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This article talks about suspicions that Bitfinex has "printed" large amounts of Tether (a so-called stable token which is supposed to be backed 1-1 to a supply
by ulrikrasmussen 9y ago
This article talks about suspicions that Bitfinex has "printed" large amounts of Tether (a so-called stable token which is supposed to be backed 1-1 to a supply of real USD) to buy up Bitcoin and artificially inflate the price.
- Cthulhu_ 9y agoYou'd think that if they really did link 1:1 to the dollar, they'd encode some kind of proof in the tokens themselves - like idk, the registration number of banknotes, or a transaction number in a publicly viewable bank account (supported by a real, trusted bank). You need some way to verify the claim that "1 tether == 1 real USD" instead of just trust.
- petre 9y agoMoney in a bank account doesn't have serial numbers. In fact, less than 10% of money in circulation is cash.
- usrusr 9y agoI could see that getting rationalized as "creating tether for the contemporary USD equivalent of BTC, so it's still all as promised" (even though it is not), but that would really just be throwing tether under the bus to buy bitcoin some more time. And not terribly far from plain out minting unbacked tether.