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Comment by graemep | Hacker News Reader

When people in a developing country cannot hold foreign currency it is a result of a deliberate decision by their government. That creates a number of issues. They may well be breaking the law holding stable coins. It means practical difficulties in buying stable coins (they need someone who will sell stablecoins in their currency).

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> (they need someone who will sell stablecoins in their currency).

It's pretty hard to really lock people out of stable coins really. You really just need someone to sell you some type of cryptocurrency that can be eventually exchanged for stablecoins. You can even do "peer to peer" trades if the government really cracks down on holding crypto.

I agree with the sentiment of this article but atleast some parts of the world with poor currencies like Latam have seen some benefit from stbales.

Right! It's not that stable coins are decentralized, it's that the centralized holder is not in your jurisdiction and so your jurisdiction can't deface their money!

The only bad thing with USD based stable coin is you have to trust that the USA will keep paying its debts longer than you hold the stable coin.

That sounds like a good bet.

The US has no reason not to pay its debts. Its debts AFAIK are USD denominated. How often has a country defaulted on debt in its own currency? I can think of one example and I thought it was a stupid thing to do at the time (it was forced by creditors, presumably as a punishment) and it was not a complete default, but a haircut.

Sorry, I was thinking hyperinflation as a de facto default. As in Germany, Brazil (Cruzeiro), Argentina, etc. If the US hits hyperinflation say, debt is 300% GDP in a decade at some point people will stop loaning it money and the dollar loses its value. Stable coins become worthless as well.

The fact that governments might not be able to stop people from using stablecoins affects the laws, though.

The governments cannot stop people holding physical notes either, and they still have the laws.

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