Tether, the company behind USDT, is planning to release a stablecoin natively on Bitcoin through RGB protocol Version v0.11.1. Published by UTEO software labUSDT is set to return to the chain where it was first launched in 2014 via the Omni-Mastercoin Layer.
UTEO, the leading issuing company, has positioned itself as the provider and distributor of this Bitcoin-native USDT in partnership with Tether. “Finally, after eight years of development—if not—we are the company that is launching USDT on Bitcoin with strong support from Tether,” said Viktor Ihnatiuk, founder of UTEXO, in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine.
The RGB protocol includes its own manual client side authentication and the lightning network for the same time, in individual communities, when anchored security for Bitcoin’s UTXO model. Users can expect to be able to spend USDT on native Bitcoin addresses as well as send and receive on the lightning network and similar wallets.
The RGB protocol on Bitcoin also offers great privacy to USDT users as a benefit of Bitcoin’s UTXO identity, which represents new addresses for each transaction compared to the address from the account that is also used in EVM blockchains like Tron, Ethereum or Solana. Reusing addresses is the first mistake of onchain encryption, yet many altcoins have developed their features to reuse addresses, despite the risks it poses to users. RGB’s integration with the lightning network also protects users’ privacy by moving USDT through an offchain payment network, which leaves minimal traces on the public blockchain. Deep integration with Tether also means that there are fewer companies charging additional fees or collecting data.
On the topic, Vktor emphasized that, “We built Utexo to make USDT go to Bitcoin the way money should move: instantly, privately, without price surprises. Partners integrate our API once and can run USDT on the most open network ever built, with full control over the price.”
UTEO vs TRON
UTEO emerged from a partnership involving Viktor’s Boosty Venture Studio, Fulgur Ventures, and Tether Investments. The goal was straightforward: to bring RGB to the mainnet after years of delay under development teams. The scheme has grown since 2016, but failed to prepare for the bull market of 2017, giving the TRON blockchain control over the amount of USDT and use in developing countries, a control it still retains.
UTEXO directly builds the “last mile” of software needed to be deployed to USDT around the entire Bitcoin ecosystem, which includes software development tools, APIs, core protocols, UI development work and a bridge to the coins we live on today. mint.utexo.com. The bridge allows users to move USDT across popular blockchains with “low fees” and no middleman due to its direct integration with Tether as a virtual coin. The RGB protocol was developed by Bitfinex R&D Strategist Federico Tenga.
“Right now if you want to exchange USDT for Bitcoin you have to pay a high fee for all these wallets that charge you 1 percent wallet charges plus change the PROVIDER cost of one percent plus, and you have slippage one percent as well, so you pay three percent, and you wait forever until the exchange takes place “Viktor told Bitcoin Magazine, adding that; “With USDT and Bitcoin on Lightning, for the first time you have two large assets on one chain, you can exchange them at the same time without any slippage. You can exchange decentralized USDT to Bitcoin and return on the chain. The price is almost the same as the market place in Binance.”
Networks like Tron that are mainly used to move USDT also add additional fees, exchange commissions and user friction. They require some kind of address, and money is paid in things like TRX, which is used to move stablecoins. With so much money in the crypto market concentrated in Bitcoin and Tether, buying altcoins to pay fees can feel like red tape.
Bitcoin, like USDT payment methods, also comes with blockchain security that other blockchains cannot provide. Although USDT is always central to Tether as an organization, rails can increase risk, for example, if a contentious fork occurs or major bugs are found in the blockchain system. Bitcoin, being the oldest and most conservative blockchain, offers a type of guarantee that cannot be matched by other blockchains.
RGB comes from the prints that Peter Todd used once in 2014 and was founded in 2016 by Giacomo Zucco and Riccardo Casatta. The term RGB, originally from “Riccardo Giacomo Bitcoin,” was renamed “Best Bitcoin”. Tether explored the process quickly but encountered delays with the previous team. If RGB had been deployed during 2019, the stablecoin scene and many DeFi companies would have grown more diversely around the Bitcoin UTXO model instead of the Ethereum account.
Likewise, bringing USDT to Bitcoin is a major motivation for UTEXO. Viktor was tight-lipped about the matter: “For the first time in eight or nine years, USDT is coming home. There is no chance of failure.”
USDT on Bitcoin via RGB is expected to be launched within a few weeks, possibly this July, with wallets like Tether Wallet among others to announce support, and to exchange around the world to announce integration.
