Yes and it failed horrible and resulted in 9 million dollars loss because of a design flaw:
https://blog.makerdao.com/the-market-collapse-of-march-12-20...
So to answer your question, yes, I would be happy to take you tether for USDC or DAI
It's much less volatile compared to other coins and if it fluctuates a bit that's not really an issue in the short timeframe I do my conversions.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-30/tether-re...
The minds managing the crypto space have never depended on reason or financial integrity, just a means to excite the masses onto their scheme.
Bitcoin can be verified and cannot be forged or arbitrarily created. That is its backing.
What is the backing of the US dollar at this point asides from threat of violence against challengers ?
That is part of the backing of any government issued currency and it's not a bad one. Usually currencies don't collapse or hyperinflate. If society breaks down locally the question is whether some crypto asset or the thing backed by guns will prevail in the mid term.
In war time: I'm betting on the people with the tanks.
That's pretty much as strong as it gets. I joke all the time that at some point someone will found a Bitcoin nation with its own military.
What does it need other than that?
There's some sketchiness there, but generally it works, and of course, there are externalities like petrodollar but generally it's a sound currency.
It's not a super store of value, but it's not meant to be, there are other assets for that.
BTC is about as financially relevant as a GameStop mob, so if we're going to understand it, its' for the populist psychology, not for anything else.
Here is the 'backing':
USD [1]
Canadian Dollar [2]
Euro [3]
Bitcoin -> nothing.
[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WALCL [2] https://www.bankofcanada.ca/research/ [3] https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/annual/balance/html/index.en.h...
In 2019 Tether was proven to be only 74% backed by fiat and fiat-equivalent assets: https://www.coindesk.com/tether-lawyer-confirms-stablecoin-7... This means it's not 74 literal cents per USDT but some proportion of a liquid asset and fiat.
Tether has long since refused to release any concrete of proof of reserve and even when they were heavily pressured to only admitted to a lack thereof (74% in 2019 and that 74% isn't even fiat-only).
Tether is nothing but bad for the crypto-space as when it eventually DOES collapse a lot of people are going to find themselves holding something, USDT, which isn't as backed as they thought it was. Would you give me a dollar right now if I gave you back 74 cents?
The only sensible stable crypto asset is DAI from the MakerDAO which has been battle tested and proven under the worst possible scenarios (2017/2018 bullmarket crash) where it still held it's peg.
I don't know how this extends to USDC etc but for USDT I wouldn't touch it with a 20 foot pole.