Re:Coinbase is launching support for the USDC stablecoin
by rlucas on Tuesday October 23, 2018 @06:49PM
(#18288187)
And, because until and unless there is a prevailing adoption of the surrogate coin in place of its pegged reserve (that is, everyone just assumes and "knows" a USDC is worth a USD), the sponsor has to stand ready to maintain the peg, that is, buy it for $1.00 no matter what.
Even the golden dinar would have the problem if it were nominally worth, say, one silver shekel, and the Caliph switched to demanding jizyah in shekels. All of a sudden, absent a massive bank keeping the 1:1 dinar:shekel peg, the dinar would drop in value and the shekels would rise relatively.
The problem is, of course, compounded when the coin becomes a slip of paper, and again when the paper becomes a mere number...
Even the golden dinar would have the problem if it were nominally worth, say, one silver shekel, and the Caliph switched to demanding jizyah in shekels. All of a sudden, absent a massive bank keeping the 1:1 dinar:shekel peg, the dinar would drop in value and the shekels would rise relatively.
The problem is, of course, compounded when the coin becomes a slip of paper, and again when the paper becomes a mere number...