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The Novi site for the Whatsapp partnership says this: > "When you add money to your Novi account, we convert it to USDP (Pax Dollar), a stable digital currency

The Novi site for the Whatsapp partnership says this: > "When you add money to your Novi account, we convert it to USDP (Pax Dollar), a stable digital currency issued by Paxos Trust Company, a regulated financial institution. USDP is designed to have a stable value relative to the US dollar. So on Novi, 1 USDP is equal to 1 US dollar." To me that implies it's done on chain...I guess it could just be in their centralized database though. Curious what the Whatsapp UI does for moments when USPD hits $0.99 like December 1 2021 when it hit $0.989. Source: https://www.novi.com/WhatsApp https://www.novi.com/WhatsApp

vmception 5y ago
Protip: this is how Tether works but people in the west dont want to believe that people in the east actually deposit fiat into bitfinex. Multiple US regulators came to the same conclusion. One regulator said “well you usually create tethers 1:1 in response to deposits the vast majority of times and vast majority of amounts, but for the brief few times you didnt at least put a disclaimer up, also here is a fine for not having the disclaimer up”
- pjc50 5y ago
  > usually create tethers 1:1 in response to deposits the vast majority of times This as quite often been in whole round billions in the middle of the night on a weekend ... > people in the east actually deposit fiat into bitfinex In non-convertible RMB? I appreciate that the demand for a way round currency controls is a big driver for cryptocurrency, but I'm still not clear how that sustainably functions.
  - vmception 5y ago
    Which doesn't inherently imply anything. Are those country’s financial networks so primitive that a transaction message cant be sent on a weekend like in antiquated networks? There is also other fiat than mainland RMB
- BbzzbB 5y ago
  Here's one blatantly noticeable difference that makes me more trustful of USDP than USDT even without being informed about Pax : total USDP in circulation ("market cap") went down nearly 50% when Bitcoin and cryptos crashed in May-June [0], as you would expect if they indeed offer an off-ramp to USD as people will be bailing out in downturns and if the coin is pegged to cash flows. USDT? Up and up, it has not once significantly went down [1]. Do people truly believe that they are pegged to treasury and money flows to Bitfinex (despite knowing it is BS) and that they've never been in a significant out-flow period? (Edit: There is one I notice in October 2018 of also nearly 50% from $2.8B, much later than the actual 2017-18 crash. Doesn't take away from the peculiarity of the rest of the chart, but gotta point it out in fairness.) Anyone with significant money in crypto should be terrified by these sketchy money printers (the irony) rather than complacent of. If and when something like Tether blows up, these are dozens of billions in liquidity that will go poof over night. [0]: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/paxos-standard/ https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/paxos-standard/ (click market cap) [1]: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/tether/ https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/tether/
  - vineyardmike 5y ago
    Maybe tether just hopes to be so entrenched and trusted that they become their own "Central bank of crypto". Doubt it would work considering the whole point of crypto is "minimal trust", but being the money printer could be a valid business model.
    - BbzzbB 5y ago
      An understatement, it's a fantastic business model. As I recall they have less than 12 employees, and they have printed like $80B with zero accountability. There's a saying that a good and strong business has a licence to print money, in their case it is literal. Frankly I am baffled it is still going, I think it has to do with it being the first, but can't understand it hasn't fallen apart since or been taken over by better designed stable coins. People called Bitcoin fairy dust, but at least its supply is determined by its protocol and its price by a market - poorly regulated as it may be. Tether is proper fairy dust, holding together thru sheer wishful thinking of this tacit agreement that it is worth $1 a pop.

vmception 5y ago

Protip: this is how Tether works but people in the west dont want to believe that people in the east actually deposit fiat into bitfinex. Multiple US regulators came to the same conclusion. One regulator said “well you usually create tethers 1:1 in response to deposits the vast majority of times and vast majority of amounts, but for the brief few times you didnt at least put a disclaimer up, also here is a fine for not having the disclaimer up”

pjc50 5y ago
> usually create tethers 1:1 in response to deposits the vast majority of times This as quite often been in whole round billions in the middle of the night on a weekend ... > people in the east actually deposit fiat into bitfinex In non-convertible RMB? I appreciate that the demand for a way round currency controls is a big driver for cryptocurrency, but I'm still not clear how that sustainably functions.
- vmception 5y ago
  Which doesn't inherently imply anything. Are those country’s financial networks so primitive that a transaction message cant be sent on a weekend like in antiquated networks? There is also other fiat than mainland RMB
BbzzbB 5y ago
Here's one blatantly noticeable difference that makes me more trustful of USDP than USDT even without being informed about Pax : total USDP in circulation ("market cap") went down nearly 50% when Bitcoin and cryptos crashed in May-June [0], as you would expect if they indeed offer an off-ramp to USD as people will be bailing out in downturns and if the coin is pegged to cash flows. USDT? Up and up, it has not once significantly went down [1]. Do people truly believe that they are pegged to treasury and money flows to Bitfinex (despite knowing it is BS) and that they've never been in a significant out-flow period? (Edit: There is one I notice in October 2018 of also nearly 50% from $2.8B, much later than the actual 2017-18 crash. Doesn't take away from the peculiarity of the rest of the chart, but gotta point it out in fairness.) Anyone with significant money in crypto should be terrified by these sketchy money printers (the irony) rather than complacent of. If and when something like Tether blows up, these are dozens of billions in liquidity that will go poof over night. [0]: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/paxos-standard/ https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/paxos-standard/ (click market cap) [1]: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/tether/ https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/tether/
- vineyardmike 5y ago
  Maybe tether just hopes to be so entrenched and trusted that they become their own "Central bank of crypto". Doubt it would work considering the whole point of crypto is "minimal trust", but being the money printer could be a valid business model.
  - BbzzbB 5y ago
    An understatement, it's a fantastic business model. As I recall they have less than 12 employees, and they have printed like $80B with zero accountability. There's a saying that a good and strong business has a licence to print money, in their case it is literal. Frankly I am baffled it is still going, I think it has to do with it being the first, but can't understand it hasn't fallen apart since or been taken over by better designed stable coins. People called Bitcoin fairy dust, but at least its supply is determined by its protocol and its price by a market - poorly regulated as it may be. Tether is proper fairy dust, holding together thru sheer wishful thinking of this tacit agreement that it is worth $1 a pop.