The rumors of new Stripe/Circle L1s have exposed a false belief that many (otherwise intelligent) people in crypto seem to have. It can be summarized as: "If an on-chain asset (like USDC) is centrally issued, then it doesn't matter whether it lives on a decentralized network like Ethereum or a centralized one like CircleChain (or Canton, JPMChain, etc.) False. The more centralized the asset, the more important it lives on decentralized infra, to keep the issuer honest. Circle is much much less likely to censor the USDC on Ethereum than it is the USDC on a private chain. Why? Because censoring USDC on Ethereum might kill Ethereum DeFi, and that would be catastrophic for... Circle. Billions in USDC live on protocols like Uniswap and Aave. Greater censorship would cause this money to flee, reducing demand. That would be bad for Circle's economics. Circle is more likely to censor the USDC on a permissioned chain like Canton, or even a centrally controlled L1 that it rules by way of USDC being the gas token. Why? Because these networks don't have serious DeFi and never will. They have no native HQLA assets (like ETH) and the smart crypto users--particularly institutions--will never trust them. The whole point of crypto is to get away from rent-seeking intermediaries likely to abuse you down the line, not empower them with fancy cryptography. Also: the legal (as in, NOT cryptographic or incentive-based) consensus mechanisms that keep permissioned/centralized chains together more naturally lead to censorship. As do laws like AML/KYC that are designed for centrally controlled ledgers. Decentralized networks keep the issuers of centralized assets in check, forcing them to respect censorship resistance, even in situations where they cryptographically don't have to. Arguing otherwise is like arguing that, since all TradFi banking is centralized anyway, and banks can censor their customers, it doesn't matter if you have a bank account in the UK or in North Korea. But the opposite is true. You are better off having a bank account in the UK because your bank can theoretically screw you. England's more trustworthy legal system is designed to keep your bank in check. Similarly, you are better off having your centralized assets on decentralized chains. Such chains keep issuers honest.