Circle has announced that it has acquired the consensus engine Malachite from Informal Systems in order to power its upcoming Arc Blockchain.
Following this announcement, the deal will include the technology and intellectual property of Malachite, while nine employees from Informal Systems are set to join Circle as well.
In addition, the consensus engine is expected to underpin payment-focused blockchain Arc, from software development firm Informal Systems. Currently, the institutions have not revealed details about the pricing of the initiative.
More information on Circle’s acquisition of Malachite
According to the press release, Malachite is set to remain open source under the Apache 2.0 license, leaving developers free to use and extend the technology. At the same time, Informal System will continue supporting other use cases for Malachite and advance its other projects, including several tools for distributed systems and cross-chain infrastructure.
The deal comes as Circle announced that it’s building its own layer-1 blockchain, which was designed for stablecoin finances. The company is also expected to launch on the public testnet, as Circle’s Arc will use USDC as its native gas token, allowing users to pay transaction fees with the stablecoin. The network will be fully integrated into the company’s existing platform and services, while remaining interoperable with many other blockchains that already support USDC as well.
The new Arc blockchain is expected to be purpose-built for stablecoin finance, marking an important step in the company’s strategy to deliver a full-stack and secure platform for the internet financial system. The goal is to establish a low-latency environment for payments, cross-border settlements, and capital market operations, areas where stablecoins have already shown their utility, but still face scalability and congestion issues on larger chains. Alongside featuring USDC as its native gas token, Arc will include an integrated and efficient stablecoin foreign exchange engine, sub-second settlement finality, and opt-in privacy controls.
