Google, Visa, Mastercard, Samsung Electronics, Dunamu and other leading domestic and overseas corporations have formed a consortium to unveil a dollar-based stablecoin, "Open USD (OUSD)." However, many domestic corporations said they had no official consultations with the OUSD issuer and only learned from the news that they were listed as consortium members.
According to the virtual asset industry on the 3rd, the global stablecoin consortium Open Standard said on the 30th of last month (local time) that it revealed OUSD and plans to launch it within the year. Open Standard said about 140 global finance and payments corporations, including Visa, Mastercard and BlackRock, will join the consortium. The consortium will not participate as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) or as shareholders.
In Korea, in addition to Samsung Electronics and Dunamu, Shinhan Financial Group, KakaoBank, Kbank, Hyundai Card, KB Kookmin Card, BC Card, Hana Card, Samsung Card, Woori Card, NH Nonghyup Card and Hanwha are said to be participating.
However, many domestic corporations said there were no official consultations with the OUSD issuer. A Samsung Electronics official said, "There were no official consultations, and we do not even know what role we would play (in the consortium)." Shinhan Financial Group, Dunamu and Kbank also said Open Standard asked about their willingness to participate in OUSD and they simply said they would review it, but their names ended up included as consortium members.
An official at one corporation said, "We learned that we were included as members of the OUSD consortium through domestic news. Our response to Open Standard's inquiry about participation was a light 'we will review it if it goes well,'" adding, "We are perplexed to be included as members."
After news broke that about 140 global corporations would participate in OUSD, some in the virtual asset industry said it could surpass existing stablecoin heavyweights Tether and Circle. Currently, the dollar stablecoin market is effectively split between Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC). OUSD aims to be an open infrastructure jointly operated by corporations that provide real payment, remittance and settlement services, rather than a model run solely by a specific corporation.
With Tether or Circle stablecoins, when a user deposits $1, the issuer mints one stablecoin. For OUSD, when a participating corporation deposits $1 into Open Standard's reserve account, Open Standard mints 1 OUSD. If a corporation returns the 1 OUSD it holds to Open Standard, Open Standard redeems the $1 it was holding to the corporation's bank account. Corporations participating in the OUSD consortium can mint and redeem OUSD without fees and without limits.
The revenue structure is differentiated. Tether and Circle invest users' deposits in U.S. Government Bonds and other assets, earning tens of trillions of won annually. Open Standard said it will adopt a model that distributes all reserve management revenue, except for small operating management fees, to network participating partners.