Ship or Die at Accelerate 2025: Lightning Talk: Agora (Drake Evans - Agora)

In a groundbreaking announcement at Accelerate 2025, Drake Evans, CTO and co-founder of Agora, unveiled the next generation of stablecoins, dubbed "stablecoin 3.0." This innovative technology, featuring confidential transfers on the Solana blockchain, promises to revolutionize digital finance by addressing critical privacy concerns while maintaining full auditability.

Summary

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Drake Evans presented Agora's vision for the future of stablecoins, introducing a game-changing feature: confidential transfers. This technology aims to solve one of the biggest hurdles in cryptocurrency adoption by large institutions and enterprises - the lack of privacy in transactions.

The new stablecoin 3.0 system allows for hidden balances and transfer amounts while keeping sender, recipient, and transaction date visible. This breakthrough preserves the transparency and auditability of blockchain technology while providing the privacy that many businesses and individuals require.

Evans emphasized that this technology is not just an add-on but is built directly into the stablecoin itself. This integration allows for a seamless user experience while maintaining the speed and efficiency that Solana is known for. The system utilizes advanced cryptographic techniques such as homomorphic encryption, range proofs, and zero-knowledge proofs to achieve this balance of privacy and verifiability.

With confidential transfers already live on the Solana blockchain, Evans called for developers and protocols to start experimenting with and integrating this technology. He painted a picture of a future where privacy-preserving financial applications could revolutionize everything from cross-border payments to enterprise finance and decentralized finance (DeFi).

Key Points:

The Promise of Stablecoin 3.0

Agora's stablecoin 3.0 represents a significant leap forward in blockchain-based finance. By incorporating privacy features directly into the stablecoin, it addresses one of the most significant barriers to widespread adoption by institutions and enterprises. This new generation of stablecoins promises to deliver on the long-standing goal of truly programmable money, combining the benefits of blockchain technology with the privacy requirements of traditional finance.

The potential impact of this technology is vast. It could accelerate the adoption of blockchain-based finance across various sectors, from cross-border payments to enterprise treasury management. By providing a solution that balances transparency with privacy, stablecoin 3.0 could unlock trillions of dollars of value currently locked in traditional financial systems.

Confidential Transfers: A Game-Changing Feature

At the heart of stablecoin 3.0 is the concept of confidential transfers. This feature allows users to encrypt their balances and transfer amounts while still maintaining the public visibility of the sender, recipient, and transaction date. This approach mirrors the trust model of traditional banking systems, where your bank can see transaction details, but the general public cannot.

The technology behind confidential transfers is a sophisticated blend of cryptographic techniques. Homomorphic encryption allows for the encryption of transfer amounts and balances while still enabling verification. Range proofs ensure that users can't mint tokens out of thin air or send more than they own. Zero-knowledge proofs allow validators to verify transactions without compromising speed or incurring high execution costs.

User Experience and Integration

Despite the complex technology underlying confidential transfers, Evans emphasized that the user experience remains simple and intuitive. Users can easily convert their tokens to a confidential balance, send them as they would with any other transfer, and recipients have the option to keep the tokens confidential or withdraw them to a public balance.

Integration of confidential transfers into existing systems is designed to be straightforward. The feature is already live on the Solana blockchain, with major wallet providers like Solflare and Phantom planning to add support in the coming months. Importantly, the system is fully backwards compatible, allowing confidential and public balances to coexist within the same token.

Facts + Figures

• There are over 250 stablecoins in existence with a market cap exceeding $230 billion
• The cross-border payments market is projected to exceed $50 trillion in the near future
• Confidential transfers are already live on the Solana blockchain
• Solflare and Phantom wallets will be adding support for confidential transfers in the coming months
• The transition to blockchain-based finance is expected to dwarf the cloud software economy over the next 10-15 years
• Over a billion people across the globe are currently unbanked or underserved by the existing financial system
• Confidential transfers use three key technologies: homomorphic encryption, range proofs, and zero-knowledge proofs
• The system maintains the speed of Solana transactions while adding privacy features
• Existing DeFi protocols can add confidential balances with minimal additional work

Top quotes

"Blockchain-based finance has the opportunity to transform global financial infrastructure."

"Stablecoins enable greater access to financial products and wealth creation for people across the globe."

"The bigger and more exciting opportunity is the fact that stablecoins and blockchain-based finance can give to over a billion people across the globe who are currently unbanked and underserved by the existing system."

"Stablecoins, what we call stablecoin 3.0, the next generation of stablecoins, will have to build tools around privacy and compliance into the asset itself."

"Privacy is a human right and together we'll build a system that preserves privacy but also allows us to deliver on our promise of a digital revolution."

Questions Answered

What is stablecoin 3.0?

Stablecoin 3.0 is the next generation of stablecoins that incorporates privacy and compliance tools directly into the asset itself. It features confidential transfers, which allow users to hide their balances and transfer amounts while maintaining the visibility of the sender, recipient, and transaction date. This innovation aims to address the privacy concerns of large institutions and enterprises, potentially accelerating the adoption of blockchain-based finance.

How do confidential transfers work?

Confidential transfers use a combination of advanced cryptographic techniques to ensure privacy while maintaining verifiability. The system employs homomorphic encryption to encrypt transfer amounts and balances, range proofs to prevent the creation or sending of non-existent tokens, and zero-knowledge proofs to allow validators to verify transactions without compromising speed or incurring high costs. This technology allows for hidden balances and transfer amounts while keeping other transaction details visible.

What are the potential applications of stablecoin 3.0?

Stablecoin 3.0 has numerous potential applications across various sectors of finance. It could revolutionize cross-border payments by providing faster, cheaper, and more private transactions. In enterprise finance, it could enable confidential vendor payments and payroll systems. For DeFi, it could lead to innovations like lending markets with private collateral, DEXes with hidden position sizes, and yield farming strategies that remain confidential. Additionally, it could unlock new use cases in areas requiring financial privacy while maintaining regulatory compliance.

How will confidential transfers impact the adoption of blockchain technology?

Confidential transfers address one of the major hurdles to blockchain adoption by large institutions and enterprises - the lack of transaction privacy. By providing a solution that balances transparency with privacy, this technology could accelerate the transition to blockchain-based finance. It has the potential to bring trillions of dollars currently in traditional financial systems onto the blockchain, as well as provide financial services to the over one billion unbanked individuals worldwide.

Are confidential transfers available now, and how can developers start using them?

Yes, confidential transfers are already live on the Solana blockchain and ready for use. Developers can start experimenting with Token 2022 and confidential transfers immediately, as the tooling and documentation are available. Major wallet providers like Solflare and Phantom are planning to add support in the coming months. Existing DeFi protocols can integrate confidential balances with minimal additional work, as the system is fully backwards compatible with current token standards.