We’re excited to announce Fast USDC, a new solution to be developed as part of a strategic partnership between Agoric and Noble. Designed to enhance the way USDC is transferred across blockchains, Fast USDC drastically reduces wait times for moving funds from Ethereum and other EVM-compatible chains into the Cosmos ecosystem. By leveraging Agoric’s advanced Orchestration technology and Noble’s efficient architecture, Fast USDC enables users to transfer USDC in less than two minutes—down from the typical 20 minutes.
Fast USDC is built on Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), ensuring secure and smooth transfers that eliminate friction, reduce costs, and enhance transparency. This not only benefits the broader $100 billion stablecoin sector but also makes web3 services faster and more accessible.
Key Features:
Blazing Fast Transfers: Transfer USDC from EVM chains to Cosmos up to 10x faster, reducing delays and improving usability.
Enhanced User Experience: Streamlined onboarding ensures that users can complete their transfers in a single session with real-time updates.
Decentralized & On-Chain: Powered by Agoric Orchestration, Fast USDC transactions are transparent and fully managed on-chain.
This partnership between Agoric and Noble is a significant milestone in advancing cross-chain programmability and simplifying blockchain interactions.
Fast Settlement
Faster USDC settlement between EVM chains and Cosmos unlocks opportunities for both developers and users across web3, including significantly improved user experience. Traditionally, these cross-chain transactions can involve long wait times (16 to 20 minutes); resulting in user frustration and potential drop-offs during critical processes like onboarding or fund transfers. Such long wait times can create barriers for applications, hindering seamless user interaction and slowing down their growth.
With Fast USDC, the transfer time is reduced to two minutes, creating an experience that aligns more with the expectations of modern users. This reduction in friction makes cross-chain applications more accessible, allowing users to interact seamlessly across blockchains without the usual delays. The faster transfer speed can make it easier for users to onboard and use DeFi platforms, NFT marketplaces, web3 games, and more.
Faster cross-chain USDC transfers can impact many areas of web3. Developers can design more complex workflows and cross-chain applications that leverage near-instant token movements. This opens the door for building apps like sophisticated financial products that rely on fast asset transfers between ecosystems, or games that users can access without the friction of moving funds across multiple chains. By integrating Fast USDC into these systems, users will spend more time immersed in an application’s experience, instead of funding wallets and acquiring tokens.
Fast Abstraction
For the increasing number of teams seeking chain abstraction solutions, faster settlement is a key factor. Chain abstraction strives to make interactions across different blockchains feel seamless and unified, with speed being essential to this goal. Fast USDC advances blockchain systems toward true chain abstraction by removing the hassle of transferring funds between chains and eliminating frustrating transaction delays for users.
Developers can leverage this to build applications where users can move funds, trade assets, or perform other activities across multiple chains as if they were operating within a single, integrated environment. This opens the door to more sophisticated cross-chain applications and workflows, unlocking use cases like real-time DeFi strategies, cross-chain NFT marketplaces, and fluid token swaps.
Fast is Friendly
Ultimately, faster cross-chain USDC settlement makes Web3 more user-friendly by aligning blockchain interactions with the performance and usability standards of mainstream applications. Users will no longer be bogged down by complex, multi-step transactions with long wait times, allowing blockchain technology to become more accessible to a broader audience. Developers can capitalize on this by focusing on building feature-rich applications that emphasize ease of use, paving the way for broader adoption of decentralized technologies.
Fast Forward
Fast USDC will initially be available as part of Noble Express, giving web3 an easy to use, one-stop-shop for moving value across ecosystems. Subsequently, we plan to release the Fast USDC standalone product for seamless integration into any application, empowering developers and users to build towards a faster, more efficient web3.
Stay tuned for more updates on how Fast USDC is shaping the future of cross-chain asset transfers.
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