Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did • Hacker News Board

Re: Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did

#601

Post by bootlooped » Thu, May 12, 2022, 12:58 PM UTC

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #583

alexb_ wrote: post #386

The entire concept of a "stablecoin" reminds me a lot of something from SIGBOVIK 2014. Keep in mind, this was written in 2014, before any stablecoins actually existed, and that SIGBOVIK is supposed to be a joke conference where people present extremely silly ideas as if they were real breakthroughs. > DollarCoin: We propose skipping the middleman and providing direct proof-of-dollar with a blockchain that consists of…

The difference between Tether and DollarCoin is that you can (if nobody is lying) exchange a tether for a USD. If each USD that bought a tether was burned as in DollarCoin, then it wouldn't have that property. You're not supposed to "burn any money" when you mint tether, you're supposed to put aside $1 that can be exchanged for that tether at a later date. I think what you're missing is that backed stablecoins don't…

Did that ever come out of the pool of money that went into minting the tether? Or was it just more consumers getting in while others got out?

Re: Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did

#602

Post by CryptoPunk » Thu, May 12, 2022, 12:59 PM UTC

rglullis wrote: post #367

CryptoPunk wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>The sad reality is that many poorer and financially illeterate people have been tricked by VCs and other grifters into this with billions of dollars spent in advertising. I'm a consumer of tether. I know the risks, and I take a calculated risk in using it for some applications. I perceive almost everything in the space as an experiment, and I'm willing to run that experiment. I personally believe that my sentiment…

The problem is one of ethics, though: It's one thing to say "I've used it to move money" and "I believe and trust that they have the reserves they claim to have and I'm willing to hold USDT forever". If you just use USDT as a hot potato, your "calculated risk" is meaningless and you should be calling out that Tether is a fraud.

No post body was provided.

Re: Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did

#603

Post by progrus » Thu, May 12, 2022, 12:59 PM UTC

CPLX wrote: post #480

jmyeet wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually hate people disavowing themselves of responsibility here. While there is definitely some shady stuff in Crypto (particularly NFTs, which seem to be 99% scams), there's a certain level of personal responsibility required here. People saw the meteoric rise of Bitcoin and got a serious case of FOMO. Everyone wanted to be on the next Bitcoin. This, ultimately, is the American Dream: to get rich by doing nothin…

Our society has made a different call. We have decided that without being restricted investment cons will cause massive harm to society. We decided this because it happened over and over and over and over again.

We did not decide this. You are just pretending that this has been decided the way you like. FDR is long dead.

Re: Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did

#604

Post by id » Thu, May 12, 2022, 1:00 PM UTC

Traster wrote: post #558

The thing that I think some people miss about Tether is that it's not about whether it is backed enough it's either fully backed or it isn't. If it's not, it's not a question of whether it's back enough to weather this storm, it's about whether the people running it think they can weather this storm. If they think they can keep it running they'll sell whatever backing they have and keep the peg. But if they even thin…

The problem with Tether is that for all we know, it could be completely unbacked and therefore worthless.

Re: Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did

#605

Post by cuteboy19 » Thu, May 12, 2022, 1:00 PM UTC

Nition wrote: post #383

mwill wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do people in crypto sincerely believe Tether is backed? I'm not being sarcastic here, I'm genuinely asking. I'm a bit of a skeptic of how the crypto market has developed overall, and the intentions of the major players, so I keep reminding myself that I'm biased, but I haven't believed Tether is even remotely close to being fully backed for a long while, and I've just sort of assumed everyone who's 'bought in' to the…

The pinned top post on reddit.com/r/tether is titled "Tether has always been fully backed and the assurance opinion made available today confirms it once again, and puts Tether ahead of the industry on transparency."

"Tether is fully backed but we won't show you what the backing actually is and we won't allow audits just attestations from some rando Cayman island" didn't quite fit in the title, I suppose.

Re: Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did

#606

Post by jmyeet » Thu, May 12, 2022, 1:00 PM UTC

mensetmanusman wrote: post #460

jmyeet wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually hate people disavowing themselves of responsibility here. While there is definitely some shady stuff in Crypto (particularly NFTs, which seem to be 99% scams), there's a certain level of personal responsibility required here. People saw the meteoric rise of Bitcoin and got a serious case of FOMO. Everyone wanted to be on the next Bitcoin. This, ultimately, is the American Dream: to get rich by doing nothin…

This mentality of blaming the victim can muddy the waters and make it easier for criminals to get off the hook though.

I'm honestly surprised at how many people have this overly simplistic binary view of the world.

