TBD and Circle  are collaborating on a set of open standards and open source technologies aimed at enabling global-scale, mainstream adoption of digital currency in payments and financial applications. The first step of which will support cross-border remittances and self-custody wallets that can hold stablecoins. We are supporting USDC with an eye on a number of use cases that make it easy for developers to build on top of Block’s tbDEX protocol  and its Web5  decentralized identity platform. These use cases include:

• Ubiquitous global on-and-off-ramps that connect traditional payments rails to digital assets, making it easier and more accessible for consumers and businesses around the world to benefit from the crypto economy.
• Faster, lower cost remittances globally – starting from the U.S. to Mexico.
• Self-custody wallets that can hold stablecoins – U.S. dollar denominated stablecoins – to provide a store of value to individuals in countries who must balance limited access to U.S. dollars with hyper-inflationary environments.

An open approach solves for decentralized identity and enables safe, scaleable, and frictionless payments to work for consumers and merchants using stablecoins. This partnership aims to make a significant impact on peoples’ everyday financial lives. It both fuels the potential for crypto to emerge as a mainstream payments system while establishing decentralized identity as the model for building trust in a scalable and privacy-preserving way.Stay updated on our efforts here and connect with us @tbd54566975 .