pull down to refresh
0 sats \ 3 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 17h \ parent \ on: Ray Dalio - It's Too Late: The Changes Are Coming econ
Don't know a lot about USDT (need to learn more) but is the theory that USDT could enable cheap and fast international digital/trade payments similar to what mBridge does?
And that USDT would support the USD/UST market by holding USTs to back its value?
An L2 USD...?
These things are possible but if the USD and USTs are themselves no longer seen as sound due to US debt, then it still falls over.
From what little I have heard about USDT it sounds fairly dodgy and mostly used by crypto traders to avoid having to change back into true fiat. Not sure if its been used much for legit trade payments.
A friend who was scammed out of a considerable amount recently asked me to trace some USDT payment transactions that were part of the scammers operation and they appeared to be moved via the Tron protocol, via Binance - again I don't know a lot about USDT or Tron but it looked pretty dodgy and in this case at least was being utilised by outright scammers.
USDT would fit into the theory that as US empire declines Trump is enabling/building a shadow banking network similar what the British did as their empire declined as described in 'Spiders Web'.
Well... I personally don't have a need to use tether but I believe it has the highest trading volume in crypto. Looks like the market cap is 150b so still quite small. It's used a lot in countries where their currency is inflating rapidly.
They are also one of the biggest buyers of UST and have somewhat of a network effect as the top "stable coin".
So that the thing. No one has heard of mBridge. Maybe governments have IDK. Then it needs to be around for some time before anyone will trust it with serious capital (same as bitcoin).
I think it was Ray Dalio that liked to point out the time it takes to switch world reserve currencies. It takes decades because of old habits and network effects. Maybe the technology allows for a faster move these days but IMO it looks like USD is sticking around for while.
reply
Trump has certainly heard of mBridge.
He threatened very early on that he would put 100% tariffs on any BRICS nations who start using any alternative to the 'wonderful' USD.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgrwj0p2dd9o (2024 Dec 2)
'Trump threatens 100% tariff on Brics nations if they try to replace dollar'
"We require a commitment from these countries that they will neither create a new Brics currency nor back any other currency to replace the mighty US dollar or they will face 100% tariffs and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful US economy,”
China has been developing mBridge for many years and its now operational.
They are for obvious reasons not making a lot of noise about it but its also no secret.
It is however a huge, deliberate and direct challenge to USA, USD and SWIFT hegemony.
Dalio is right of course the transition is likely to be gradual ,as it usually has been in the past, although the current situation is quite different from the transition from British to US hegemony, where the transition was fairly smooth as it was between two allies...
Hopefully this current transition which is just beginning, will not be too disruptive, but I wouldn't count on it.
reply
yes I believe you have it right wrt tether soaking up a lot of UST demand. Tether is a beast, if you have Fountain FM app you might enjoy the recent Gold Goats 'n Guns interview with Caitlin Long, well maybe not that's pretty subjective, but in any case towards the end they discuss Tether is a business entity and its pretty interesting.
Try out the aqua wallet too, it is btc and usdt exclusively iirc.
reply