[dragonwriter]

> Also, pegging a cryptocurrency to the dollar seems almost comedically perverse. What is it for?

The frequently cited money transmission benefits of a cryptocurrency, without value instability of playing games with monetary policy.

[cornyNetHandle]

If blockchain based currencies prove themselves to be a significant improvement on current monetary systems then state currencies, such as the US dollar, will adopt the new technology, as they have done with all other previous developments in money.

This would seem to indicate that a blockchain coin pegged to the dollar only keeps any marginal utility at all during the period where the technology is novel, as blockchain tech either crashing or becoming successful, would both be events that kill it.

[dragonwriter]

> If blockchain based currencies prove themselves to be a significant improvement on current monetary systems then state currencies, such as the US dollar, will adopt the new technology, as they have done with all other previous developments in money.

The US dollar, as such, often hasn't adopted new developments in money transmission directly (at least, not at the consumer level); the circle of businesses facilitating USD transactions has, but a dollar-pegged cryptocurrency is essentially just a new part of that ecosystem.

OTOH, the dollar has adopted, directly, new tools in money supply management, several times in its history.

[JumpCrisscross]

> The US dollar, as such, often hasn't adopted new developments in money transmission directly (at least, not at the consumer level)

The Federal Reserve began moving money electronically in 1915 [1]. (You read that right. Nineteen fifteen. In the early 80s, telex transmission services began.) The back offices of finance are surprisingly reactive to new technology, when the risks and rewards balance properly.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedwire