As far as I can now tell, Faircoin is pegged 2:1 to EUR, backed by FairCoop's promise to redeem for EUR if asked by a registered merchant. This explains market price movement during the recession. So far, despite quick 20-30% recession, the peg held.

FairCoop itself seems to be a group of idealistic rebels. Fascinating story of a guy robbing banks for half a million € to eventually fund a cryptocoin-based freedom movement speaks for itself: <1> <2>

Ideological questions aside, their tech seems solid for my unsophisticated eye. They have a working net that serves real people and real merchants - not much of them so far, but it works. Whitepaper is open and honest about what, how, and why they do; and does not have obvious technical flaws visible to my eye. My initial concerns about governance centralization were pretty much answered by their FAQ. It's still not a democracy, no matter what they claim - it's an oligarchy of (hopefully benevolent and well hidden) chain admins who has power to replace themselves and validated nodes if voted 5 of 8. FairCoop uses telegram channels extensively for collective decision making. Further investigation would require one to dive into those telegram channels.