Tether: not even a scam

[mvillar]

There's a lot of FUD around tether right now, but what makes all these remarks distinct from other cryptos that are only used as money?

[romani245]

There's a lot of FUD around tether right now, but what makes all these remarks distinct from other cryptos that are only used as money?

The difference is that Tether isn't a decentralized cryptocurrency. Its ledger is centrally administered, and the entire idea of backing crypto with USD is centralized. That's why they were able to unilaterally hard fork immediately after the recent hack. Tether.to is 100% in control of the ledger, and users have to trust them.

I gotta say, this "media offensive" that Bitfinex/Tether apparently went on is pretty disappointing. They didn't say anything new, just repeated "audit coming soon."

[dektox]

The last audit they have is dated 15 Sep 2017 and audit was only for "internal use".

Some consulting firm said: "We are a consulting firm, Tether management team asked us to have a look at their accounts, we've looked at the bank account and found ~420 M USD, which we report to the management"

[ulhaq]

The market cap is now well over a billion: $1,228,723,761

Since they have announced that they cannot serve US customers, where is all the USD coming from that is being deposited and allowing them to issue more tether?

Are people depositing USD from other countries? Any non-US customers having trouble with withdrawals into fiat?

[Pumuckel21]

Can someone please explain me, how it can be that the amount of circulating theter is increasing since january pretty strong ?
Does this mean they can print money ? Why is there no inflation ?

[ulhaq]

Can someone please explain me, how it can be that the amount of circulating theter is increasing since january pretty strong ?
Does this mean they can print money ? Why is there no inflation ?

See my post right above yours. They can issue as much tether as they want, but they claim that they only do it 1:1 for each USD deposited in their bank account. But the question is where are these USD coming from, since they say they cannot service US customers.

[cyber-i]

Can someone explain, how is the Tether foundation supposed to make any money if Tether was really fully backed by USD? I mean, what would the motivation of the founders be knowing the price won't go up at all?

[ulhaq]

Can someone explain, how is the Tether foundation supposed to make any money if Tether was really fully backed by USD? I mean, what would the motivation of the founders be knowing the price won't go up at all?

Transaction fees from USDT + exchange fees for USD to USDT and USDT to USD.

[kokojie]

Hey if all the governments of the world can create fiat out of thin air, then why not BitFinex? As long as people believe 1 Tether = $1 USD, it can moderately inflate till infinity. I mean it still have a long way to go to match the amount of fiat the world government is pumping out every day.

[adekogbe]

Tether prices aren't all that encouraging at the moment and the issues with exchanges too is not helping, but I think in a couple of months, after its proven that its not a scam, I see the coin pumping up.
Pump to the moon

[cyber-i]

Tether prices aren't all that encouraging at the moment and the issues with exchanges too is not helping, but I think in a couple of months, after its proven that its not a scam, I see the coin pumping up.
Pump to the moon

The whole idea of tether is to be pegged to USD. Any increase or pump would actually be counterproductive.

[Kruddler]

Tether was fine until some exchanges like Kraken hate it. Tether to the moon! I expect a Tether pump soon.

Agreed. During the latest downturn, I mortgaged my house and maxed out my credit card to buy tether. It's definitely going to go up this week.

[cryptohashbrown]

Ok, there's something I don't get,

Please, ELI5 here. Tether's utility within the crypto community is to provide safe-parking for your gains when the market is going red, right? Why does it matter whether or not you can cash out USDT if you could cash out changing to BTC and going to any fiat exchange?

I can see why Tether should have a 1:1 back up in some bank, ethically... But for market purposes, all they need to do is keep their value pegged to relative $USD within exchanges.

Idk, is there something I'm missing? Can't see what all the fuzz is about besides negative media attention...

[NaissuR]

thether is the real bitcoin i hodl

[GR92]

So where can I transfer my dollar?

[ulhaq]

Ok, there's something I don't get,

Please, ELI5 here. Tether's utility within the crypto community is to provide safe-parking for your gains when the market is going red, right? Why does it matter whether or not you can cash out USDT if you could cash out changing to BTC and going to any fiat exchange?

I can see why Tether should have a 1:1 back up in some bank, ethically... But for market purposes, all they need to do is keep their value pegged to relative $USD within exchanges.

Idk, is there something I'm missing? Can't see what all the fuzz is about besides negative media attention...

Because they cannot control the "peg". The price is based on what people are willing to pay for it. That's why the value is not always $1 USD, it fluctuates up and down. If people lose confidence because they cannot exchange USDT for USD (because maybe they don't have the reserves), then the price of USDT will plummet.

[jan.nicolas]

This project is quite interesting from the point of view of listening. I would certainly not mind going and really seeing how much money they have, because they claim that they have so many funds. And if they began to discuss this amount of money, the number of bitcoins in their account, then I would call this project SCAM

[HashieNewb]

thether is the real bitcoin i hodl

Tether is not the real Bitcoin, that's like calling Bitcoin Cash or Bitcoin Gold the real Bitcoin. Crazy.

[cryptohashbrown]

Ok, there's something I don't get,

Please, ELI5 here. Tether's utility within the crypto community is to provide safe-parking for your gains when the market is going red, right? Why does it matter whether or not you can cash out USDT if you could cash out changing to BTC and going to any fiat exchange?

I can see why Tether should have a 1:1 back up in some bank, ethically... But for market purposes, all they need to do is keep their value pegged to relative $USD within exchanges.

Idk, is there something I'm missing? Can't see what all the fuzz is about besides negative media attention...

Because they cannot control the "peg". The price is based on what people are willing to pay for it. That's why the value is not always $1 USD, it fluctuates up and down. If people lose confidence because they cannot exchange USDT for USD (because maybe they don't have the reserves), then the price of USDT will plummet.

Great,

So under this logic, all they really need is a reasonable fractional reserve and that would make them as "legitimate" as any bank. I guess my position now is that I'd appreciate clarity from them on these grounds. I don't see that it would hurt them to disclose this information, instead of claiming to actually own all that money in fiat, which I doubt.

Thanks for answering.

[cryptohashbrown]

Just want to share this in case someone missed it:

http://www.tetherreport.com/

It argues that Tether printing is what is driving the BTC market through fake demand. Seems pretty sound to me.

Please debate, I want it to be wrong.