Today we're launching Iris, the financial network telecom operators plug into to earn on what they already own. Operators built the roads the digital economy runs on. Everyone else got rich building the city on top. From 2012 through 2025, traffic on operator networks grew more than 50% a year. Operator revenue grew about 1%. The companies on top took the difference. Operators own what those companies pay dearly for: distribution, the billing relationship, daily engagement. And money already runs through all of it, in subscriber payments, top-ups, advertising and settlement. Iris sits underneath all of it. Same business, new revenue, settled in dollars. Iris runs the rails. The operator keeps the economics. VIVA, a licensed carrier in Bolivia, is the first operator live on Iris. Real transactions, settled in USDi, operating reserves held in dollars. Until now, operators built everything and kept almost none of the value. Now they build almost nothing and keep almost all of it.

People think telecom is dated. Every app you use runs on it. From 2012 to 2025, operator traffic grew more than 50% a year. Revenue grew about 1%. Iris is the network telecom operators plug into to earn on what they already own. @AshleyDCan asked @JulesEMiller the basics.

In the US, the phone sits next to a bank account and a few credit cards. In Bolivia, people use the phone as their bank account. That puts the telecom operator at the center of everyday financial life. Iris is the network telecom operators plug into to earn on what they already own. Same business, new revenue, settled in dollars. (@JulesEMiller via @stabledash)

The phone is the first screen. It runs on a telecom operator's network, and the operator already bills the person holding it. Iris is the network telecom operators plug into to earn on what they already own. Same business, new revenue, settled in dollars.

Get paid from the network you built. Iris is the network telecom operators plug into to earn on what they already own. Same business, new revenue, settled in dollars. (@JulesEMiller at @avax Summit)

Iris doesn't wait for a crowd. An operator plugs in, switches on one product on its own network and earns on it, settled in dollars. It doesn't need a second operator to get paid.

Telecom operators built the infrastructure the digital economy runs on. It’s time they captured more of the value created on top of it. (@JulesEMiller via @stabledash)

Operators built the roads the digital economy runs on. On Iris, what they earn settles instantly in a regulated dollar stablecoin issued by @withAUSD. Our CEO @JulesEMiller explains why we built it this way.

Telecom operators move money across markets, currencies, and banking hours. USDi gives them one common dollar asset for two core jobs on Iris: settling business activity and holding operating reserves.

Starlink just bought its way into being a US carrier, and the top 3 US operators are already down 8% in after hours trading. Every operator outside the US needs to read this closely. First, apps took voice and messaging, then hyperscalers and ad networks took the data, and now, satellites are coming for coverage. The pattern is pretty clear… operators build the network, someone else collects on it. Cutting costs, selling towers and merging all shrink the business - the only thing that grows it is earning more from the networks they already have. Here’s where I think it happens: 1. Payments. The networks that carry calls and data can carry also money. Mobile money already tried and (mostly) failed because the infra burden is too great. But stablecoins change everything, and the operators that will win are the ones who get that they have to make stables native their networks. 2. Trust. A mobile operator knows with certainty the identity, location and context of every subscriber at any given moment. The smart ones are figuring out that there are ways to better use those data, in safe and ethical ways and without sharing it with anyone, to create value for the humans and businesses in their networks. At @buildoniris, we’re making both a reality.

Starting with blockchain and then looking for a use case gets the order wrong. Iris started with an operator problem instead. Telecom operators built the infrastructure and customer relationships, but much of the value created on top of those networks goes elsewhere. The business case came first, with blockchain used as the infrastructure underneath it.

Digital platforms generate revenue on networks operators build and maintain. Operators hold valuable customer data, but capture too little of its value. Iris lets operators turn that data into new revenue, starting with advertising. Revenue settles in dollars.

Operators are already fluent in dollar settlement. USDi brings that settlement onto Iris, where it happens in seconds. @withAUSD issues and reserves the asset.

A licensed mobile operator in Latin America now holds operating reserves in a dollar-backed stablecoin. We've partnered with @withAUSD to launch USDi, a stablecoin built for telecom operators on our network. Agora, the regulated issuer of AUSD, is the sole issuer of USDi, which is backed by the same reserves as AUSD. @vivabo is the first operator on USDi. It settles network activity in USDi and holds operating reserves in it alongside local currency. For an operator that works with international vendors, USDi cuts the time and cost of converting between local currency and dollars over and over. Activity on our network settles around the clock, including outside banking hours. And reserves held partly in USDi are less exposed to swings in the local currency. Telecom has experimented with blockchain for years. Many of those projects needed several carriers to agree on settlement before anything moved. We built Iris to be single-player. One operator can put its business activity onchain without waiting for the rest of the industry. VIVA is doing that with its own operating money today. Our network runs as its own @avax Layer 1, built around the settlement and compliance requirements of the operators on it. Agora issues the dollar. We run the rails. Operators keep the economics.

"Telcos effectively bring in that data, and by putting all these operations onchain, you're putting a value layer on top of that data chain." - @JohnNahas84, CRO of @avax (via @CoinDesk)

The gap Iris is built to close.

Telecom operators built the roads that everything else you use every day runs on, but they haven't been able to actually capture the value from those roads. Iris allows them to build the city on top of those roads. (Iris CEO @JulesEMiller on @stabledash)

"One in five ads goes to a bot." "In the advertising space, I think it's $84 billion of fraud each year." Iris Network is putting SIM-verified phone users onchain so advertisers can target real people. "When you have identifiable SIM-verified lives, you can be more targeted. When they're engaging with the platform, you can have more sophisticated advertising, and that type of thing really changes the economics of what advertising can be." @JulesEMiller, CEO of @BuildOnIris

Telecom operators own the network, subscriber relationship and distribution. Iris lets them earn on all three without replacing the systems they already run. Telco Magazine spoke with Iris CEO @JulesEmiller and VIVA CEO @ryanj_alvarez about the model. telcomagazine.com/news/iris-…

Iris is live with @vivabo, our first telecom partner, with a superapp module that has already reduced Alva customer churn by 33% and increased lifetime customer value by 35% in their prepaid market. (Iris CEO @JulesEMiller via @TheBlockCo)