forward and make it something that cannot be stopped by any government or central institution because it is truly decentralized.”

Recent: After Ethereum Merge, GPU prices may stabilize with dipping demand

Polkadot had a strong presence at Token2049 in Singapore, with a large staging area showcasing different parachain projects that are building in the ecosystem. The Asia-Pacific region is also home to a number of parachain development teams, with a healthy community acting as ambassadors for the ecosystem.

This was evident at the Polkadot exhibit, as the different parachains teams present had a chance to mingle and share thoughts and ideas with other projects that are interwoven into the parachain-powered ecosystem.

The Web3 Foundation taps edX for free courses on blockchain and Polkadot

The first two out of the four-course series on blockchain and Polkadot will start on October 20, the enrollment is open now.

The Web3 Foundation and the global online learning platform edX launch a series of foundational courses in blockchain technology and the Polkadot platform. The four-part series, called Web3x, will cover the fundamentals of blockchain and explore the Substrate software development kit and the Rust programming language. 

At the time of publication, the Web3x webpage contains only the first two courses: ‘Introduction to blockchain and Web3” and “Introduction to Polkadot.” The former course explains the history and key terminology of blockchains, Bitcoin, Ethereum and Web3, and the technologies behind them. The latter provides the learners with the key terminology behind Polkadot (DOT) — the concepts of shared security, interoperability, cryptography, consensus and the networking aspects of it.

The specific choice comes as no surprise — the Polkadot layer-0 blockchain network is the flagship protocol for Web3 Foundation. Both courses start on Oct. 20 and can be joined for free.

Commenting on the launch of the joint initiative, Web3 Foundation CEO Bertrand Perez emphasized the importance of edX’s expertise in online learning:

“Part of this ongoing process is to launch partnerships with established educators, and we are confident that edX has the right attributes to form a valuable long-term collaboration with Web3 Foundation.”

Web3 Foundation was established in 2017 in Zug, Switzerland, by Ethereum co-founder and former chief technology officer Gavin Wood. Since that time, it has supported with grants more than 300 projects in 50 countries. It also works as a research group, focusing on cryptography, networking and decentralized algorithms.

Related: BNB Chain to boost European Web3 startups with DApp incubator program

In a recent survey, the online educational platform Study.com found that 64% of the parents and 67% of the college graduates surveyed believed that cryptocurrencies should be part of mandatory education. Both groups had a slightly different view when it came to the blockchain, the Metaverse and nonfungible tokens (NFTs). However, only around 40% believed those subjects should be included in the curriculum as well.

Circle Product VP: USDC chain expansion part of ‘multichain’ vision

Speaking with Cointelegraph, Circle’s vice president of Product Joao Reginatto emphasized that devs soon won’t care what blockchain they build on, as interoperability will be key.

USD Coin (USDC) issuers Circle have announced that it will soon roll out its stablecoin across five additional networks including Polkadot, Optimism, NEAR, Arbitrum and Cosmos.

The firm first dropped the news at the Converge22 event on Sept. 28, and noted that support for most of these blockchains will be rolled out by the end of 2023, while USDC on Cosmos will go live at the start of 2023.

In a Sept. 28 statement, Circle’s vice president of Product Joao Reginatto emphasized that the expansion of USDC will provide “greater liquidity and interoperability within the crypto economy,” especially for the commercial sector.

“Extending multi-chain support for USDC opens the door for institutions, exchanges, developers and more to innovate and have easier access to a trusted and stable digital dollar,” he said.

In a follow-up interview with Cointelegraph, Reginatto outlined that while Circle initially built USDC on Ethereum as move of the development and activity was happening there, it always had a vision that the future would be a “multichain world.”

As such, Circle is expanding USDC support under the premise of devs preferring interoperability over working with just one network:

“We knew already at the time that there were a lot of interesting things happening in other ecosystems, and we thought that over time developers and application builders; they are not going to be so much concerned about the Layer 1 or the Layer 2 infrastructure that they’re using.”

“They will want interoperability, they will want flexibility to be able to port their solutions across ecosystems,” he added.

Reginatto did note however, while Circle is pushing ahead with expanding USDC support, given the current size of the stablecoin — with a market cap of $48.9 billion — the firm won’t just jump behind any network. He outlined that Circle conducts a lot of due diligence before it selects the next blockchain to work with.

“There’s a lot of risks that we have now that we perhaps didn’t have two or three years ago. So we take it with a lot of diligence. We have a team of folks across all the functions in the company kind of assessing all these ecosystems and prioritizing them over time.

Once the extra support is officially rolled out, USDC will be available on a total of 13 blockchains. In comparison, Circle’s main competitor Tether currently lists USDT support for eight networks on its website.

“Upon launch, developers will be able to use Circle APIs for fiat on/off-ramps to and from USDC in their products, as well as programmable wallets infrastructure,” Circle stated on Twitter.

Related: Circle CEO says blockchain industry is transitioning from dial-up to broadband phase

Commenting on the use cases for USDC and stablecoins in the current context of crypto, Reginatto highlighted key avenues such as marketplace payouts, remittances, and global settlements for financial institutions.

“There’s no real good interoperability across all these banking systems and regional rails. Stablecoins have a really, really good value proposition for that.”

“Stripe utilizing USDC rails for marketplace payouts. Embedding that as part of their marketplace payouts products, just being able to reach people that their customers need to pay out, that with traditional rails they can’t reach. So that there is clear concrete value that the substrate can deliver for those kinds of use cases,” he added.