Stellar on DCM: Transparent Network and the Future of Banking Infrastructure
- All, Updates
On September 29, Stellar shared a case study about DCM — highlighting how Ukrainian banks are pioneering a new model of payments.
We’re grateful for this recognition, and want to add further context: facts that reveal how this story began, how it works in practice, and what it means for the future of banking infrastructure.
DCM is a technology provider specializing in payments and clearing infrastructure with tokenized assets including bank deposits, stablecoins, and CBDCs utilizing blockchain technology.
Founded in 2022, DCM was approached by the Independent Association of the Banks of Ukraine (NABU) and Ukrainian banks to partner in delivering software services to modernize Ukraine’s financial infrastructure.
For us, this description captures only part of the journey. DCM was founded by banking practitioners with decades of experience at institutions such as Revolut, Barclays, Visa, and Swedbank. Coming from a banking background, we recognized a clear trend: the market is starting to migrate to private digital dollars at scale, while banks, tied to core systems and processes that are ill-suited for these new rails, are beginning to lose market share.We explored this concept, and after years of research, development, and testing, we delivered a twin-core infrastructure for banks across 11 domains and over 50 features, enabling banks to integrate blockchain capabilities without replacing their systems.
Despite growing consumer interest in digital payments, Ukraine relies heavily on cash and card networks. As reported by the National Bank of Ukraine, the country’s payments sector remains dominated by a handful of large institutions and expensive card networks.
72% cash usage among Ukrainians as recently as 2023.
Top five banks make up ~90% of the card payment market.
Commercial merchants pay 1.2-1.6% transaction fees plus $10 monthly fee.
Small and mid-sized institutions have limited opportunities to compete for acquiring services and rely on card networks for last-mile payment delivery.
This describes the structural problem that Transparent Network (TPN) — a consortium-based instant payments network powered by DCM — was designed to solve.By removing card networks from the middle, DCM’s infrastructure gives every bank equal footing and reduces merchant acquiring costs by up to 70%. In practice, this means digital payments become accessible to small and mid-sized institutions — not just the largest incumbents.
The Transparent Network (TPN) was tested in live production in late 2024. It entered the Ukrainian market, as one of the first instant payment networks enabling transparent, traceable, and auditable payments for consumers, merchants, and institutions. TPN operates under a joint agreement as a consortium of banks, united under the NABU membership.
TPN is more than a proof of concept — it is a production network built on DCM’s platform. By operating as a consortium, new banks that join become part of the governance from day one. This model ensures inclusivity, transparency, and real market adoption rather than a top-down rollout.
By operating as a duplicate copy of the existing bank account on the centralized core system, together these two copies manage the blockchain asset.
This is the essence of how TPN works: a digital twin of each account is recorded on blockchain. That twin structure — powered by DCM’s architecture — is what enables instant, auditable, and compliant payments without replacing the banks’ existing core systems.
Within the initial year of operation, TPN has proven that instant payment based banking infrastructure can drive innovation and extend access to new market segments, enhancing competition.
Results prove the model works. Banks saw 60% lower transaction costs, merchants cut acquiring costs by 70%, donors reported 20% savings, and consumer adoption has been described as “fast” and “convenient.”For us, this validates years of research and refinement: regulated money can run on digital rails, compliant, transparent, and resilient.
🔗 Read Stellar’s full article here.
info@dcm.systems
20 Wenlock Road,