Bitcoin Forum

Somewhat recently I came across an altcoin called "Tether." Basically it's an altcoin backed by USD/EURO (I know this probably sounds blasphemous to some people because they go to Bitcoin/Altcoins to escape Fiat, but this interests me), so it got my attention. Has anybody ever used them, and if so are they something that you'd recommend using or avoiding?

The only time I use it is on polo to lock in a dollar amount between trades. Has worked fine, but you sometimes have to put in a few orders based on what is available to avoid slippage.

That was a quick reply, guess I'm still getting used to the quickness of bitcointalk.   ;)
Anyway, thanks for the reply. I guess I'll check 'em out.

The client is a Bitcoin full node and a bit outdated 0.12 I think. Works fine. The client is for all tokens that use the Omni protocol layer on top of Bitcoin, not only Tether as well as Bitcoin of course.

So I can operate my account from bitcoin core? I'm not quite sure what you mean (I'm new and probably being dumb).

Also @generalizethis how are the exchange rates?

I've used tether.to to balance FIAT BTC accounts at times. It's cheaper than moving funds through Uphold accounts (a similar but more elegant service) if all you want to do is also hold some FIAT reserves temporarily. Overall it's a great way to "trade" without opening a trade account but it's trust based when just using bitcoin isn't. 

i am very interested in tether because it is USD value of bitcoin but without the bullshit of fiat. but for two reasons i have never used it, despite wanting to.
1) i don't usually trade bitcoin (i mostly trade altcoins) and when i do trade bitcoin i do it with fiat and buy back bitcoin and hold it.
2) i am always skeptical and scared about this coin, although it has always been keeping the value the same (apart from the time bitfinex was hacked and price was 0.9 instead of 1)

I don't use Tether because it does not exchange directly with my altcoin of choice. That said it is the same as someone already mentioned. Its like exchanging your coins for USD like you can on most major exchanges.

iam never use tether
because tether.io not support and accepted in my country
before bitfinex is hacker attack, iam use USD tether, only arbitrage from poloniex to bitfinex, or bitfinex to poloniex

If you have fiat and wish to convert it to crypto, you can buy tether.
It's good because it's price hardly ever changes - always at $1, so you do not have to worry about your coin losing price value and things like that.

I have considered using Tether USDT in Poloniex in the past, because it seems that it is the best and only way to trade against the USD without having to give all your details to the stupid ass exchanges, but of course, it makes me a bit paranoid about it going to 0 because of some bug, or because the exchange crashes.

Yep, and this is why I don't have a large amount of money in anywhere except my local bank, which I trust, and cash, which I can protect with good old fashioned locks and firepower (sorry hardcore Bitcoin enthusiasts, I consider bitcoin to risky to hold large amounts of savings in at the moment). I have been burnt by PayPal locking my funds (although I did get it back) so I've got very little trust to a small company like Tether.

Also (at least for me) my account says I need to verify my identity to even send/receive USD/EURO (to comply with anti-money laundering laws), so it boosts my trust a bit, but it also cancels the pseudonymous bonus.

If that is the only reason, why not just hold fiat - your money doesn't lose value at all in the traditional sense.
Its only use is to exchanges - they can say that they don't deal in USD, while offering you all the advantages of USD (by dealing in tether).

I have used it a few times for transferring USD across exchanges that accept it. For that purpose it is great and worked fine for me.

We haven't reached the point where USD transactions are completely irrelevant, yet, so Tether is a good service.

I've used it while trading several times; it is a very useful currency and it's fairly easy to use. However, please do not permanently store your coins in the form of Tether; it's floated completely by Poloniex, meaning if it experiences trouble (scam etc) or is hacked, the currency will be in trouble. It's a really nice idea!