Watch Nicolas Burtey (CEO of Galoy) provide an overview of Stablesats, Galoy's new feature that allows users to send and receive USD over Lightning.
Overview
One problem that persists for people in a Bitcoin economy is the short-term volatility of the bitcoin exchange rate. When the bitcoin price drops, it can lessen the purchasing power of sats and make it harder to pay for dollar-priced goods and services. This creates friction and uncertainty, causing merchants and consumers to frequently consider selling bitcoin for dollars to ensure they can meet their financial obligations.
This problem led Galoy to create a feature called Stablesats, a USD account that people can use to hold “dollar equivalent” balances in their Lightning wallet, thus protect themselves from fluctuations in the bitcoin exchange rate.