Recently, Althea announced that Sky Protocol’s (formerly MakerDAO and Dai) USDS and sUSDS stablecoins are coming to the Interchain via the Althea L1 iFi DEX — bringing $9 billion in stable liquidity into the Machine Economy and IBC ecosystems. This milestone follows a long history of utilization of Dai and stablecoins in the Althea Platform.
For Althea, this is about more than a single integration. It’s about continuing a journey we began in 2018 and designing systems where machines and people transact with each other as seamlessly as they connect to the network itself.
The mission, started back in 2018, was always to make the internet work better for people and operators by rethinking how networks are built and operated.
Early on, that meant exploring the uncharted territory of machine-to-machine payments — long before “M2M” was a buzzword.
One of our first breakthroughs was enabling routers in Althea networks to automatically pay each other for bandwidth using DAI. These were real, on-chain stablecoin transactions happening in real time for actual infrastructure — years before most people had heard the term “stablecoin.” It wasn’t theory; this technology kept communities connected. During the pandemic, this was especially critical in many areas that did not have access.
Today, that same technology underpins operational networks across the US and globally — supporting ISPs, enterprises, and local governments in building faster, more resilient network infrastructure.
Through that work, we learned something important: infrastructure requires payments that are as fast and reliable as the networks they support. Sovereign, resilient infrastructure — whether it’s broadband, microgrids, or smart city sensors — demands decentralized foundations that can’t be switched off or captured by centralized chokepoints. That’s why we built Althea L1 — a purpose-built blockchain for infrastructure finance — and why we built the iFi DEX to support this fintech ecosystem.
Now, with Sky Protocol’s USDS and sUSDS going live on the iFi DEX, we’re adding a powerful new tool for the machine economy. USDS brings $9 billion in stables and savings stables into the Interchain and machine economy, interoperable with major assets like USDC. Stables and blockchain tools robust enough for savings, reliable enough for telecom billing, and programmable enough for automated machine payments.
We’re enabling devices like routers, smart meters, and grid controllers to transact in stable, on-chain money — without worrying about gas fees or centralized bottlenecks.
This isn’t just about one stablecoin. It’s part of a broader financial toolkit for the machine economy — leveraging USDS, USDC, and other trusted digital assets to power everything from autonomous sensor networks to utility settlements.
If the first wave of fintech connected people to digital banking, this next wave connects machines to finance — securely, autonomously, and across chains. With Althea L1, the iFi DEX, and Sky’s USDS, we’re building the decentralized foundation that tomorrow’s infrastructure will stand on.
The machine economy isn’t coming — it’s already here. And with this next evolution of Althea L1 and the iFi DEX, it’s ready to scale — across states, across countries, and across every network that needs it.
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