Polygon's Open Money Stack Explained: How a Blockchain Became a Payments Company

One API for moving money

Marc Boiron says Polygon Labs built a whole payment stack around the Polygon chain, and around other chains, because they are interconnected. The first step was the OpenMoney Stack, which he describes as a single API that lets customers move money around the world.

On the business side, where he says Polygon Labs has strong enterprise and institutional relationships, the team began talking about acquisitions of companies interested in being bought, to offer embedded stablecoin solutions.

Owning the customer

Marc Boiron argues the defensibility of Polygon Labs is not the blockchain alone but controlling the users. Businesses that get wallets, on and off ramps and interop solutions from the company are free to pick any chain, he says, but most likely they will choose Polygon. He adds that in LatAm, Africa and many parts of Southeast Asia it is unlikely you will open a fintech app and not see Polygon.

Why on-chain

Marc Boiron says the world will never harmonize its payment systems. He says an AI query put the number of payment flow permutations across rails, currencies and compliance requirements at about 21 million. The mission at Polygon Labs, he says, is to move all money on-chain so payments in fifteen years can move in milliseconds. He predicts that over the next five or ten years more than half of money could be on-chain, leaving local rails racing to follow.

He points to over 20 currencies now live as stablecoins on Polygon, and a team test where a US dollar to Korean won swap on-chain got better pricing than Wise for about $250.

Competition and work

"I do wanna crush my competition," Marc Boiron says, while adding that he does not care what rivals build and will focus on solving customer needs. On work ethic, he says he looks for people with a willingness to do what others will not.