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Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

blog.coinbase.com

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Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#41

Post by soared »

arcticbull wrote: post #25
soared wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does there need to be a digital US dollar? Almost 20% of the US is underbanked, and 6.5% is unbanked. A digital dollar seemingly would be even worse and work to concentrate wealth among the educated/wealthy. https://www.fdic.gov/householdsurvey/

Many low income people have smartphones actually, and use them in lieu of desktops. Not being connected isn’t the reason they’re unbanked or underbanked, you could argue moving more to digital would include more of them. Plus the US dollar is already digital. In part they don’t have bank accounts because they’re poor, so they don’t have money to put in them. If they weren’t broke they’d have bank accounts. IMO this i…

If they're already connected, why would moving digital include more of them in banking? They're not using physical banking now, I don't see how digital banking would convert them.

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#42

Post by Permit »

simias wrote: post #28
Permit wrote: post #11

Stablecoins seem like they would achieve most of the goals of the original cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin: - Decentralized transactions - 24/7 access - Low fees - Store of value I suppose the only drawback here is that they're issued from a centralized authority. That said, for practical purposes the vast majority of Bitcoin holders didn't mine their own coins either. Despite this, no one on Twitter[1] seemed excit…

>I suppose the only drawback here is that they're issued from a centralized authority. Doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of cryptocurrencies though? After all this authority could selectively blacklist some coins from ever being converted back to their peg currency, effectively rendering them worthless, couldn't they? You couldn't easily launder it away because this authority could decide that if these coins are…

>Doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of cryptocurrencies though?

Depends who you ask. The cryptocurrency community thus far have been happy to participate in ICOs in which cryptocurrencies are issued from a central authority.

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#43

Post by apo »

Stablecoins appear to be the new ICO. USDC follows on the heels of the Gemini Dollar, and a raft of other stablecoins offered by fully-regulated bank-like entities.

Oddly, there's nothing about regulatory compliance (AML/KYC) or fungibility in the announcement.

Based purely on the article, one might get the idea that USDC can be traded between individuals without any third party oversight and in a censorship-resistant way.

It's highly unlikely this will be the case, given the potential for money laundering.

So... USDC users get a form of digital dollar that's more difficult to use than PayPal and the numerous alternatives because unlike those systems, the user must secure cryptographic material. Alternatively, the user will simply deposit USDC onto an exchange and gain absolutely nothing over PayPal and friends.

Even worse, should the user decide to make an on-chain USDC transaction, a permanent public record will be logged on the Ethereum block chain, which can be used in various ways with any information lost by Circle/Coinbase due to the inevitable data breaches (legal and illegal) to come.

I'm all for innovation in this space, but caveat emptor couldn't be more relevant.

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#44

Post by askafriend »

cheeseomlit wrote: post #36
wcarron wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a strawman. Inflation BAAAAAD, right guys? C'mon. We all know why the Fed targets a relatively consistent rate of inflation. It's because deflation suppresses consumer spending. Not what you want in a consumer economy.

What if I want to save? Certainly seems kinda bad when my savings keeps losing value

Why not save shares of the S&P 500 index? You just sell some when you want to buy something like a car.

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#45

Post by beaner »

apo wrote: post #43

Stablecoins appear to be the new ICO. USDC follows on the heels of the Gemini Dollar, and a raft of other stablecoins offered by fully-regulated bank-like entities. Oddly, there's nothing about regulatory compliance (AML/KYC) or fungibility in the announcement. Based purely on the article, one might get the idea that USDC can be traded between individuals without any third party oversight and in a censorship-resistan…

It can be traded directly. It's just an erc20 token.

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#46

Post by arcticbull »

soared wrote: post #41
arcticbull wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many low income people have smartphones actually, and use them in lieu of desktops. Not being connected isn’t the reason they’re unbanked or underbanked, you could argue moving more to digital would include more of them. Plus the US dollar is already digital. In part they don’t have bank accounts because they’re poor, so they don’t have money to put in them. If they weren’t broke they’d have bank accounts. IMO this i…

If they're already connected, why would moving digital include more of them in banking? They're not using physical banking now, I don't see how digital banking would convert them.

I meant having more ways to spend their money directly from their phones would allow them to avoid having to withdraw from physical ATMs, and more digital acceptance options means not having to deposit at ATMs. Those are kind of the last vestiges of the physical banking system. These problems are being solved though. Basically any time you’ve seen a “cash only” sign, it’s a blocker to totally digital banking.

Low income folks get wrecked disproportionately by the high fees associated with physical retail banking (including ATMs). They charge flat fees (like Cryptos incidentally) which function as a regressive tax on the poor. Digital banking, by virtue of not having to deal with real estate and physical assets is more efficient and cheaper.

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#47

Post by VMG »

Permit wrote: post #11

Stablecoins seem like they would achieve most of the goals of the original cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin: - Decentralized transactions - 24/7 access - Low fees - Store of value I suppose the only drawback here is that they're issued from a centralized authority. That said, for practical purposes the vast majority of Bitcoin holders didn't mine their own coins either. Despite this, no one on Twitter[1] seemed excit…

The tokens only have value as long as your tokens are redeemable. Multiple things can make them non-redeemable:

* Your tokens can be tainted, for instance because they were once owned by a blacklisted address. The value of your tokens will be effectively 0.

* The issuer might run a fractional reserve (this is the accusation against Tether, the most popular stablecoin at the moment)

* The asset backing the stablecoin might not be backed by anything. It's not worth getting into FED policy here, but let's just say that a stablecoin denonminated in Venezuelan Boliviar is not attractive.

> Stablecoins seem like they would achieve most of the goals of the original cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin

The original goals of cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, to be precise) were exactly to avoid the problems that stablecoins have.

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#48

Post by JumpCrisscross »

Permit wrote: post #38
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Decentralized transactions are distinct from decentralized issuance Dollars can be transacted, online and offline, through a variety of means ranging from at the Federal Reserve to totally de-centralised.

Yes, but once I have acquired dollars and wish to send them to you I must involve a third party. Not involving that third party would be the sell here. I have no position in any cryptocurrency and am not trying to argue that USDC is better than USD. I'm just saying that stablecoins achieve most of the goals of a decentralized currency yet despite this they are not appealing to today's cryptocurrency community.

> once I have acquired dollars and wish to send them to you I must involve a third party

Cash.

(There is no way to send electronic dollars without involving a third party, though more money is laundered using dollars and euros than cryptocurrencies. I'd argue leaving a permanent, public record of transactions is a poor price to pay for decentralized electronic transmission, particularly given the centralized issuer and guarantor problem.)

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#49

Post by stanleydrew »

cheeseomlit wrote: post #36
wcarron wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a strawman. Inflation BAAAAAD, right guys? C'mon. We all know why the Fed targets a relatively consistent rate of inflation. It's because deflation suppresses consumer spending. Not what you want in a consumer economy.

What if I want to save? Certainly seems kinda bad when my savings keeps losing value

If you are saving by stashing dollars under your mattress then that's on you. Don't save by holding currency.

Re: Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin

#50

Post by arcticbull »

askafriend wrote: post #44
cheeseomlit wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if I want to save? Certainly seems kinda bad when my savings keeps losing value

Why not save shares of the S&P 500 index? You just sell some when you want to buy something like a car.

This right here, literally how it’s supposed to work. “Money becomes worth less over time, what should I do?” “Invest in productive assets” “OHHHHHHHHH”

There, we just saved you from having to go to an Econ class :P

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