The What And How Of The Cryptocurrency Stable Coin - USDT

 Crypto Edu Series:



Cryptocurrency primarily digitizes money and assets on the blockchain among other uses including securing collectibles such as art (NFTs).


This post talks about one cryptocurrency solution to holding your funds in a dollar denominated cryptocurrency.


The focus will be on USDT. 


What is USDT?


USDT is a very popular though somewhat controversial cryptocurrency that is issued (minted not mined) by Tether company with the value pegged to USD. There is currently $56,861,486,476.23 circulating supply which is actively held and traded by individuals and on exchanges. Pegged means 1 USDT = 1 USD. It is expected that for every USDT in circulation, there is a matching USD held by the Tether company to represent it.


Such pegged tokens are referred to as "stable coins". Stable because they avoid the volatility characteristic of a typical cryptocurrency by being pegged to a national currency, commodity or asset. There are other USD pegged cryptocurrency tokens. https://cryptoslate.com/cryptos/stablecoin/


Types of USDT (platforms):


There are several types of USDT. They are actually not types but rather different technologies on which USDT has been deployed. USDT works by tethering to or riding on top of an existing blockchain technology (hence the name tether). The first was tethered to the bitcoin blockchain on the OMNI protocol. Given the speed, cost of transactions and other encumberances, USDT has been deployed on other blockchain technologies allowing for cheaper and faster transactions with USDT. It has been issued, apart from on OMNI, on Ethereum (ERC20), on Tron (TRC20), BitcoinCash (SLP) etc. I will gravitate toward USDT on the Tron and Bitcoin Cash network because of speed, transaction fees and convenience. https://wallet.tether.to/transparency


How do you get USDT?


To get USDT, you exchange another cryptocurrency for it or buy it directly using a P2P platform, buy on an exchange, swap other tokens for it or buy with card or bank transfer. P2P (escrow) platforms are where people sell cryptocurrency but trades are protected by the platform to reduce or eliminate fraud or scams. To use a P2P platform, you must follow the rules and guidelines strictly and preferably trade with sellers that have a good track record of successful trades.


How do you keep USDT?


To keep USDT, you need a holding wallet. Depending on the USDT technology, you must get a related wallet e.g. An ethereum based USDT can be kept in an ethereum based wallet that supports ERC20 tokens while a tron based USDT would be kept in a wallet that supports Tron and its tokens (TRC20) and an Bitcoin Cash based USDT held in a Bitcoin Cash wallet that supports the Simple Ledger Protocol(SLP).

 

Ethereum Wallet e.g. Exodus

Tron Wallet e.g. Tronlink

Bitcoin Cash Wallet e.g. Bitcoin.com Wallet


NOTE: To be able to move USDT that is in your wallet, often you will need a little bit of the native cryptocurrency of the underlying technology to pay transaction fees. e.g. to move tron (TRC20) based USDT, you need a little bit of Tron token (TRX) and for the others a little bit of eth and bch respectively.


How do you liquidate or convert USDT?


If you hold USDT, you can sell it for another cryptocurrency or sell it for physical cash on various platforms including online exchanges and P2P platforms. Person to person exchanges without an intermediary or a mechanism to protect the traders is considered high risk as one party may take an asset and refuse to continue the exchange or may deliver a fake asset (currency or crypto). Verified exchanges, swap platforms and P2P sites will be published here progressively https://tokenshop.info/ 


What are the potential use cases?


You could pay a service provider abroad by simply obtaining some USDT, sending to the party and the party converting back to a desired currency in a P2P marketplace. A stablecoin is also useful in trading as a "parking-place" where after trading a cryptocurrency you convert your gains to a stablecoin to escape the volatility. Another use case is for holding your funds in a particular currency of your choice.


To follow discussions on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology developments in Ghana, you may join the blockchain ghana telegram platform https://t.me/blockchainghana


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Mysterious Subframe Bushings: When Your Vehicle Clunks And Swerves And You've Done It All With No Resolution.

Image
Let me take you on a journey—a journey of frustration, mystery, and one miraculous discovery that had me simultaneously shaking my head and laughing out loud. It all began with my trusty (or so I thought) sedan, which started making some suspicious clunks and clanks that would make even a 1920s jalopy sound like a luxury ride.   The Symptoms That Launched a Thousand Google Searches It started innocently enough—uneven tire wear. “No big deal,” I thought, “probably just an alignment issue.” But soon after, I began noticing other strange things: the steering wheel felt like it was having its own dance party, shaking and vibrating whenever I hit the highway. As I drove, the car began pulling to one side, as if it had a magnetic attraction to ditches. All this was accompanied by a lovely soundtrack of clunks and knocking sounds, especially when I made turns or hit a bump.   Naturally, I did what anyone in my situation would do—I became an internet detective . I scoured ev...
Read more

Dusk To Dawn Photocell Wiring Guide - Automating Your Outdoor Light

Image
  Photocells: The Magic of Automatic Lights Have you ever wondered how those fancy outdoor lights turn on and off automatically? It's all thanks to a little device called a photocell, or light sensor. Photocells are clever little gadgets that can detect changes in light levels and trigger an electrical switch accordingly. So, how do you connect a photocell to a power source and a light bulb to automate your lights? Here's a quick guide: Identify the wires. Photocells typically have three wires: a live wire (often black), a load wire (often red), and a neutral wire (often white). The live wire connects to the power source, the load wire connects to the light bulb, and the neutral wire connects to both the power source and the light bulb. Connect the live wire. Connect the live wire from the power source to the live wire on the photocell. Connect the load wire. Connect the load wire from the photocell to the live wire on the light bulb. Connect the neutral wire. Connect t...
Read more

Easy Step By Step Guide to Using Google NotebookLM - A Personalized Research Assistant.

Image
About NotebookLM Google's NotebookLM is a rather interesting AI powered product. It is unique in the sense that this AI focuses on the data you have personally provided it, unlike other general AI chat products that respond based on their training data and other data they can access from the internet if they have access. NotebookLM will basically digest your content in such a way that you can ask the AI questions about what information it found in the content. At the time of this writing, the AI supports pdf documents, website links and videos from Youtube. In addition to responding to your custom and specific questions about the content you have supplied, it can generate the following: A Summary of the content A Briefing document A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document A Podcast deep-dive audio discussion between to AI hosts. (Probably the most interesting aspect of NotebookLM) What Is The Use of NotebookLM NotebookLM can be useful for evaluating and digesting any information,...
Read more