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Comment by rickreynoldssf | Hacker News Reader

I think Tether is the ultimate "Fake it till you make it" organization in crypto. Its kind of a joke now but everyone is in on the joke but it will probably end up being the defacto crypto parking place once things get real in crypto (e.g. you can buy a house with it) and the adults come in and shake out the current management.

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> once things get real in crypto (e.g. you can buy a house with it)

it feels odd to speak about this scenario like it's a foregone conclusion.

No kidding. Crypto is deeply unpopular with a significant portion of the public - myself included. This is not the same as the early era of smartphones where you either had one or didn't really know much about them (i.e. were neutral). Many people have made up their minds on the utility (or lack thereof) of crypto and want nothing to do with it. Some of the recent incidents of backlash around NFTs in games come to mind.

It’s just money. It’s a commodity. If I can get a better deal on a house if I pay with crypto, I’ll do it—don’t need your approval, really.

If you want to buy my house, you kind of do. Everybody accepts money as payment. Most people don't accept crypto as payment.

> It’s just money.

Not really.

> I’ll do it—don’t need your approval, really

Mine? No. You want a title to go with that house ? Well then, yeah, there are some third parties whose opinions matter.

It doesn't even make sense in many cases. Bitcoin for example will never be useful as a medium of general exchange, the transaction volume is way too low to support it. Plus its deflationary nature makes it at odds with a healthy economy, where you want gradual inflation to at least exceed the birthrate so there is a hope of lifting people out of poverty.

The workaround is to put everything on exchanges, but then you've lost the decentralized nature of Bitcoin and you are back to just a central database owned by a company, AKA a bank.

Literally never gonna happen

More centralized digital currencies with regulations backed by central banks have a pretty big potential to disrupt basic banking services. Most problems of cryptocurrencies can be solved with a trusted third party. The question is only how long banks can lobby against that.

That is far from the only question.

Why wouldn't something like USDC be a better "crypto parking place"?

It's not a matter of being a joke. It's a matter of being criminals.

Besides, Coinbase/Circle is already miles ahead in this race for institutional credibility.

Coinbase, the company that freezes accounts whenever the market gets more volatile?

Almost. Circle is more than just Coinbase.

And anyway, your cheap jab at Coinbase has no comparison with Tether. Circuit breakers are not an invention from crypto exchanges. Besides, they also are one of the investors in Uniswap, which lets you trade without any middlemen.

You can buy a house with cryptocurrency. Not sure if that's a good idea, but it's happening.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/02/greenwich-mansion-for-sale-w...

Legally though, the transaction still has to be recorded and taxed in USD.

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