Circle named BlackRock, Visa, and several other institutions as launch partners for Arc, a blockchain that will exist. The partners will help run it. Run it how? Nobody said. Run it where? Also unclear. Run it for what purpose that couldn't be accomplished with a database? The press release stopped responding to questions.
BlackRock manages ten trillion dollars. They now manage a blockchain called Arc. The blockchain will do blockchain things. Store data in blocks. Chain those blocks together. Revolutionary stuff. Definitely worth the engineering hours that could've gone toward literally anything else.
Visa processes 65,000 transactions per second. Arc will process far fewer. Call it a feature. Scarcity breeds value. Ask anyone holding a commemorative plate.
The word "institutional backing" appeared in the announcement like it means something. Institutions back lots of things. They backed mortgage-backed securities in 2007. They backed Enron's accounting practices. They backed WeWork at a forty-seven billion dollar valuation. Institutions backing your project proves institutions have money to light on fire, nothing more.
Circle makes USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the dollar, which is already digital, making the stablecoin a digital version of a digital thing. Now they've built a blockchain to move the digital version of the digital thing faster between institutions that already move the original digital thing instantly. Progress looks like running in a circle until you're back where you started but somehow more tired.
Some retail trader saw this headline and immediately bought tokens that don't exist yet for a blockchain that doesn't launch until later. He'll explain to his wife that BlackRock's involvement makes it safe. She'll ask why BlackRock needs a new blockchain. He won't have an answer but he'll have conviction, which in markets is just another word for being wrong with your chest puffed out.
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