What does a translation device have to do with stablecoins?

Published on May 1, 2021 (https://babelfish.money/d37db0a0bdca4ccab207cdcda0dadcaa)

As you can guess by now, our name BabelFish is inspired from Douglas Adam’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a wholly remarkable best-selling book. We recommend you read it during this tumultuous time to learn more about the BabelFish, a fish that enables any species across the galaxies to understand each other.

Our project inspiration comes from CementDAO, a project some of us helped research and develop in 2018 to create concrete solutions to the inevitable risks and inefficiencies we see today on the maturing stablecoin ecosystem. About 28 USD- stablecoin issuers existed back then with a combined market cap shy of $3bn. It was clear then that a shared standard between stablecoin issuers would significantly optimize our shared goal: enabling mass adoption. To that end, we organised the first stablecoin ecosystem event, bringing together stakeholders across the world to meet at the iconic Reform Club in London to present our ecosystem survey results, open discussions, and share our product alpha.

All stakeholders at the event validated the need for a translation device that could enable stablecoin holders from any (accepted) issuer to trade with each other at 1:1 value, reducing risk and increasing utility. Our timing was a bit early and, unlike Phileas Fogg, we did not succeed -yet.

The need for a “trustless stablecoin translation device” is stronger today than then. With a ballooning market cap and higher velocity than fiat-USD, we expect demand for programmable money to continue accelerating as we onboard the first billion users. But the market remains fragmented, two players dominate >85% of the total USD-stablecoin float, and systemic risks abound. In the decentralized economy we ought not to rely in one or two issuers of USD-stablecoins but rather enable a thousand stablecoins to bloom and communicate with each other to bring mass adoption.