[ncallaway]

> I think people fail to notice how similar a (non-fraud) tether model is to a traditional bank

That’s exactly what’s unethical about it. They’re operating a bank, but have skipped all the regulations and oversight that banks operate with.

I have no issue with Tether operating a fractional reserve deposit system, if they are subject to the same oversight (and insurance) that banks are subject to.

[datadata]

I think there is just no way you could have a traditional bank provide the capabilities that tether provides. It acts like a bank, but it certainly does things that banking regulations to not actually regulate, and there is no way tether would have been granted a bank charter. Like it or not, waiting for regulation is not a way to build something that is new. As for forgiveness, not for permission.

[wolfd]

I think that that idiom is perhaps overstated, it can be good, but it can also be an excuse to be morally corrupt.

[LatteLazy]

The reason banks are regulated is the risk of contagion and the risk of short term drops in markets making them illiquid or shallow so banks can't meet their commitments.

But tether has no risk of contagion to a bank does it?

And markets have never been more stable or deep or liquid.

So the case for regulation here is weak.

Again. I don't actually know if tether is a giant fraud, or how much actual business case there is here for stable coins. I'm just saying, it's sort of easy to make a case at least that they're fine.

[Jensson]

Banks are regulated to protect your money from the bank stealing them. Before those regulations keeping your money in a bank was riskier than keeping it at home. That same situation now plays out with crypto, the crypto bankers create banks with high risk investments that nets them huge profits, but that will easily fold to market fluctuations. But them folding doesn't matter to them, they still keep all the profits generated before them, while you the guy who put your money in the crypto is the big loser.