Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, has acquired Malachite, a consensus engine developed by Informal Systems, to support its new blockchain, Arc. This blockchain will focus on stablecoin finances and is part of Circle's strategy to capitalize on the growing demand for stablecoins, which are tied to external assets like the U.S. dollar. The acquisition, although financial details were not disclosed, includes the onboarding of several developers from Informal Systems to Circle. Malachite, designed for flexibility and security, is based on the Tendermint consensus algorithm and aims to enhance performance in decentralized systems. The technology will remain open source under the Apache 2.0 license, fostering further development but will continue to be supported by Informal Systems for other use cases and projects. This expansion by Circle comes at a time when the stablecoin market is projected to grow significantly, potentially reaching a trillion-dollar valuation and reshaping global payment systems.

Source đź”—