how can you eliminate single points of failure when it comes to fiat markets? that seems impossible unless every transaction is p2p. there's not nearly enough p2p liquidity to satisfy trading demand.
can't they hurt the crypto ecosystem by seizing the fiat reserves of exchanges? stablecoins represent the exact same risk. but i'll tell ya, i'd much rather hold a stablecoin from gemini or circle than tether, if we're worried about bank seizures.
so i don't see this stuff as all that bad. it's a way for everyone to offload some of their bitfinex/tether risk exposure.
The thing with stablecoins is that they can be used pretty much on any exchange that supports them, and that without abiding by their respective regulations within the jurisdictions they operate in. In case a government doesn't like exchange X and Y, or doesn't seem to be able to shut them down, the easiest way to crack down on these exchanges is to cut off that what grants them their income and can be cut off easily, and that's the fiat reserves of these stable coins.
What happens if the government right now seizes the bank account(s) of Tether (assuming for the sake of argument USDT is backed completely)? It will hurt Binance, Bitfinex, OKEx, Huobi, ZB, Hitbtc, Coinbene, Bittrex, Poloniex, etc. That's one heck of a blow to this whole ecosystem.
That's basically my main concern, and not so much fiat exchanges such as Coinbase who are compliant and licensed to deal with fiat.
it will hurt the
customers of those exchanges, less so the exchanges themselves. if the value of USDT drops to $0, the exchanges are still "solvent" with regards to USDT reserves.
and i get what you're saying---blow to the ecosystem and all---but isn't it
better to have gemini, circle and others issuing stablecoins rather than
only tether? isn't more options better than less?
if stablecoin holders on binance are split evenly between TUSD, USDC and USDT and only tether goes down, isn't that better than if 100% are using USDT? that's sort of like 100% of the ecosystem trading on gox: disaster waiting to happen, amirite? talk about single points of failure!
i'm definitely worried that tether could have bank accounts seized. that's why i'd rather see stablecoin regulatory risk spread around to other custodians, rather than seeing 100% of the risk borne by tether holders.