---
title: "Timeline photos "Stablecoins have become extremely popular. Tether,…"
date: 2024-09-12
source: facebook
type: Archer T. Ships added a new photo.
---

# Timeline photos "Stablecoins have become extremely popular. Tether,…

*September 12, 2024 · Facebook*

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![](img/2024-09-12-fb-001-img01.webp){style="max-width:100%; margin:1em 0"}
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\"Stablecoins have become extremely popular. Tether, for example, earned \$6.2 billion in 2023, surpassing BlackRock\'s \$5.5 billion, with just 100 employees compared to BlackRock\'s 20,000\
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Unfortunately, few stablecoins offer privacy, censorship resistance, or self-custody.\
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For example, the most popular stablecoin, Tether (USDT) can:\
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Identify all account holders\
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See all amounts held\
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See every transaction detail (sender, receiver, amount, transaction dates/times, IP address)\
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Lock coins from further trading\
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Unilaterally seize coins. (Tether, 2024-08-23)\
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For example, when \$610 million was stolen from PolyNetwork, Tether simply froze \$33 million of its tokens that were included in the heist. (Robertson, 2021). Tether subsequently returned the stolen tokens to the original owners.\
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Tether says that they have \"aided governments worldwide with criminal investigations, helping freeze a total of \$835 million in assets it said were mostly tied to theft.\"(Foldy, 2023)\
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While its surveillance capability and centralized control does give Tether the ability to address unethical criminal activity, it also give governments the power to censor dissidents, and pressure the population to follow authoritarian policies.\
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Despite Tether\'s cooperation with law enforcement, US government officials accuse Tether of profiting from a wide variety of crimes, including sanctions evasion, money laundering, terrorist funding, and theft. For example, several Congress members have called for the US DOJ to prosecute Tether executives, in order to \"choke off funding to the terrorists currently targeting Israel\". (Foldy, 2023)\
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Tether Limited is owned by the British Virgin Islands--based company iFinex Inc. Tether\'s employees and executives are known and are subject to imprisonment, fines, and death if they fail to cooperate with authorities.\
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And Tether\'s executives have responded to such threats. In a letter to Congress, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino announced that Tether had disabled tokens in all wallets associated with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanction list. (Ardoino, 2023).\
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How would an ideal stablecoin work? Here are some of the features a stablecoin should have:\
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Anyone can participate in the stablecoin network.\
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No centralized gatekeepers (banks, FinCen, Paypal, etc)\
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All participants are anonymous\
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Stablecoin issuers cannot unilaterally seize the coins\
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Stablecoin issuers cannot spy upon network transactions. Sender, receiver, amount, timestamp, IP address would all be invisible.\
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The location of the vaults are hidden from authorities\
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Vaults can be audited without revealing their owners or the vault locations.\
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Redundancy; many backers of the stablecoin, not just one large backer.\
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If any given vault is seized, it would not affect the value of the stablecoin very much.\
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This essay lays out how such a stablecoin (StableGold) could be created and operated.\"
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