Circle’s Jeremy Allaire: We’re Building an ‘Economic OS’ for the AI Era

The global economy is about to undergo a major shift—and it’s going to be centered around cryptocurrency, according to Jeremy Allaire, cofounder and CEO of Circle, a software company that built one of the world’s top stablecoins. To fac

ilitate this transition, Circle is creating what Allaire calls an “economic OS for the internet.” “Basically

, there are new operating system paradigms that emerge all the time. The web is o

ne, mobile is one, cloud is another, AI is another OS paradigm,” Allaire told WIRED’s editor at large, Steven Levy, onstage at the Big Interview event in San Francisco on Thursday. “And these block

chain networks are economic OS paradigms, at least what we're doing.” Circle is best known

for USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization, which is currently worth around $78 billion. Unlike most cryptocu

rrencies, including bitcoin, stablecoins are designed to have limited price fluctuations. USDC is backed by th

e US dollar, meaning if you own one USDC, you can exchange it for $1. Allaire touted USDC

and stablecoins broadly as a better, faster way to transfer money across borders, and an attractive option for people who live in countries with less stable currencies than the US dollar. But according to All

aire, stablecoins are just the beginning. The next evolution i