Toss, Optimism and Sunnyside Labs to Test Infrastructure for Won-Pegged Stablecoin

Toss said July 8 that it will work with global layer-2 blockchain firm Optimism and privacy-solutions developer Sunnyside Labs to test digital financial infrastructure based on the Korean won.

Viva Republica, the operator of Toss, signed a memorandum of understanding with Optimism and Sunnyside Labs on July 8 to explore the feasibility of developing a won-pegged stablecoin. The three companies will run a proof of concept over the next three months to assess whether Optimism’s OP Stack can be applied to blockchain-based digital financial infrastructure in South Korea.

The proof of concept will examine three core issues: whether financial institutions can directly control payment and settlement processes, how know-your-customer and anti-money laundering requirements can be implemented technically, and how to protect individual transaction data on a public network. The companies plan to test those requirements using OP Stack and Privacy Boost, a privacy technology developed by Sunnyside Labs.

Optimism will provide the blockchain infrastructure, while Sunnyside Labs, an official core developer in the Optimism ecosystem, will supply the privacy technology. Privacy Boost is an institutional solution designed to mask key information from outside parties, addressing the public nature of blockchains, where transaction histories and balances are openly visible. Financial institutions can still review the transaction records they need, allowing them to protect customer information on public networks at standards comparable to traditional finance.

Optimism is an Ethereum layer-2 ecosystem that supports companies building dedicated chains through its OP Stack. More than 30 chains operated by global companies and exchanges, including Soneium, World, Uniswap, OKX and Kraken, currently run on the OP Stack.

Toss, which has 30 million registered users and payment infrastructure spanning more than 500,000 online and offline merchants, plans to use the partnership as a starting point to gradually expand experiments combining blockchain infrastructure with its payments and platform assets.

“We will prove the performance and privacy standards of the OP Stack in line with Toss’s sophisticated technical requirements,” Optimism Chief Business Officer Kyle Jenke said.

“For Web3 technology to be successfully integrated into regulated finance, strict regulatory compliance and strong privacy protection are essential,” Toss Chief Business Officer Kim Kyu-ha said. “We will continue testing the feasibility of building digital financial infrastructure optimized for the Korean market.”