Category: stablecoins

Top 20 Coins: Uncommon Core Podcast Episode 15

~ antonylewis2015 ~ Leave a comment

Throwing this up for discoverability: I enjoy the Uncommon Core podcast and this is a helpful episode for those looking to get a quick summary of the top coins by market cap as at December 2020, as discussed by prominent crypto trader Su Zhu of Three Arrows Capital and prominent researcher Hasu of Deribit.

Errors in summary notes are my own. I haven’t fact-checked. Assume the podcasters may have long or short positions in any of these coins. I note the the podcasters are quite diplomatic about how they describe these coins.

Note: This was broadcast on Dec 11, before Bitcoin reached its all time high and before the SEC lawsuit against Ripple and its cofounders.

20) 1:10 Compound DAI (cDAI)
19) 5:55 Tezos (XTZ)
18) 12:26 NEM (XEM)
17) 13:56 Tron (TRX)
16) 17:11 Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC)
15) 21:59 Monero (XMR)
14) 29:46 EOS (EOS)
13) 35:04 USD Coin (USDC)
12) 40:48 Bitcoin SV (BSV)
11) 46:26 Stellar (XLM)
10) 50:24 Binance Coin (BNB)
9) 56:50 Polkadot (DOT)
8) 1:03:09 Cardano (ADA)
7) 1:05:25 Chainlink (LINK)
6) 1:08:44 Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
5) 1:19:32 Litecoin (LTC)
4) 1:24:40 Tether (USDT)
3) 1:28:03 XRP (XRP)
2) 1:33:35 Ethereum (ETH)
1) 1:46:51 Bitcoin (BTC)

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The Sweet Spot for Programmable Money

~ antonylewis2015 ~ Leave a comment

Bank of Thailand just announced a project to develop a prototype system for a CBDC issued on a blockchain, accessible to businesses.

This is meaningful to me for two reasons:

  1. I was part of the original team that created the Inthanon series of projects in 2018, and it’s great to see that these early pioneering efforts continue to be built upon.
  2. I think that they have hit the near-term sweet spot for programmable money. They really seem to get it.
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CBDC, DLT, Crypto, Stablecoin Resources List

~ antonylewis2015 ~ 2 Comments

I’m often asked for material about CBDCs (central bank digital currencies), blockchains / distributed ledgers, stablecoins, and cryptocurrencies. So here’s a list of reports from central banks, regulators, international organisations and other agencies. Enjoy!

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Three currency wars, not one

~ antonylewis2015 ~ 3 Comments

This short blog post describes three different types of currency wars that seem to be happening at the moment.

The phrase “currency wars” is not new – typically is has referred to deliberate devaluation of one’s own currency to increase competitiveness of exports.  If your currency is worth less, then your goods are cheaper to foreigners, so they buy more of them, which is generally good for your country.

Yet with increased discussion and relevance of fintech, wallets, central bank digital currencies, Libra, bitcoin, etc, it seems to me that there is more going on.  I’ve identified three distinct wars (battles? fronts?) being fought:

  1. Currency devaluation to increase competitiveness
  2. Offshore e-money supremacy
  3. Public money vs private money
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KYC in Stablecoins

~ antonylewis2015 ~ 2 Comments

Summary: Issuers of today’s fiat-backed stablecoins (such as PAX, USDC and TUSD) need to identify (or KYC) only those users who convert between bank account money and stablecoin, not all holders.

Some people might be surprised that intermediate users of stablecoin may transact without needing to being identified by the issuers. Yet few people know that there are kill-switches built in that can hinder bad actors. This arrangement can be described as permissioned pseudonymity. Stablecoin issuers have permission by their regulators to have pseudonymous users in their network.

Permissioned pseudonymity is positive for innovation while the industry explores the most productive uses for stablecoins.

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