What are Stable Coins? USDT, TUSD, GUSD, USDC and USDQ
In this article, Slava Mikhalkin talks about USDQ, a fully algorithmic stablecoin that offers reliability and easy collateralization for Bitcoin. Working as a Blockchain Architect with PLATINUM ENGINEERING, Slava collaborates within the +200-employee team to develop bleeding edge solutions in white-label wallets, STOs and IEOs fundraising platforms, and full-cycle business models for crypto projects. A key value proposition, brought by PLATINUM ENGINEERING, is a holistic approach, where a versatile talent pool helps startups build up capabilities in IT, marketing and legal. A unique decentralized stablecoin USDQ features various price stabilization algorithms, an intricate system of incentives for traders and AI-driven predictive analytics module. This novel stablecoin is worth noting while it’s still gathering steam.
Foreword
It's clear that cryptocurrencies are gradually making inroads into the global economy, moving closer to mass adoption. Cryptocurrencies offer a number of advantages - decentralization and trust, lower commissions and disintermediation - that make it easier for users to carry out their daily transactions. Anybody can transfer value around the globe, winning from fast processing time.
In comparison, sending value across borders via legacy financial systems requires lengthy waiting periods and fees, while also making users stuck into highly complex processes. For instance, if a person from Japan wants to send some money to England, the fees can range anywhere from 5% up to 10%, depending on the system being used. In addition, there will be some currency conversion fees. It seems that centralized players, currently enjoying lack of competition, set up fees and commissions just as they wish.
And it's merchants that carry out cross-border transactions that find working with legacy finance institutions most troublesome. They keep losing hefty chunks from their potential profits, just paying out fees to payment processors. This makes businesses hike up their prices, passing these expenses to ordinary consumers. Crypto offers a paradigm shift change, bringing to the table lightning speeds and lower fees. Although cryptocurrencies have been winning more and more attention from merchants worldwide, there's still a number of roadblocks to wider adoption, among which are price volatility, scalability limitations and others.
Volatility is admittedly the biggest hurdle that prevents businesses from using cryptocurrencies more. Bitcoin can experience huge fluctuations in just a matter of hours or even minutes. In addition, major coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum present scalability issues, which results in high processing time. A merchant, who has to handle hundreds of payments on a daily basis, would not be able to conduct their business efficiently if transactions get stuck for days on end. On top of that, it's extremely hard for adopters to convert cryptocurrencies into fiat via the banks and other financial agents they usually work with.
Cryptocurrencies seek to offer solutions to all of these issues.
What is stablecoin?
A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency, whose architecture enables its price to always equal the price of another asset. Most of the stablecoins are pegged to USD. The biggest names in cryptocurrencies are Tether, Gemini Dollar, USDQ, TUSD and others.
How do stablecoins manage to be so stable?
As opposed to other coins that float freely, stable cryptocurrencies require that each unit is backed with a unit of the fiat currency. For instance, Tether (USDT) pegs 1 USDT to 1 USD on the one-to-one basis. In this way, stablecoins are somewhere between cryptocurrencies and regular fiats. Tether is based on its own blockchain that is built on top of Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum systems.
Although Tether is the biggest stablecoin, there's a number of concerns as to its operations. The biggest one is the continuing controversy as to the fiat reserves, which the issuer is supposed to store on the one-to-one ratio to the number of issued Tether units. The company has been saying that the audit will be done in the near future, but just several weeks ago it started to claim that it's not only the cash, but also loans to other companies that can be recorded as fiat reserves. These statements resulted in growing distrust among crypto enthusiasts.
Another project is TrueUSD (TUSD). It also pegs to USD. The difference with Tether is the openness to audits and transparency. The company is open to third-party audits, it publishes the duly verified reports on the fiat reserves it holds. In addition, users enjoy legal protections.
USDC is another stablecoin that was created by the famous cryptocurrency exchange Circle. Just as TUSD, if offers regulatory compliance and transparency. The big problem about all these systems is the fact that they enable authorities to seize users’ funds, which completely negates the very idea of decentralization and anti-censorship, on which crypto is built.
USDQ is different from other stablecoins as it's not backed by the fiat currency, but by Bitcoin and other top-10 cryptocurrencies in the future. This enables the ecosystem to avoid dealing with legacy financial systems. Through the overcollateralization process, USDQ turns highly volatile cryptocurrencies into the USD-pegged USDQ that is perfect for storing value and processing transactions in the external economy without any risk of price changes. The coin is being developed by PLATINUM ENGINEERING with the small community slowly growing around the project.
Why do we need stablecoins?
Stablecoins have advanced as a new iteration on cryptocurrencies, enabling to address such issues as high volatility and interactions with legacy financial systems.
Coins like USDQ make sure that various mechanisms are used in order to stabilize the prices at the USD peg. Traders can easily change their Bitcoins into USDQ and thus prevent the negative impact on unwanted prices changes. Stablecoins are very easy to use, which is a boon for non-techy adopters. Any person from around the world can quickly convert fiats into stablecoins, without any need to think about future price changes and without worrying about potential risks for losing their funds. As a rule, you'll always find various stablecoins on crypto exchanges, enabling traders to quickly move around stables and other cryptos.
As we've spoken above, cross-border payments win most from using the stablecoins. This hybrid species between fiat and crypto will help open up the hidden value in global trade, amounting to trillions of dollars in profits for stakeholders.
USDQ is decentralized stablecoin, which uses algorithms to offer higher stability and reliability. Fully on-chain and monitored by high-speed AI robots, ecosystem offers reliable defences against malicious acts and attacks. First run in line of fiat-pegs, USDQ is brought by PLATINUM ENGINEERING Team, looking to edge together innovative solutions in collateralization, using stabilizing mechanisms and oracles for high-endurance stablecoins. Fully anonymous, USDQ breaks limits out of this legacy world.
PLATINUM ENGINEERING openly shares about its development and vectors for growth, enabling stakeholders to learn about cutting-edge solutions in the blockchains/crypto domain. PLATINUM ENGINEERING has already helped over 150 crypto projects to grow through emerging blockchain economy of the future. Businesses would be amazed at new capabilities they can obtain through tokenizing their business models, automating routine business processes and drawing investors on crypto markets. The team welcomes the community to contact directly via the official groups in Telegram, Facebook or LinkedIn. Readers will learn how to obtain new competitive advantages by tapping into blockchain in their blog.