#329: Stablecoins in Emerging Markets, the Zapier of Crypto

I was at my high school friend’s wedding (congrats Jennifer and Michael!). It was great catching up with old high school friends reminiscing over old memories, and celebrating life’s milestones with the happy couple.

While I was bopping on the dance floor, one of my high school buddies asked (or rather yelled in my ear):

I could have answered this question in variety of ways. I could have responded with price of Bitcoin, ETFs, the top NFT projects becoming beloved brands, the rise of DePIN, or a dozen other topics.

But my mind went to a different topic underappreciated in developed countries like the US: Stablecoins. While dancing to the beat, I yelled back explaining how stablecoins are one of the main use cases of crypto globally and that developing countries rely on this form of crypto as a means of exchange and store of value.

My friend may not remember that brief exchange, especially since he’s vacationing in Greece at the moment, but it stuck out to me. Out of all the answers, why did I respond the way I did immediately?

US residents including myself don’t care as much about stablecoins since we already transact in US dollars. For the rest of the world, it’s a different story.

Nic Carter of Castle Island Ventures shared a new report earlier today, Stablecoins: The Emerging Market Story. Some key takeaways:

Stablecoin supply has grown significantly since 2017

• Stablecoin supply peaked in early 2022, reached a bottom in mid-2023, and is on the uptrend again. Stablecoin supply is currently at $170 billion.

• 20+ million addresses make a stablecoin transaction on a public blockchain every month

• $2.6 trillion of stablecoin volume was settled in H1 2024

Survey says…

To better understand how stablecoins are used, the authors conducted a survey of 500 individuals in each of five countries: Nigeria, Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil, and India.

• Although the primary goal for using stablecoins among respondents was to trade crypto or NFTs, other top use cases were to save money in dollars, obtain better currency conversion rates, earn a yield, and convert local currency into dollars

• Almost 70% of respondents had converted local currency to a stablecoin, while almost 40% of respondents paid for a good/service with stablecoins or sent/received money to a relative in a different country using stablecoins.

• 57% of users increased their stablecoin usage in the past year and 72% plan to increase their usage in the future

I encourage you to check out the report, as it provides helpful context about stablecoins through a global lens. If anything, this is something worth sharing with colleagues to sound smart 🤓

Have you sent money to a relative before? If so, share or subscribe!

Yesterday I came across two onchain automation tools, Plug and Fountain. The former emerged out of stealth, and the latter recently announced a seed round fundraise. As I poked into the landing pages for both sites, I was immediately reminded of Zapier, the $5 billion automation company.

There are plenty of opportunities for users to automate certain workflows in their onchain dealings, starting with DeFi and eventually moving beyond it. The above screenshot is a great example of this, showing how users can create a simple automation to renew their ENS address (not too different from setting up autopay for a utility bill).

An interesting feature that Plug will have to bootstrap growth is creator fees. Users can create strategies (equivalent to Zapier templates) and share them publicly. The creator earns a portion of the generated fees when someone else successfully executes your strategy with an instant payout. Despite Zapier’s rich library of apps, Zaps, and templates, creator monetization isn’t possible.

I look forward to the public launch of these user-friendly automation platforms. I could and should automate more 😅

In the meantime, you can apply for early access with Plug and Fountain.

Even though the news has been much quieter than a few years ago, big names are still looking into (more practical applications of) blockchain. In Q2 2024, Toyota and Ford filed 14 and 29 patents respectively.

One of the patents filed by Toyota is US20240185180A1, Decentralized management of vehicle ownership. The patent lays out the complexities involved when a vehicle changes ownership. Multiple stakeholders are involved, including the buyer, seller, government agency (eg: DMV), lending institution, insurance agency, car company, and other service providers.

The steps of paying off loans, title transfer, insurance cancellation, vehicle registration, and authentication are inefficient. How can a vehicle NFT help with the process?

• Event Recording and Documentation: Smart contracts can change, replace, or update data relevant to the ownership NFT based on maintenance activities, repairs, or part replacements. Alternatively, each of these activities can be a separate NFT, and stored in an ERC-6551 token bound account (like separate files in file case)

• Authentication of Vehicle Parts: Car parts can be authenticated, helping to ensure that they are genuine and sourced from authorized suppliers.

• Data Sharing with Authorized Parties: NFTs can facilitate the sharing of vehicle data with third parties such as insurance companies and service centers.

• Customized User Experiences: NFTs can store user preferences, settings, and customization data. This allows for personalized experiences in shared or rental cars. Nifty!

On the digital collectibles end of NFTs, car brands like Fiat, Porsche, and Mercedes have already experimented with and are still cultivating communities around their NFTs in their digital collectible form. Ok let’s be real, only a handful of them still are 😂

Blockchain in cars will probably be years away, but simultaneously it feels like it’ll come sooner than we think.

See you next week!