If I openly leave a gold bar in the back seat of my car and don't lock the car and then park it in a major city it will get stolen. Is the thief to blame here? Absolutely. Could I have done more to protect my valuables? Absolutely.

So with any scam, you can say the scammers are bad (which is true) but the scammed could also have done more to protect themselves. Both of these things can be true at the same time.

I've seen no better example of this than Russia's unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine. Is Russia the bad guy? Absolutely. Have the US (through NATO, primarily) and Ukraine made mistakes along the way too? Absolutely. Does this make the US and Ukraine responsible for the invasion? No.

Please, for your own sake, get out of this binary thinking.

Disavowing responsibility from the scammed actually does people a huge disservice. It's not victim-blaming. It's a teachable moment.

Re: Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did

#607

Post by headsoup » Thu, May 12, 2022, 1:01 PM UTC

austhrow743 wrote: post #120

someotherperson wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you've been honestly working on the assumption that it is, then you deserve to lose your (real) money to some crypto VCs on an island somewhere This is victim blaming. Nobody deserves to be exploited, robbed or otherwise for any reason.

Financial speculation is a zero sum game. These "victims" were hoping to gain from the loss of others just like the supposed crypto VCs that have made out well. They're not victims just the losers.

I think that's over-simplifying it just a bit. Many people are conned into thinking it's a safe asset for their spare cash, or it's helping some cause, or it helps them send money overseas to people in oppressive regimes, etc.

There are real victims, but the people dismissing those who constantly warned them, they're not victims, they're idiots.

Re: Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did

#608

Post by SamBam » Thu, May 12, 2022, 1:01 PM UTC

bratwurst3000 wrote: post #595

dagw wrote: post #576

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it the casino foult that their customers loose money Casinos are very strictly regulated and must post the exact rules and probability of winning for all their games. If the casino lies about the rules of the game or your chances of winning, then yes it is absolutely their fault and they will be held liable.

Yes and everyone warned everyone investing in crypto that it could go from hero to zero instantly. I cant believe anyone didnt know this risk.

I failed to see any of these warnings you're talking about in any of the Superbowl ads.

I'm pretty sure if I followed the Superbowl ads to crypto.com, I would fail to see these warnings.

Yes, for everyone deeply connected online, who has been following crypto for the last several years, of course we've talked about plenty of warnings many times. But the current marketing campaigns are not aimed at such people.

Re: Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did

#609

Post by digianarchist » Thu, May 12, 2022, 1:01 PM UTC

corndoge wrote: post #105

someotherperson wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you've been honestly working on the assumption that it is, then you deserve to lose your (real) money to some crypto VCs on an island somewhere This is victim blaming. Nobody deserves to be exploited, robbed or otherwise for any reason.

"Deserves" is a word with variable meanings. You learn early on not to touch hot stoves. Do you morally deserve to get burned if you touch the stove anyway? Arguably no, but in the other meaning of "you should've known better", you kinda do deserve it.

There's a very natural feedback mechanism to a hot stove.

When former world leaders are turning up and crypto conferences and the industry remains largely unregulated, then can you really blame people for investing?

Re: Tether starting to lose its peg too, after Terra did

#610

Post by Sandworm5639 » Thu, May 12, 2022, 1:03 PM UTC

eudoxus wrote: post #187

ezzaf wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole point of a stablecoin however is that it is supposed to be... stable. From tether.to: "Tether tokens are referred to as stablecoins because they offer price stability as they are pegged to a fiat currency. This offers traders, merchants and funds a low volatility solution when exiting positions in the market. All Tether tokens are pegged at 1-to-1 with a matching fiat currency (e.g., 1 USD₮ = 1 USD)" $0.95…

"when exiting positions in the market" this statement applies only if you exit using tether.io. You can always (if they have the cash on hand) swap 1 USDT for 1 USD. They can't make that guarantee for . The reason it stays "mostly" at $1 on exchanges is because arbitragers are incentivized to do so. But again, 1USDT is ALWAYS 1USD on tether.io. So yes, the statement you quoted is accurate.

* 1USDT is always $0.999 on tether.io

* But only if you're exchanging at least $1'000'000(and you can't exchange at all below $100'000)

* But only after you've paid $150 verification fee.(all per https://tether.to/en/fees/)

* And of course "Tether reserves the right to delay the redemption or withdrawal of Tether Tokens if such delay is necessitated by the illiquidity or unavailability or loss of any Reserves held by Tether to back the Tether Tokens" (https://tether.to/en/legal/)