Still, majority of stablecoin chains have an outdated crypto assumption: that people require a separate asset in the form of gas. They have to purchase, possess and control it. Practically, that supposition is more of a hindrance to adoption than the fees. It’s not just the cost. It’s the mental overhead. An individual is able to comprehend that he or she has USDT. An individual finds it hard to get along with I also need a chain token to use my USDT.
One of the earliest projects that I have encountered that considers this a design issue in the product, rather than a problem with user education. The slogan of the stablecoin-native is not the most interesting story currently. The narration is how Plasma is attempting to put gas in the background by letting supported transactions charge in tokens already used by people such as USDT rather than make everyone use XPL to start with.
That reads like a minor inconvenience until you notice what it opens to, namely predictable charges, reduced onboarding, cleaner accounting, and a new taxonomy of app design on rails of stablecoins.
The thesis: there is only one mental unit required of mainstream stablecoins, and not two.
Here’s the simplest thesis. When the stablecoins are supposed to feel like dollars, the whole experience should remain in a dollar-like unit. As soon as the user has to consider the idea of having to fill up on gas, the experience ceases to be money and begins to be crypto.
This is why, the usage of custom gas tokens is not only technical aspect. It’s a mental‑model shift. It brings the system a bit nearer to the reality of the way real finance works: people pay in the same unit they are doing business in. Businesses detest hidden currency exposure. Surprise blockers are despised by the users. The strategy of plasma aims at eliminating both.
What Plasma actually means by it when they say custom gas tokens.
In a typical chain, gas is charged in the native coin. Unless you have that coin you can not transact. That is where the onboarding trap traps you: you have come to buy stablecoins but you have to buy something.
The model of plasma in simple language is dissimilar. The chain is also capable of receiving gas payment in accepted tokens, which means that a wallet or app can make a transaction without the holder of XPL having it. That gas cost conversion and settlement occurs under the scenes using a protocol-based mechanism, as opposed to requiring each developer to develop their own weakly built gas abstraction system.
This is important since most applications of crypto such as gasless, or pay in token are built up in application space. They work until they don’t. They can be expensive. They can be inconsistent. They are able to break weird edge cases. Plasma is now leaning towards enabling this as a first-class network capability to be a first-class behaviour rather than a clever hack.
The business unlock: predictable costs in the same currency that you earn The same currency that you earn in a predictable cost.
Here’s what most people miss. Companies are not simply concerned with conducting a deal. They are concerned with the ability to budget.
In the case a platform operates with stablecoins, it desires prices in stablecoins as well. It would prefer to say, This move costs one cent, rather than This move costs an amount of a variable number of a token the price of which has changed overnight. That’s not a crypto opinion. That’s basic operations.
In the case of the ability to pay in USDT, it becomes simpler to predict potential costs and clarify them. That would make the difference in the viability of a stablecoin app. Numerous applications are able to match expected cents per action. A lot of apps are unable to cope with volatile costs of which the costs are inexpensive on average, while many do not have the means to predict them. Finance does not operate in an average way. Finance operates on worst risk and reliability.
The product unlock: fee sponsorship is not a hack, growth leverage.
When gas ceases to exist as a distinct asset that the user must possess, you have an effective tool to product: you can make apps sponsor fees without being dirty.
Consider the functionality of the modern consumer apps. There are numerous products that conceal expenses until a user is locked. They provide hassle free initial experience. They use freemium models. They are providing subsidies on early usage and subsequently price later.
Stablecoin applications find it difficult to achieve this when users have to deal with gas. Since the first impression was already shattered. The first step taken by the user turns into a crypto tutorial.
The app can select a smoother way with the stablecurrency-based gas and paymaster-type execution. It is able to say, “Try this flow of payments. No setup. No extra token.” That’s not hype. That is a typical product development practice that crypto does not often have a clean way of funding.
The real idea behind this is as follows: Plasma is not just making the life of users easier. It is providing builders with an opportunity to create stablecoin products that look and feel like mainstream software.
The key to finance: less bridge bookkeeping and cleaner accounting.
The other advantage that is underestimated is that of accounting clarity.
Each time a business pays to be executed using USDT, it is able to record costs using the same unit as its treasury. It does not have to maintain a balance of a gas token. It does not have to renew gas reserves. It does not require it to balance small purchases of tokens native to teams and wallets.
That is insignificant, but it is precisely the type of a death by a thousand cuts issue that causes stablecoins not to become a default rail of serious businesses. Operational friction can be of greater importance than technical friction in large organizations. The idea behind Plasma to use gas token approach is essentially this, eliminate the little operation nuisances that are magnified at scale.
And why this also makes stablecoins safer to normal users.
Emotional simplicity is the greatest advantage to ordinary users.
Users who possess stablecoins already have a clear idea of what they possess. When a network compels them to take some other token, error is bound to happen: they can purchase the wrong one, purchase insufficiently, it will run out at the wrong time, get jammed, panic and lose confidence.
Retaining the experience in a single unit reduces such failures. It is also capable of reducing the amount of steps in which users can be exploited, misled or even fully lost.
In the event that stablecoins become an everyday currency, it is critical to make them less confusing, as confusion is the root of frauds and mistakes.
The actual dilemma: “pay in stablecoins must not be abused.
Naturally, the simplification of gas makes the task of the network a burden: it should not be exploited.
Spam might also be easier when transactions are made easier by the system. That is why the design should have guardrails: token whitelisting, support of certain flows, reasonable rate limits and powerful monitoring. A payments-grade network can not be based on wishful thinking. It should take adversarial behavior particularly where there is the lack of friction.
It is in that case where the mindset of payments-company at Plasma is crucial once again. It is not only to render things free or easy; easy things should be made in such a way that they are sustainable.
The success profile of the Plasma custom gas token story.
Provided that Plasma reaches the mark, it will not be a chain where stablecoins are transported at a low cost. It will turn out to be a platform in which stablecoins will behave like a real product layer.
A wallet is installed onto a device, the user has the USDT and can make a transaction- no extra token, no mix up.
A builder puts out an app and has an opportunity to sponsor initial use just like a software product.
A business operates stablecoin business and has budgets in the currency of its earnings.
Accounting staffs no longer need to juggle with the gas token bookkeeping, but real business flows.
That is the type of adoption that is effective- not due to the fact that it is exciting but rather due to the fact that it is practical. With stablecoins, the entire game is in practicality.
