Episode 6 – FEDCOINS & STABLECOINS

Businesses risk big losses accepting cryptocurrency payments. Do we need a ‘stablecoin’ that holds its value – or government ‘fedcoins’?

Havven is an Australian startup creating a ‘stablecoin’ on the back of a very well-subscribed ICO, raising USD $30,000,000 (closer to AUD $40M). Those funds serve as the surety so that their currency can be exchanged dollar-for-dollar with USD.

We spoke to Havven founder Kain Warwick about what it takes to create a stablecoin – and why people might want to use one.

Tether is the most well-known stablecoin. But it’s been devilishly hard to find an auditor willing to say Tether has an adequate store of USD:

https://www.coindesk.com/tether-review-claims-crypto-asset-fully-backed-theres-catch/

Ecuador had a wild ride into and then out of a ‘fedcoin’:

https://www.cnbc.com/2015/02/06/ecuador-becomes-the-first-country-to-roll-out-its-own-digital-durrency.html

https://cointelegraph.com/news/state-issued-digital-currencies-the-countries-which-adopted-rejected-or-researched-the-concept

But will stablecoins really work?  MIT Tech Review says ‘um…’