Almost a year of relentless focus, unyielding work, and perseverance brings us to this pivotal moment — the limited rollout of the Embr Payments API. Today, we’re thrilled to announce the groundbreaking collaboration between Embr Labs, Unlimit, and Glo Dollar. This union marks the first production version of the Embr Payments API, but also represents a significant stride towards our ultimate goal: building a better payment system, decentralized.

Unlimit is an essential collaborator and partner in this groundbreaking initiative. They provide a modern on-ramp widget, and Glo Dollar, a client of Unlimit, strives to end extreme poverty by generating universal basic income through its unique stablecoin, USDGLO. With Unlimit’s widget leveraging the Embr Payments API, GLO Dollar gets to take the first bold step in making decentralized cryptoassets instantly purchasable with fiat in one seamless transaction.

The Embr Payments API, the product of Embr Labs’ dedicated efforts, allows Unlimit’s on-ramp widget to exchange fiat directly for tokens. We have abstracted the traditional, multi-step, and native coin-dependent process to the past. Our next-gen API enables seamless and direct on-ramping, eliminating the complexities of gas and the need for dealing with native coins, and streamlines completion times, thus providing a much more consistent experience for end-users.

Glo Dollar offers a fiat-backed stablecoin designed to generate a universal basic income for those in extreme poverty — an admirable initiative for which we hold high regard. Alongside Unlimit, we are providing Glo Dollar with next-generation tools to simplify the lives of their end-users. However, we must clarify that the actual launch of USDGLO is led by Glo Dollar. We fondly recall our past interactions with the Glo Dollar team in the ‘Today at Embr’ podcast, where we had the privilege of hosting its founders CEO Jeff Milewski and CTO Garm Lucassen. We are thrilled to reunite and collaborate.

Our unique collaboration with Unlimit and Glo Dollar paves the way for more practical uses of DeFi in payments, both within the DeFi realm, and more broadly, in real-world applications. Achieving this wouldn’t be possible without the Embr Payments API, which facilitates fiat-to-token conversion in a single transaction. By eliminating the native coin layer, we’re creating a more seamless and efficient DeFi landscape.

The Embr + Unlimit payment method for purchasing Glo Dollar is extremely user friendly, and thanks to its direct DeFi integration, it’s simply a breeze to integrate!

-Garm Lucassen, Global Income Coin CTO

However, it’s crucial to note that this is an early beta. While we’re excited about the promise it holds, we acknowledge that this phase serves as a stepping stone towards our larger goal. The valuable data we will gather from this test will be crucial for refining our technology and fully rolling out Embr’s Payments API in the near future. Our next crucial step involves getting our unified liquidity layer — the ‘Anchr’ vaults — up and running. Once in place, these essential protocol components will decrease on-ramping time, enhancing user experience even further.

We believe this exciting venture testifies to the transformative power of innovative technology, a united vision, and steadfast collaboration. As we venture forward into this promising new chapter, we’re committed to continually pushing the boundaries of what is possible in DeFi. Today marks a significant milestone in our journey, but it’s just the beginning. Together, we’re moving steadily towards a future where DeFi isn’t just an alternative but a go-to solution — a more inclusive, efficient, and accessible financial system. Stay tuned for more exciting updates from us as Embr Labs continues to break new ground in DeFi.

Interested in being an early adopter of the Embr API? Apply for the beta here.

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