zlacker

But what advantages do stablecoins have?

>>7e+(OP)
Faster and cheaper transactions that don't get locked up by the whims of a bureaucracy. They continue to operate on non-business days.

>>toomim+z3
At the end of the day, for better or worse, the US dollar is backed by the US military. Virtual coins are backed by the greater fool.

What a strange toss-up.

>>irishc+M4
But the stable coins are also backed by the US military. All major USD stablecoins have sanctions mechanisms baked into their smart contract.

See for yourself the blacklist features

https://github.com/circlefin/stablecoin-evm/tree/master/scri...

>>irishc+M4
Usdc is backed by US dollar denominated treasuries for most major issuers.

>>irishc+M4
Since the GENIUS act [1], stablecoins have been backed by the US military too, as long as the stablecoin issuer itself keeps its reserves in U.S. Treasuries.

It's an interesting point about currencies being backed by military force though. Given the recent technological advancements in drones and robotics, it makes me wonder if someone will launch a non-GENIUS-act-compliant cryptocurrency and then back it simply by military force.

[1] https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/158...

>>toomim+z3
That’s also a downside: When your funds can be transferred away by anyone who happens to acquire the key without triggering any fraud prevention or additional verification checks, losing your entire bank account at 4AM Sunday morning becomes much easier.

>>7e+(OP)
I don’t think that matters.

It’s a sign of commitment to something they’ve invested in as OPs says.

>>anukin+H6
Is there actually any proof of this or is it Tether-tier magic money?

>>Aurorn+Df
This is why people who happen to own significant amount of crypto typically get hardware wallets

>>toomim+z3
Is there some magic in redeeming them? And by redeeming I mean going to issuer and getting the face value in seconds?

>>irishc+M4
> US dollar is backed by the US military.

No, it's not. It's not possible to come to the US soldiers with a bunch of US dollars and some demands and get what's demanded in return for the dollars.

Only trust of the other market participants backs the US dollar.

>>tucnak+Pm
Doesn’t that mean a home invader can break in, torture you a bit and walk off with your millions?

>>tucnak+Pm
That would make it a single point of failure, no? Not a good idea if your company is riding on it.

>>learin+ou
I think there was a rash of this kind of this kind of wrench cryptocurrency robberies in the Netherlands a few years ago.

Break in, bash owner about with a wrench, get coins. <Insert xkcd>

>>7e+(OP)
Seigniorage accrues to private entities instead of the state, enriching the owners of those private entities rather than everyone in the state that issues the currency.

>>anukin+H6
It's broadly agreed that hasn't been the case for a while now, but that at the moment it's better for everybody if we pretend it still is

>>tucnak+Pm
Yes, let's go back to hiding cash and gold under our beds. Maybe buy a machine gun so you can defend it from home intruders.

>>duttis+Vw
Yep, the meme in crypto community is that you can have all the digital security possible but it'll lose to the $5 wrench attack.

>>aurare+aE
> Yes, let's go back to hiding [...] gold under our beds

The people that did exactly that never had to worry about (hyper)inflation...

>>duttis+Vw
xkcd 538, that is

>>RobotT+1J
Still, they have to worry about them and their family not being kidnapped.

Oh but hey, checkmate, burglar who is threatening to cut my daughter’s finger, my wallet is multisig !

>>Ekaros+vn
You can redeem stablecoins in blocks of a million if you are a registered bank. This is the only way to redeem them. Otherwise you can only trade them.

>>zx8080+Pr
It's the other way around. If you don't trade in dollars, the military comes and demands that you do.

>>mschil+Eu
multisig exists

>>tucnak+mX
Cryptocurrency recapitulates the history of the modern banking system, and illustrates the necessity of regulation on a daily basis.

>>direwo+lO
Is the peso backed by the Mexican government? Because I'm afraid of all these militaries coming and knocking down my door to use their money.

>>RobotT+1J
In addition to the security issues, they would have to deal with non-negligible transaction costs every time they wanted to convert it to actual money so that they could purchase something. If they were using it as an investment, they had to deal with the opportunity cost of underperforming $SPY.

>>RobotT+1J
The currency is never the only asset or unit of trade in an economy. As long as value and wealth were being created somewhere, inflation can exist.

Gold is interesting because more of it was being mined and produced all the time. There wasn’t even a finite amount of gold.

Thinking that a gold standard means no inflation (or in practical terms, deflation as the population grows) is a modern fantasy.

>>duttis+Vw
This isn’t just a problem in the Netherlands or a thing of the past. 2025 actually saw the highest number of attacks ever recorded [0].

There are ways to prevent this. Like using multi-sig with geographical separation (so you can't move funds alone) or setting up forced time-delays. Ultimately, being your own bank is a massive responsibility, and I think too many people take that reality too lightly.

0: https://stats.glok.me/

>>pjerem+dN
It really comes down to the burglar's expectations. If most crypto holders used geographically separated multi-sig, these attacks wouldn't be worth the effort anymore.

It’s the same logic as iPhones bricking themselves after being stolen. Even if your specific phone isn't an iPhone, the fact that most phones are now useless to thieves discourages the crime across the board.

>>dsr_+i81
We only get better wheels by reinventing them.

Our knowledge is constantly expanding, allowing us to build things differently than we used to. Modern cryptography, which makes things like multi-sig possible, is only a few decades old; it didn't even exist when the current banking industry was being established.

>>7e+(OP)
> Why do stablecoins exist at all?

For states:

They quietly inflate the money supply by forking fiat, achieving monetary base expansion without the political cost of explicit money creation

For issuers:

They convert user deposits into a private mint: risk-free interest on collateralized reserves, with none of the upside shared with holders

For users:

For everyone but the unbanked & criminals, stablecoins are strictly inferior money surrogate: no yield, no guarantees, and no recourse