Stablesats
Synthetic USD built entirely on bitcoin: BTC collateral hedged with perpetual inverse swaps gives users a dollar-denominated balance that sends and receives over the Lightning Network with no fiat banking rails and no stablecoin issuer. Built open-source (Rust) by Galoy and deployed in the Blink wallet, where USD accounts protect merchants and savers in Bitcoin circular economies (El Salvador, Nigeria's Bitcoin Ikorodu) from BTC volatility.
The most credible attempt to deliver dollar stability to the unbanked without touching a bank: bitcoin-collateralized synthetic USD over Lightning, open-source, live since 2022 and demonstrably used in African and Salvadoran circular economies — held back by custodial operation, centralized-exchange dependency, and a borrowed USD unit of account.
M69 Score
Scored against the Money2069 Manifesto — see methodology. Higher = more aligned.
Detailed Rating Breakdown
Issuance Model3x3.0
Any Blink user can create/destroy synthetic USD by converting wallet BTC (IM-01: 3 — open in-app but routed through the operator's dealer). Not debt-based — it is a fully-collateralized hedge, not a loan (IM-02: 4). Supply is two-way elastic with user demand (IM-04/05: 4). No real-economy linkage; purely financial collateral (IM-03: 2).
Spending Power Stability2x3.0
Explicit, automatic mechanism: perpetual inverse swap hedging keeps each unit at $1 regardless of BTC price (SPS-01: 4). Benchmark is the USD, a single moderate fiat reference (SPS-02: 2), and long-term purchasing-power drift of the dollar is not addressed (SPS-05: 2). Live and holding parity since 2022 through severe BTC volatility (SPS-04: 4).
Fiat Independence & Interoperability2x3.0
Collateral is 100% bitcoin — zero fiat reserves and no bank accounts required (FI-02: 5, FI-03: 4); interoperates with anyone on Lightning (FI-08: 4). But the unit of account is fully borrowed USD (FI-01: 1) and price feeds are fiat-denominated from centralized derivatives exchanges (FI-04: 2); if USD fails the synthetic tracks it down (FI-05: 2).
Traction2x3.0
Live in production since 2022 inside Blink, a leading wallet of the El Salvador Bitcoin Beach economy, with documented merchant use in Nigerian circular economies as of May 2026 (TR-01: 4, TR-09: 4, TR-11: 4). But it is a feature within one wallet: modest direct user numbers (TR-03: 2-3), merchants price in USD not a new unit (TR-05: 2), niche media coverage (TR-08: 3).
Sovereignty2.0
Open-source and self-hostable stack (SO-02: 4), but the running system is custodial (Blink holds keys, SO-04: 2), depends critically on centralized derivatives exchanges for the hedge (SO-06: 2), and the operator can block accounts (SO-07: 2). A regulator or exchange failure could halt it (SO-01: 2).
Governance2.0
Company-governed (Galoy/Blink); no community governance, no constitutional protection of the mechanism (GO-01: 2, GO-08: 2). Open code provides meaningful auditability of the rules (GO-03: 3).
Resilience3.0
The hedge mechanism survived the 2022 bear market and exchange-industry turmoil intact (RE-01/06: 3-4) and the concept is simple and rebuildable from public code (RE-04: 4). Single-exchange counterparty risk is the standing weakness (RE-02: 2); venture-backed funding horizon (RE-07: 3).
Inclusivity4.0
Built for the underbanked: dollar stability with only a phone and Lightning, no bank account, in economies where banking access is the barrier (IN-01: 4, IN-03: 5); near-zero cost (0.2% conversion, IN-02: 4); no token, no insider seigniorage (IN-04: 4); light phone-based identity (IN-06: 3).