Google, Visa, Mastercard, Samsung Electronics, Dunamu and other leading domestic and overseas corporations are forming an alliance to unveil the dollar-based stablecoin "Open USD (OUSD)." However, many domestic corporations said they had no official consultations with the OUSD issuer and even learned from the news that they were included as consortium members.
According to the virtual asset industry on the 3rd, the global stablecoin alliance Open Standard said on the 30th of last month (local time) that it unveiled OUSD and plans to launch it within the year. Open Standard said about 140 global finance and payment corporations, including Visa, Mastercard and BlackRock, will join the alliance. The alliance is not structured as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) or as shareholders.
In Korea, in addition to Samsung Electronics and Dunamu, Shinhan Financial Group (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 had been no official consultations with the OUSD issuer. A corporate official said, "There were no official consultations, and we do not even know what role we would take (in the alliance)." Dunamu and Kbank also said Open Standard asked about their intention to participate in OUSD and they simply said they would review it, but later found their names included as alliance members.
A corporate official said, "We also learned from domestic news that we were included as members of the OUSD alliance. We only gave a light reply to Open Standard's inquiry that '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 join OUSD, some in the virtual asset industry predicted it could surpass existing stablecoin giants Tether and Circle. Currently, dollar stablecoins are effectively split between Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC). OUSD aims for an open infrastructure jointly operated by corporations that provide actual payment, remittance and settlement services, rather than a model run solely by a single corporation.
For 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 kept into 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. Treasurys and other assets, earning tens of trillions of won annually. OUSD said it will adopt a model that distributes all reserve management earnings, except for small operating management fees, to network participant partners.