Polkadot's Community Votes Overwhelmingly for Native Stablecoin

Polkadot's community is voting on Referendum 1944 to create a native stablecoin called dotUSD, an asset designed to be owned by the protocol itself rather than by a private issuer. The proposal has garnered 97.5% support in its current state, with roughly 2.4 million DOT in favor versus 59,900 against.

The plan is to launch dotUSD as a USDT-backed token before shifting to a DOT-collateralized system. In the first phase, users could mint dotUSD one-for-one against USDT, subject to a supply cap set by governance. The system wouldn't need an oracle, collateral vaults, or liquidation infrastructure at this stage.

The second phase is where dotUSD becomes the DOT-backed stablecoin proposal its designers originally envisioned. Users would deposit DOT into collateral vaults and borrow dotUSD worth less than what they put up. Borrowers set their own interest rates, and that choice has consequences: lower rates push a vault earlier in the redemption queue.