Is SBD the new tether?
Reverse-peg or not reverse-peg?
The subject is hot these days, as SBD embeds a savant mechanism to no fall below 1 USD (at least as long as the STEEM network is active), but nothing prevents it from going high above. Right now it is valued much higher than USD, to the great benefit of content authors.
So should it get reverse-pegged by the same mechanism that prevent it from falling below 1 USD? Should we create in the blockchain the right amount of inflation that 1 SBD equals 1 USD?
SBD and Tether
Tether is pegged to USD. Tether is useful. Tether reached a market cap of over 2 G$. Tether allows a safe door to enter cryptocurrencies. All of this because tether is pegged one-way to USD. Just like SBD is right now.
And Tether is currently under the spotlights. Fraud or not fraud, I'm not the one who can tell. But it brings light to the flaws of the tether model. And how SBD is a perfect
Tether is one-side peg only : Tether corp will pay you 1 USD for 1 USDT. No more guarantees than that. SBD can do much better. With reverse-pegging.
Tether is suspected of fraud: A blockchained pegging, even one that is controlled by witnesses, is much stronger than a for-profit company with the best financial audits on earth. Acting on inflation works even if fraud comes in. Even if funds are stolen. In short, as long as STEEM is alive, it works.
Tether transactions are slow and expensive: Not as slow as fiat, not as expensive as bitcoin, but slow and expensive. Steem and SBD take a few seconds and are free.
Tether is only a pegged currency: No need to explain what other services steem can offer
An alternative
I strongly believe that SBD should be pegged to a fiat, to allow for much needed stability within Steem ecosystem. But nobody requires it to be pegged to 1 USD. We don't want to loose the 5$ value of SBD that is a strong incentive for content creators? Fine. Peg it to 5$.
If you decide to activate a two-way stable pegging for SBD, you could peg it to any value. To current value of 5.68 USD. Force it a little to peg it to 5 USD. Or 5 EUR. Or 1000 JPY. Or whatever value backed to a strong fiat at the moment witnesses decide to take the leap...
###Even more stable
I know this is starting to sound like an impossible dream, but what about a stronger peg that to USD? USD is as strong as a fiat can be right now but may not stay so in the long run. So, given that 1 SBD is currently worth 5.68 USD, why not start pegging it to
What can be more stable that one fiat? Five fiats? Just like EUR tenty years ago, but so much simpler...
Overall I think right now is a horrible time to peg SBD right when Steemit is starting to gain some real traction and attract quality content creators from other platforms. The main draw is money. Other platforms are screwing around with revenue sharing and I would hate to see those practices spill over onto Steemit.
Pegging does not necessarily have to reduce author rewards. Nothing prevents SBD from being pegged to 5 USD, or the reward system to be tuned during the same move.
Now, 1$ is worth 0.5 USD in STEEM + 0.5 SBD
Why not 0.5 pegged-SBD + 0.5 STEEM?
Any technical aergument against that?
The value it's pegged to doesn't matter. Because if they peg it to $5 they won't pay it out like it's worth $1.
I really think that a product is worth what people will pay for it. I know that's not really the point of this argument but I truly believe that we should be allowed to trade freely without restrictions.
Well.. there's still STEEM to follow the market price
I thought it was pegged both ways and the pegging mechanism was broken. At least this became clear to me. How about pegging it to a fraction of gold's value?
Technically, steem pegging system could do that.
It would be less practical than 1 SBD = 1 USD, but so much more stable. Has this come to the witnesses discussion?
Steem would remain liquid but volatile, SBD also liquid but stable. Caters to both sides of the risk aversion scale.
That's what I think. Then just find a few options to author rewards that stay fair compared to authors gains today, and that allow you to choose between volatility and stability
What's better than 5 fiats? Peg it to the Dow Jones Index :)
You might want to create a new coin for that. But if your goal is stability, or any kind of new deal for the crypto-economy... Finger weg, you're gonna harm Steem !