Tether Facing Scrutiny from the Research Community - Explosive New Research Paper Claims Manipulation

in #bitcoin6 years ago (edited)

If you put people in a position where they can print money, and they are never checked, eventually they will...
_ Unknown

Maybe. A new research article was released today that pulled extensive data from the bitcoin blockchain and the omnilayer that issues tether, that if true, purports to show that tethers were being printed and used when bitcoin prices were dropping and then being sold at the top and end of month.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3195066

tether_paper.png
Source: SSRN

In a prior article, using statistical analysis here, we had presented data that seems implausible to explain based on organic demand alone:
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@kenraphael/audit-the-teths-a-macro-case-for-why-tethers-need-to-be-audited-for-confidence-to-return-to-the-market

This article, and this new research, as well as the inability of Tethers to produce a clean independent audit should make anyone in the space be uncomfortable with the current state. Is it that it is not possible to have an unregulated system without someone or groups of people either attempt to game it at the expense of others or at best refuse to be as transparent as the market demands? Maybe the market is not demanding transparency? If it is, then most people in the space should demand a clean accounting of any peg currency that is in the position to print demand in the cryptocurrency space.

What does all the trading analysis and prognostications and strategies mean if everything is all just being manipulated? (And by the way, the analysts have been wrong during the earlier part of the 2018 and we could well be looking at possibly at least a year before bitcoins returns to the possibly drunken ATH of Dec 2017.)

Hopefully, all this leads to a clear response from tethers or a clean up, or more users demanding the same through their choice of exchange and peg currency.

Why critic and flee from a system that prints supply (money) to one that prints demand with same or even worse effect?


April 8 2018: Math-Based Fundamental Value Analysis Has Been Right About Bitcoin Bear Trend So Far - What Does it Tell Us About When Sustained Growth Will Return?
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@kenraphael/math-based-fundamental-value-analysis-has-been-right-about-bitcoin-bear-trend-so-far-what-does-it-tell-us-about-when-sustained

Mar 17 2018: Lightning Was Released This Week – What Will be the Impact for the Bitcoin Network and the Cryptocurrency Market?
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@kenraphael/lightning-was-released-today-what-will-be-the-impact-for-the-bitcoin-network-and-the-cryptocurrency-market

Mar 16 2018: Social Media Trading Analysts Are Likely Mostly Doing a Disservice to the Blockchain Community
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@kenraphael/social-media-trading-analysts-are-likely-mostly-doing-a-disservice-to-the-blockchain-community

Mar 09 2018: Blockchain Technology Potential (Series 1) – A Review of a Recent PAYPAL CryptoCurrency Patent Filing and What It Means for the Future of the Technology
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@kenraphael/blockchain-technology-potential-series-1-a-review-of-a-recent-paypal-cryptocurrency-patent-filing-and-what-it-means-for-the

Mar 07 2018: Audit the Teths – A Macro Case for Why Tethers Need to be Audited for Confidence to Return to the Market
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@kenraphael/audit-the-teths-a-macro-case-for-why-tethers-need-to-be-audited-for-confidence-to-return-to-the-market

Feb 24 2018: A Review of a Few Fundamental Metrices that Drive Bitcoin Value and What They Currently Indicate
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@kenraphael/a-review-of-a-few-fundamental-metrices-that-drive-bitcoin-value-and-what-they-currently-indicate

Feb 17 2018: Bitcoin Has Not Yet Fundamentally Recovered At This Time – A Mathematical Case
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@kenraphael/bitcoins-have-not-yet-fundamentally-recovered-at-this-time-a-mathematical-case

Feb 12 2018: There is Little Chance Bitcoins can Sustain any Real Recovery Until This Fundamental Metric Begins to Turn Upwards Again
https://steemit.com/bitcoins/@kenraphael/there-is-little-chance-bitcoins-can-sustain-any-real-recovery-until-this-fundamental-metric-begins-to-turn-upwards-again

Feb 09 2018: This Single Metric Seems to Correlate More with CryptoAsset Values The Past Two Weeks Than Most Predictive Methods
https://steemit.com/cryptocurrencies/@kenraphael/this-single-metric-seems-to-correlate-more-with-cryptoasset-values-the-past-two-weeks-than-most-predictive-methods

About the Author
Ken has a doctorate in Engineering, and a master’s in Computer Aided Engineering, An IT professional, programmer and published researcher with over thirty publications in various fields of technology, including several peer reviewed journals and publications.

Legal Disclaimer: I am not a financial adviser and this is not financial advice. The information provided in this post and any other posts that I make and any accompanying material is for informational and educational purposes only. It should not be considered financial or investment advice at all. You should consult with a financial or investment professional to determine what may be best for your individual needs.
This is only opinion. It is not advice nor recommendation to either buy or sell anything! It's only meant for use as informative, educational, or entertainment purposes.


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If people get an opportunity to game the system, then some of them will. Especially when there are blind believers and hype, then there are always smart people who find a way to exploit the system in their favor.

So this needs fixing indeed. And it is not the end of the world. Every new system has its problems. For the system to mature, these problems need to be fixed.

As long as it is clear that a fix is coming, trust will return to the market. But if this is ignored, trust will be lost.

Let’s hope that people in control of tethers will see the benefit in the long term of a proper audit and control by a financial watchdog (that’s what we would call it in the Netherlands, but you probably get what I mean).

Unfortunately, far too often people ignore problems, or choose short term gain over long term gain, so we will have to see what happens.

great post I have been saying Tether has been propping up prices since December, I knew bitconnect would fall and then this would be the next inevitable step in the process of the cryptocurrency lifecycle

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You got a 32.09% upvote from @brupvoter courtesy of @kenraphael!

Not surprised. I would rather hold or sell for fiat. Never trusted tether and probably never will.

Why researchers have taken so much time to disclose the reality.

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