[...]
I don't even know how well it fares today or if it is still alive at all
It still exists and seem to work pretty well, although as with each experimental technology, there are challenges, and it seems to have not had massive adoption.
For example, BitUSD has actually a value very close to the USD (1 BitUSD = 0,98 USD now, see BitUSD's Coinmarketcap site). But sometimes it traded above 1,20 or under 0,80. In these cases it was possible to lose money if one was in a hurry.
An example with another mechanism that spectacularly failed was NuBits (although it seems to have recovered, I see now).