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DeFi platform begs hackers to return $600 million in stolen crypto

@lacomaco Tether is on blockchains. Here is an example: Tether USD (USDT) Token Tracker | Etherscan

We can easily see how much is issued at any time. What we can't see are the bank deposits, bills, corporate bonds etc that are supposed to back USDT because the legacy financial system is highly opaque. Those "prime financial institutions" simply lack transparency.
You are right for the blockchain, apologies - but I do not under what you say by financial institutions being opaque... Isn't it Tether which is hugely opaque?
 
@lacomaco when you click the link above you can see how much USDT has been issued on that blockchain. But how can we verify that the financial institutions are holding Tether's dollars? We just can't see what's going on in the same way that we can see what's on the blockchain.

If I claim that I hold 1 million in USDT and $1 million in some legacy institution, then you can easily verify my USDT balance but not the other part.
 
But how can we verify that the financial institutions are holding Tether's dollars? We just can't see what's going on in the same way that we can see what's on the blockchain.

How you think this can be fixed then out of interest? Would an audit be enough or you want other means?

P.S The bank tether uses in my country no one has even heard off....lol. I wouldn't accept a local audit as proof of anything for example.
 
It's hard to verify fiat for now. This could well be a feature of CBDCs that isn't practical with current deposits. Maybe you'll be able to look a the dollars on deposit with your EMI and follow the chain through their bank and up to the central bank.

I think the Tether conspiracies are exaggerated a little but also I wouldn't pick Tether as an example of best practice either. Enter some XAUt address such as 0x2faf487a4414fe77e2327f0bf4ae2a264a776ad2 into Tether's website and you get a bunch of what look to be internal serial numbers. So not much use.

But if you go to Paxos' website and enter a PAXG Ethereum address such as 0x28c6c06298d514db089934071355e5743bf21d60 then you can look up the gold bar serial numbers at Gulidov Krasnoyarsk. That is something that presumably can be verified. Also you could collect the serial numbers attached to all PAXG tokens and make sure they add up. In future, I see the gold depositories having a similar lookup to (optionally) allow the owner of each gold bar to be verified. Then you could really do your own audit. No special magic needed, just publicly accessible, immutable data.

Beyond that, depositories could tokenise as well and then you could follow the flow of trust from some issuer you _really_ trust, down to your counterparty. Blockchain has famously been about Dogecoin and NFT "artworks" going for millions but once there's been enough tokenisation of verifiable gold bars, bottles of wine aging in the grower's cellar, stocks, apartments, offices, shopping malls, aircraft on lease, etc., the use cases for smart contracts should explode. As well as critical mass, this will require some maturity in terms of contract audits etc., which is where the poly.network hack is useful.
 
Most people use stable coin for money laundering. If they care about , it is backed or not??

In Dubai most crypto dealer love stable coin , property transaction done using stable stable coin.if they care about ,is it back or not???

As long as it is useful to good or bad people .as long as people believe some one another people pay for their token It will survive with or without backing.

Long time ago dollar back by gold. Now Fed can print as much as he wants.

As long as people believe in dollar and strong usa economy.

One property in new york manhattan, and one in new Jersey , same size same material but different price.

You can say it is property bubble ,but as long as people believe its cost worth it. It will survive.

The most important word in economy is "trust".

Anything become zero value , when people lose trust in it.


End of the day who cares stablecoin back or not???
Good or bad People will still use it if it is backed or not.

I think stable coin inventor done biggest historical blunder by declaring it is backed by us dollar.


Open for criticism
 
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@lacomaco when you click the link above you can see how much USDT has been issued on that blockchain. But how can we verify that the financial institutions are holding Tether's dollars? We just can't see what's going on in the same way that we can see what's on the blockchain.

If I claim that I hold 1 million in USDT and $1 million in some legacy institution, then you can easily verify my USDT balance but not the other part.
It is extremely easy to verify where you keep your money - auditors do it all the time... If Tether would want to publish its actual investments and its structure (same way as let's say an investment fund which reports it shareholdings) then it will be totally clear. If Tether does not want to publish in what they invest the 62Bn then it is highly suspicious and has nothing to do with the legacy financial system
 
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Most people use stable coin for money laundering. If they care about , it is backed or not??

In Dubai most crypto dealer love stable coin , property transaction done using stable stable coin.if they care about ,is it back or not???

As long as it is useful to good or bad people .as long as people believe some one another people pay for their token It will survive with or without backing.

Long time ago dollar back by gold. Now Fed can print as much as he wants.

As long as people believe in dollar and strong usa economy.

One property in new york manhattan, and one in new Jersey , same size same material but different price.

You can say it is property bubble ,but as long as people believe its cost worth it. It will survive.

The most important word in economy is "trust".

Anything become zero value , when people lose trust in it.


End of the day who cares stablecoin back or not???
Good or bad People will still use it if it is backed or not.

I think stable coin inventor done biggest historical blunder by declaring it is backed by us dollar.


Open for criticism
Nothing to criticise, you are of course entitled to your opinion :) What I am afraid is this current Defi mania, with hugely leverged positions based mainly on BTC, ETH and stablecoins. If trust will considerably decrease in Tether (of which I am very sure to happen) the whole leveraged pyramid could collapse... Even a 30x leverage killed Lehmann, what about 100x or 500x?
 
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Are you thinking it's safely storing amounts with six digits or more in stable coins?
Who want to use to stable for storing money, Just use as a Money Transfer agent . Very risky to store value in it , You can lose fortune in second.
Try to understand Real Use of crypto . See as a currency not as an Asset Class.

Crypto is Digital age "Hawala"
 
In future, I see the gold depositories having a similar lookup to (optionally) allow the owner of each gold bar to be verified. Then you could really do your own audit. No special magic needed, just publicly accessible, immutable data.

Lookup is simply not enough. The depository is always gonna be the weak link in any scenario as gold is a physical asset requiring human intervention. I highlighted the case of Tov Hazel where client gold went missing. Refusal to honor gold delivery is an issue but honoring redemption will also be an issue with USDT also :(. For me its not just being able to track an asset its whether the asset is physically there and accessible also. Mixing virtual and physical assets is always gonna be a problem as crypto world is full of clever scammers.
 
I completely agree that the depository will always be a risk. This goes for gold, wine, land deeds. People move into their dream home in Southern Europe or South East Asia and find that their lawyer betrayed them. Would a safe in my apartment be safer, if the gangsters turned up? There is no perfect solution, so we diversify.

Still I say that the harder to forge or fake the custody, the less risk you have. Blockchain provides possibility for convenience, lower costs and smart contracts while letting us follow the chain to whatever person we trust enough.
 
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