Consumers don’t think about their finances in Bitcoin; they think in terms of euros, dollars, francs, and other fiat currencies. If Bitcoin is to capture this mass consumer audience, it has to offer the medium they are most accustomed to. This is according to Bernhard Müller, the CEO and founder of Centi as he announced the launch of the first-ever stablecoin native to the Bitcoin SV ecosystem: the Centi stablecoin.
Stablecoins have become a critical component in the digital asset industry. In 2022, stablecoin volume hit $7.4 trillion, three times higher than Mastercard’s (NASDAQ: MA) annual volume. However, most stablecoins are marred by controversies, from USDC’s recent depegging to Tether’s endless woes to the UST collapse.
With the Centi stablecoin, Müller wants to change the stablecoin industry, and he’s doing it on the only blockchain network that scales unbounded, BSV.
The stablecoin is fully backed by a Swiss bank guarantee: this means that even if the issuer collapsed, every claim would be covered by a Swiss bank.
Stablecoins directly compete with credit cards, and as Müller told CoinGeek Backstage reporter Becky Liggero, a better solution to the age-old card system has been long overdue. Most of the technology used by credit cards today is from the ‘60s, making them susceptible to fraud and theft. Their fees are also quite high and in the case of VISA, a 70% market share has given it monopoly power.
While Centi stablecoin has a big market to serve, Müller observed that penetrating this market will be a challenge. A key strategy for the Swiss firm is to bring users all the services they love, but now with a stablecoin option.
“All these checkouts you already know from e-commerce, all these processes you already know from point-of-sales; we basically make that accessible. Our merchants don’t need to understand anything about the technology…we provide all the downstream services so they just get money on their bank accounts as they used to,” Müller told CoinGeek Backstage.
Stablecoins vs CBDCs
The Centi stablecoin comes at a time when most central banks are exploring CBDCs. But according to Müller, the stablecoin has a big market target that will likely refrain from CBDCs out of concern for their financial privacy and freedom.
Already, several key leaders, from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to Senator Ted Cruz, have opposed CBDCs based on privacy concerns. In Europe, the Eurogroup (consisting of the region’s finance ministers) has demanded that the regional central bank addresses privacy concerns.
“We’re convinced we have a solution that’s the closest you can build to a CBDC without involving the government directly,” Müller said.
While it will give its users ultimate financial privacy and freedom, Centi will also comply with all applicable laws and will work with authorities if called upon, Müller added.
“And for those concerned about privacy, tune into Dr. Wright’s Bitcoin Masterclasses because he talks about privacy in Bitcoin quite a bit,” Becky said.
The Centi CEO called on the BSV community to build solutions that leverage the power of a native stablecoin.
“If you want to build cool dApps, cool applications, or business cases which need stable fiat backing, please talk to us. You can build it yourself, you can use our API or libraries that already exist. We’re interested in all sorts of use cases, more so the ones we’re not building ourselves,” says Müller.
Bernhard Müller: Centi is for people who don’t care about Bitcoin
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