$XPL Thesis by Coinangel *This article is not a buy/sell recommendation and is simply a write-up organizing my personal thoughts. I’m extremely bullish on Plasma, and I thought I’d take a moment to write down and organize my thoughts and feelings about it. I believe that understanding the essence of why the Plasma chain or network is attractive doesn’t require delving into technical terms or the chain’s performance metrics. Although Plasma is a blockchain project designed as an L1 network for global payments, I want to evaluate it as the global stablecoin network itself. 1. MicroPayments - This refers to the exchange of small amounts under $1 online, and I think Bitcoin’s ‘satoshi unit’ is the means for enabling such MicroPayments. Traditional financial payment methods, which charge a certain portion of the total amount as a fee per transaction, are highly unsuitable for implementing small Micro or Nano-level payments. As this becomes more granular through blockchain, it allows for more cost-efficient structures—for example, not just ‘500 won’ but ‘497.654 won.’ Of course, there are many existing chains that boast low fees and high speeds. However, Plasma enables not 0.0001 but truly zero fees. For USDT, there’s a daily limit only for verified addresses, but at the retail level, it can be considered zero. This is the first strength I’ve felt. Zero, not 0.0001. When we send money through Toss or Kakao Pay, there’s no separate fee, right? But now, blockchain can achieve something at a server level like that? And since it’s blockchain, it’s transparently public, and full sovereignty remains with the individual. Once cards are released, this benefit extends beyond transfers to payments as well. When I swipe my credit card, it’s not recorded on the card company’s server but on the blockchain. More detailed information is available in the official docs, but I think we’re witnessing the birth of a global Toss/Kakao Pay-like transfer and payment network with zero fees. 2. Stablecoin - If the above is a strength in practical use, this part is about strengths in the blockchain-native aspect. As the coin market grows, I believe the only things that consistently grow are Bitcoin’s price and the market cap of stablecoins. The current stablecoin market cap is over $300B, an absurdly large market, and Tether accounts for nearly 60% of that pie. We need to think about why they incubated Plasma and stablecoins. Tether is now unequivocally the largest project on blockchain, and they have no need to use someone else’s chain for their distribution network. They can just create their own and lay it out worldwide. Already, Plasma’s total stablecoin circulation ranks 5th among all chains, and USDT dominance ranks 4th among all chains. This is the achievement of a chain that’s been out for less than half a year. Being “Powered by Tether” makes a difference, I think. --- I believe these two unique strengths are unchanging essences, and I deeply empathize with them and am investing accordingly. When evaluating a chain, rather than getting bogged down in tedious technical terms like what advantages PlasmaBFT has over other consensus mechanisms or how Paymaster covers fees, I think the aspects that anyone can empathize with are what truly differentiate it. I hope the day comes when Plasma’s essence shines, ignoring all external factors like price and emissions…