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A lot of people here rightfully questioning what's the use case of stablecoins. US dollars on a bank account essentially just represent a claim backed by a bunc

by jcfrei 1y ago

A lot of people here rightfully questioning what's the use case of stablecoins. US dollars on a bank account essentially just represent a claim backed by a bunch of government debt - ie. US treasuries. But what if these treasuries became undesirable? Either because inflation runs very high or the creditworthiness of the issuer is questionable? what if - as a result - we have to build a financial system not based on government issued debt - but private (ie. corporate) debt? suddenly stablecoins become a lot more interesting.

idiotsecant 1y ago
Corporate control of and ownership of the means of exchange is basically inevitable it seems, and it will be an absolute dystopia.
redczar 1y ago
It used to be the case that individual banks could issue currency. It was found that having government control this much better overall. It’s not perfect.
NoahZuniga 1y ago
There is no reason to move to corporate debt to back deposits. There is no US credit risk because the US can always print more dollars. Because the debt of other US companies is also denominated in US dollars, it is equally exposed to inflation as US government debt. US treasuries becoming undesirable doesn't really have an effect on stablecoins, because (at least for USDC and I believe USDT) they hold short term treasuries that expire in a few months. The operator of the stablecoin can just hold the treasuries until they expire. Also if the operator of USDC can't pay out all claims right now, they will be in a few months so an oportunist market maker can buy USDC for 98 cents on the dollar and cash out 100 cents a few months later.
- scyclow 1y ago
  I'd say that the risk of the US defaulting on Treasuries is definitely higher than zero... but if that happens then we'd probably have bigger fish to fry than stablecoins.
- jcfrei 1y ago
  A high inflation rate can significantly reduce demand for US government debt. Same applies to corporate debt - that's why inflation indexed bonds exist (called TIPS for US debt). They are not a big part of the bond issuance atm but they could grow massively. In my outlined scenario the US gov won't be able to issue more TIPS because of their fiscal situation while profitable corporate issuers could.

by jcfrei 1y ago

idiotsecant 1y ago

Corporate control of and ownership of the means of exchange is basically inevitable it seems, and it will be an absolute dystopia.

redczar 1y ago

It used to be the case that individual banks could issue currency. It was found that having government control this much better overall. It’s not perfect.

NoahZuniga 1y ago

There is no reason to move to corporate debt to back deposits. There is no US credit risk because the US can always print more dollars. Because the debt of other US companies is also denominated in US dollars, it is equally exposed to inflation as US government debt. US treasuries becoming undesirable doesn't really have an effect on stablecoins, because (at least for USDC and I believe USDT) they hold short term treasuries that expire in a few months. The operator of the stablecoin can just hold the treasuries until they expire. Also if the operator of USDC can't pay out all claims right now, they will be in a few months so an oportunist market maker can buy USDC for 98 cents on the dollar and cash out 100 cents a few months later.

scyclow 1y ago
I'd say that the risk of the US defaulting on Treasuries is definitely higher than zero... but if that happens then we'd probably have bigger fish to fry than stablecoins.
jcfrei 1y ago
A high inflation rate can significantly reduce demand for US government debt. Same applies to corporate debt - that's why inflation indexed bonds exist (called TIPS for US debt). They are not a big part of the bond issuance atm but they could grow massively. In my outlined scenario the US gov won't be able to issue more TIPS because of their fiscal situation while profitable corporate issuers could.