Circle has announced the launch of the public testnet for the Arc blockchain, which is positioned as an open Layer 1 network for companies and developers looking to move economic activity into an on-chain environment.
This is reported by Finway
Arc — A New Economic Operating System for the Internet
Arc is designed to become a new economic operating system for the internet, a platform for building the infrastructure of the global digital economy. Over a hundred partners from the financial and technology sectors, as well as leading infrastructure providers and developers from around the world, have joined the network’s launch.
The network offers key advantages, including:
- stable dollar transaction fees;
- finalization of transactions in less than a second;
- optional privacy for users;
- integration with the full technology stack of Circle.
Arc is aimed at use in lending, capital markets, foreign exchange (forex), and international payments. Among the first participants in the testnet are giants like BlackRock, BNY Mellon, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Invesco, Mastercard, Nuvei, SBI Holdings, Standard Chartered, Société Générale, State Street, and Visa.
Support from Financial Sector Leaders and Network Development
Circle currently maintains centralized control of Arc but plans to gradually transfer it to a distributed community of validators and partners. The further development of the network envisions an increase in the number of validators, a transparent governance system, and broad community participation in the platform’s development. The goal is to make Arc an open, collectively governed, and cryptographically accountable economic layer of the internet.
“With the public testnet of Arc, we are witnessing impressive early momentum: leading companies, protocols, and projects are starting to build and test solutions. Together, these organizations reach billions of users and conduct transactions worth hundreds of trillions of dollars each year. Arc is designed to connect every local market to the global economy,” said Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire.
BlackRock emphasizes the potential of stablecoin-denominated settlements and on-chain FX to enhance capital market efficiency. HSBC highlights the benefits of faster and more transparent international payments while maintaining high security standards. Mastercard focuses on the development of programmable payments within Arc.
Jeremy Allaire further noted that Arc enables companies to build solutions on enterprise-grade infrastructure to create an open, inclusive, and efficient global economic system that operates natively on the internet.
It is worth noting that for the development of Arc, Circle acquired the Malachite consensus mechanism from Informal Systems, which will serve as the technical foundation for the blockchain focused on financial solutions with stablecoins. Nine employees from Informal Systems will also join the Circle team.