> Tether provides a means for people and exchanges to transfer units of accounting, pegged to the US dollar, between each other without a hard AML or KYC wall;

> Tether provides a means for people and exchanges to transfer units of accounting, pegged to the US dollar, between each other without a hard AML or KYC wall; as Tether is a crypto token. Pegged by fiat, not by algorithm. Surely the future for such an oracle is an algorithmic peg, as several honest projects continue to forge. > A token that derives its utility from being shady (an unregulated way to move US dollar without KYC or AML) will obviously have shady elements to it. I don't think this is sound logic. It's perfectly plausible for a token to be shady in the sense of opacity before inspection and yet be transparent in the sense of its logic and operations. Monero is an example of such a project. > However, I (and the broader crypto market, going off tbe market ccapitalisation, anple liquidity, and the $1=$1USDT peg maintaining) trust Tether because of their actions and history of preserving the peg, and protecting all deposits. You may speak for your trust endorsement, but I think you go too far by translating price and liquidity into community trust. It's a calculation based on the small number of plausible available options. If you tell a starving person that you'll feed her for life if she performs a tapdancing number on an abandoned minefield, she may conclude that the risk is worth it for her. It doesn't mean that she trusts landmines. > While Tether made misrepresentations after a banking fiasco, they have fully settled their case with NYAG. The USG doesn't tend to settle unless they are satisfied. A settlement from the office of the NY Attorney General - which it itself not exactly a paragon of truth or justice in the first place - is not an endorsement from the NY or US governments as you seem to imply. And if it were, this is hardly the authority to which you'd want appeal to if indeed blockchain tech is to be as transformative to society in the long-term as its enthusiasts (yours truly included) hope.