In the narrative of cryptocurrency, we have heard too much about TPS (transactions per second) and scaling stories. But as an observer who has been deeply involved in the Web3 payment field for many years, I want to raise a more realistic question:
Why is it still so difficult for me to transfer 10U to my friend for coffee?
This involves a long-ignored pain point in the industry—Gas fee wear and holding thresholds. This is exactly the core proposition that @Plasma is trying to solve through underlying architecture. Today, we won't discuss coin prices, but rather the business logic and protection behind $XPL.
1. The concealed 'payment friction'
The current public chain logic is: If you want to transfer USDT, you must first hold ETH or TRX. This is acceptable for native crypto users, but for the 99% of Web2 users, it presents a huge cognitive barrier.
Plasma's entry point is very clever and precise: natively supports stablecoin payment of Gas (Paymaster mechanism).
This means that in the future, merchants and users can completely be unaware of the existence of 'Gas' when settling on the @plasma network. As long as the user account has USDT, they can directly transfer, and the underlying protocol will automatically handle the cost consumption. This upgrade in experience is a qualitative change from 'usable' to 'user-friendly'.
2. Why Layer 2 is not the final answer?
Some might say that L2 is also cheap. However, the complexity of L2 (cross-chain bridges, liquidity fragmentation, withdrawal cycles) determines that it is more suitable for this type of DeFi interaction rather than high-frequency daily small payments.
Plasma, as a Layer 1 focused on financial settlement, has a design philosophy of 'minimalism'. It discards the burden of redundant general computing and has made underlying optimizations specifically for the high concurrency of stablecoin circulation. This 'dedicated chain for specific use' approach makes it more stable in handling large-scale concurrent payments than general L2 solutions.
3. Value capture of $XPL: from 'toll' to 'security tax'
Many investors do not understand the value model of $XPL. In the Plasma ecosystem, XPL is not just Gas; it is the trust anchor of the entire payment network.
When billions of dollars in stablecoins circulate on this network in the future, who guarantees the security of the network? The stakers of XPL. Behind every gas-free smooth transaction, XPL is actually conducting high-frequency verification and settlement at the underlying level. Therefore, what XPL captures is not just simple transaction fees, but the security premium of the entire Web3 payment system.
4. Conclusion: Payment is the only trillion-dollar track in Web3.
The war for infrastructure has entered the second half. At this stage, whoever can make the user experience as smooth as Alipay will be the winner.
@Plasma What we are walking is a 'difficult yet correct' path. It does not try to ride the hot topics of AI or DePIN, but instead focuses on payment experience. I am optimistic about $XPL, not only because it is cheap now, but also because it bets on the inevitable future of large-scale adoption of Web3.
Finally, I want to say: The trillion-dollar market of stablecoins is worth our continuous attention.
#plasma #Web3 #Crypto #Layer1 #Payment