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One of the leaders of the US banking sector, US Bank, recently announced the launch of a pilot project to create its own stablecoins. In this case, they are assisted by the Stellar Development Foundation, providing the technical side of the issue, and experts from PricewaterhouseCoopers, providing consulting support.

According to the head of US Bank, Gunjan Kedia, the bank is actively exploring the potential of programmable money using an open blockchain platform for this. It's interesting that they decided to do this, even though they don't see much excitement among customers yet. Mike Villano, who is responsible for the development of digital assets, explained that the main goal of their research is to find ways to apply this technology in practice, for example, to simplify payments, organize settlements and money transfers.

The current experiment focuses on analyzing how effectively stablecoins can help simplify international payments. The bank wants to understand whether this technology can really speed up transfers and at the same time reduce the associated costs. Security issues come first here: Villano stressed that it is necessary to come up with additional ways to protect users, including strengthening identification and adding the ability to cancel accidentally sent payments.

Stellar was chosen because this blockchain already has built-in controls, for example, you can temporarily block assets and cancel transactions. This is important for the bank, as it allows risk management and provides the necessary level of protection.

The fact that the US Bank has started testing stablecoins suggests that they are moving from a simple interest in blockchain to the actual use of these solutions in traditional banking. The implementation is proceeding carefully, gradually, with the mandatory maintenance of the previous safety and control standards.