stablecoin
A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to another asset, usually a national currency, so that it does not move the way an ordinary token does. It is what the HTTP payment rails settle in, which is why a payment protocol that never mentions currencies still depends on one.
The working definitions in this space belong to processors and issuers. No neutral standards body defines the word here, and that is worth saying plainly. Stripe's machine-payments documentation glosses a stablecoin inline as a cryptocurrency pegged to a fiat currency or other asset to limit volatility. Circle describes its own as fully backed digital dollars, redeemable one-for-one for US dollars and issued by regulated affiliates, with the reserve composition published on its page.
The peg is a claim about reserves, and it is the issuer's claim. What backs a given stablecoin, who holds those reserves and who may redeem them are facts about that issuer rather than properties of the technology, and each issuer publishes its own.
For a paid endpoint the practical part is narrower than the debate. A quote names an asset contract on a network, so what a client is asked to pay is a particular token on a particular chain. That pairing, with a scheme, is what decides whether the client and the facilitator can settle it at all.
→ probe402 records the asset each tracked endpoint quoted, as the endpoint stated it — open an endpoint from the endpoint list.
Sources
- Machine paymentsStripe documentation
- USDCCircle
Related USDC · micropayment · settlement · scheme