$BANCOR long thesis: 0xc55a4468a3e1c2dfe58dddad0188c71d5dffd740 circle almost had another name. in january 2014, twobitidiot published an article reporting that circle’s original name and brand was supposed to be bancor. the company chose circle, but the other name survived in an old post that’s still online today. [the original receipt] ( and that name already carried decades of history. in the 1940s, john maynard keynes proposed bancor as an international unit for settling balances between countries. the proposal never became the world’s monetary system, but the idea of money beyond national borders endured. [the keynes plan] ( then came the phoenix. in 1988, the economist pictured a phoenix above burning banknotes, wearing a coin marked 2018. the accompanying article imagined a future world currency. thirty years later, circle launched usdc on september 26, 2018. that shared year is a coincidence, and it became the visual thread in bancor’s mythology. [1988 archive] ( [usdc launch] ( the name resurfaced again in 2020, when jeremy allaire discussed whether a synthetic global digital currency could become a bancor on circle’s own show. he was discussing the monetary idea, years before this memecoin. [the official transcript] ( then circle introduced arc, a blockchain designed around stablecoin finance, with usdc as native gas. [arc announcement]( that gives $bancor its homecoming story: an independent community takes the name circle reportedly left behind, pairs it with the phoenix, and frames its arrival on arc as a return. an abandoned monetary idea. a name almost chosen. a bird that rises again. that’s the lore of $bancor: giving an old name another life. the project is independent, with no affiliation or endorsement from circle or arc, and is unrelated to bancor protocol’s bnt. [project site](