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What could you do with a USD stablecoin that you can't do with a regular old dollar? Other than let everyone see your transactions and account balances.

bpodgursky 4y ago
Exchange it for another coin in less than 3-5 business days
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  My Dad sends me money via Zelle. It shows up instantly in my account, with zero fees, even if it's 10pm on a Sunday. https://mashable.com/article/ethereum-gas-fees-skyrocket-bored-ape-yacht-club-otherside-nft-launch https://mashable.com/article/ethereum-gas-fees-skyrocket-bor... > If you were trying to complete a transaction on the Ethereum network last night, you might have been taken aback by the ridiculously high gas fees you saw. For example, one user purchased a $25 NFT on Saturday evening. Their total price? $3,325. That's $3,300 just in fees. I'll stick with USD, I think.
  - SparkyMcUnicorn 4y ago
    Zelle has strict limits on how many transactions you can do and how much you can transfer. Yeah, ETH has high fees. Don't use it directly. Use an L2, Polygon, or something else where fees are pennies or less. ETH is not a good chain to be on for the average user, unless you have a lot of money to waste on gas.
    - postalrat 4y ago
      So don't use ethereum because the fees are too high?
      - SparkyMcUnicorn 4y ago
        Yes
    - lmm 4y ago
      Those "L2s" are the same kind of entity as something like Zelle, and equally able to exercise controls on what kind of transactions you can do and for how much.
      - SparkyMcUnicorn 4y ago
        What are the limits and who they were ever applied to? Personally, I'm most familiar with other chains like Polygon, Aurora, Harmony, etc. Dealing with large sums of money is a non-issue. Ever.
  - mikeyouse 4y ago
    And within the next few years, the FedNow service will be live and render Zelle and a lot of other systems obsolete; https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/about.html#timing https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/about....
swamp40 4y ago
Why do you think any stablecoin exists? What need do they solve?
- ProjectArcturis 4y ago
  Right now they seem to mainly be used A) as a proxy for US dollars on crypto exchanges, and B) by their creators, to pump up the crypto markets.
  - adhesive_wombat 4y ago
    > by their creators Who often are the exchanges. "When in a gold rush, sell spades" is old hat. Now it is "sell spades but also denominate everything in the SpadesRUs Prospecting Emporium in SpadeCoin scrip" and relieve people of their dollars at the door before they've even laid hands on a spade.
- brokensegue 4y ago
  at least somewhat its evading taxes/regulation
horsecabletruck 4y ago
Many things. A stablecoin that implements ERC20 interface can be used across Ethereum ecosystem and it’s smart contracts. You could even program your own smart contracts around the token, such as to setup a time lock or auction. Examples: converting it to another token on a decentralized exchange, purchasing an NFT, holding the token in a non-custodial wallet, holding the token in a multi-signatory wallet, participating in DAOs, using a smart contract to handle decentralized escrow, interacting with decentralized lending protocols and liquidity providers.
- humbleMouse 4y ago
- mdoms 4y ago
- robonerd 4y ago
  Most of these are just "do a thing you can already do with money, but shittier"
  - horsecabletruck 4y ago
    - woeirua 4y ago
      Decentralization is not a goal of the modern financial system. Indeed for many reasons, decentralization is not desirable, as crypto-bros are about to find out when Tether blows up and takes out 3/4 of the market.
      - horsecabletruck 4y ago
        Tether is hardly decentralized and it blowing up will not have impact on the network. Who cares if a high-risk stablecoin crashing takes out the market price of ETH so long as the chain continues to fill blocks and protocols like DAI, RAI and USDC continue to operate as intended. > Decentralization is not a goal of the modern financial system. Many people in the world do want a broader range of options than “fiat in centralized digital bank.” Even the HN crowd sometimes praises cash and its peer-to-peer and censorship-resistance attributes. The ability to have a smart contract perform operations like atomically and trustlessly swapping two assets without human oversight is interesting. Maybe not to you, but to many users and industries.
hanniabu 4y ago
Well for one you can give the government full control to freeze your funds whenever they want
munificent 4y ago
Don't forget: waste tons of energy, dump tons of carbon into the atmosphere, and generate tons of e-waste from fried GPUs.
- gregable 4y ago
  This really only applies to POW coins, not so much stablecoins

