TLDRCentre’s USDC has become the second largest stablecoin in DeFi. While it has maintained its 1:1 peg with the US dollar well, its “blacklist” functionality comes with a heavy tax on users, amounting to, by my estimate, an extra $3.6M spent in transaction fees in December 2021 alone. I propose a new version of USDC that preserves what I argue is the most salient feature of the blacklist--the ability to freeze funds--in a way that eliminates blacklist-related gas costs for users, which can b...

TLDRCentre’s USDC has become the second largest stablecoin in DeFi. While it has maintained its 1:1 peg with the US dollar well, its “blacklist” functionality comes with a heavy tax on users, amounting to, by my estimate, an extra $3.6M spent in transaction fees in December 2021 alone. I propose a new version of USDC that preserves what I argue is the most salient feature of the blacklist--the ability to freeze funds--in a way that eliminates blacklist-related gas costs for users, which can b...