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514 points sarimkx | 1 comments | 14 Feb 24 16:31 UTC | HN request time: 0.236s | source
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jbverschoor ◴[14 Feb 24 16:29 UTC] No.39371787[source]▶
Small comment about the "Stable Coins":

> $136b worth of stablecoins have been issued to date but the opportunity seems much more immense still. Only about seven million people have transacted with stablecoins to date, while more than half a billion live in countries with 30%+ inflation. U.S. banks hold $17b in customer deposits which are all up for grabs as well. And yet the major stablecoin issuers can be counted on one hand and the major liquidity providers with just a few fingers.

This is not entirely true. There has been a stable coin for over 50 years now, and most billionaires should be familiar with it because it's used to pay for satphone calls.

SDR (Special Drawing Rights) is IMF's stable coin. US$935.7 billion SDR are currently allocated. It has been called paper gold and an international reserve currency.

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mxwsn ◴[14 Feb 24 18:26 UTC] No.39373286[source]▶
Can SDR really be traded on demand by civilians with a smartphone or computer at any time of day anywhere in the world with internet? It doesn't seem so from a quick Google search, but I don't know. If not, it seems pretty clearly quite different from stablecoins operating on blockchains.
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1. jbverschoor ◴[14 Feb 24 19:32 UTC] No.39374090[source]▶
You can't buy them as a normal person afaik. I learned about them during some boating / radio exams. They're (also) used to pay for satellite calls at sea, which I thought was interesting.

A stablecoin (or any 'coin' for that matter) does not need a blockchain to fulfill its purpose.

The interesting parts for me are:

- It was created 2 years before the dollar officially lost the gold standard

- It's a product of the IMF

- It is seen as a reserve currency

- It's 'stable' the sense that it's a basket of currencies

- I don't think I've ever heard anybody talk about this during any blockchain / crypto / stablecoin event.

I didn't look into how "stable" the coin actually has been over time. But I think it's good to look at the policies and thoughts from IMF's point of few as well as how countries deal with it. They have smart people there, so there's probably something we can learn from them.