bpodgursky 4y ago

Exchange it for another coin in less than 3-5 business days

ceejayoz 4y ago
My Dad sends me money via Zelle. It shows up instantly in my account, with zero fees, even if it's 10pm on a Sunday. https://mashable.com/article/ethereum-gas-fees-skyrocket-bored-ape-yacht-club-otherside-nft-launch https://mashable.com/article/ethereum-gas-fees-skyrocket-bor... > If you were trying to complete a transaction on the Ethereum network last night, you might have been taken aback by the ridiculously high gas fees you saw. For example, one user purchased a $25 NFT on Saturday evening. Their total price? $3,325. That's $3,300 just in fees. I'll stick with USD, I think.
- SparkyMcUnicorn 4y ago
  Zelle has strict limits on how many transactions you can do and how much you can transfer. Yeah, ETH has high fees. Don't use it directly. Use an L2, Polygon, or something else where fees are pennies or less. ETH is not a good chain to be on for the average user, unless you have a lot of money to waste on gas.
  - postalrat 4y ago
    So don't use ethereum because the fees are too high?
    - SparkyMcUnicorn 4y ago
      Yes
  - lmm 4y ago
    Those "L2s" are the same kind of entity as something like Zelle, and equally able to exercise controls on what kind of transactions you can do and for how much.
    - SparkyMcUnicorn 4y ago
      What are the limits and who they were ever applied to? Personally, I'm most familiar with other chains like Polygon, Aurora, Harmony, etc. Dealing with large sums of money is a non-issue. Ever.
- mikeyouse 4y ago
  And within the next few years, the FedNow service will be live and render Zelle and a lot of other systems obsolete; https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/about.html#timing https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/about....

swamp40 4y ago

Why do you think any stablecoin exists? What need do they solve?

ProjectArcturis 4y ago
Right now they seem to mainly be used A) as a proxy for US dollars on crypto exchanges, and B) by their creators, to pump up the crypto markets.
- adhesive_wombat 4y ago
  > by their creators Who often are the exchanges. "When in a gold rush, sell spades" is old hat. Now it is "sell spades but also denominate everything in the SpadesRUs Prospecting Emporium in SpadeCoin scrip" and relieve people of their dollars at the door before they've even laid hands on a spade.
brokensegue 4y ago
at least somewhat its evading taxes/regulation

horsecabletruck 4y ago

Many things. A stablecoin that implements ERC20 interface can be used across Ethereum ecosystem and it’s smart contracts. You could even program your own smart contracts around the token, such as to setup a time lock or auction. Examples: converting it to another token on a decentralized exchange, purchasing an NFT, holding the token in a non-custodial wallet, holding the token in a multi-signatory wallet, participating in DAOs, using a smart contract to handle decentralized escrow, interacting with decentralized lending protocols and liquidity providers.

humbleMouse 4y ago
mdoms 4y ago
robonerd 4y ago
Most of these are just "do a thing you can already do with money, but shittier"
- horsecabletruck 4y ago
  - woeirua 4y ago
    Decentralization is not a goal of the modern financial system. Indeed for many reasons, decentralization is not desirable, as crypto-bros are about to find out when Tether blows up and takes out 3/4 of the market.
    - horsecabletruck 4y ago
      Tether is hardly decentralized and it blowing up will not have impact on the network. Who cares if a high-risk stablecoin crashing takes out the market price of ETH so long as the chain continues to fill blocks and protocols like DAI, RAI and USDC continue to operate as intended. > Decentralization is not a goal of the modern financial system. Many people in the world do want a broader range of options than “fiat in centralized digital bank.” Even the HN crowd sometimes praises cash and its peer-to-peer and censorship-resistance attributes. The ability to have a smart contract perform operations like atomically and trustlessly swapping two assets without human oversight is interesting. Maybe not to you, but to many users and industries.

hanniabu 4y ago

Well for one you can give the government full control to freeze your funds whenever they want

munificent 4y ago

Don't forget: waste tons of energy, dump tons of carbon into the atmosphere, and generate tons of e-waste from fried GPUs.

gregable 4y ago
This really only applies to POW coins, not so much stablecoins