HOMEWORK WEEK 6 TETHER(USDT) #yohan2on-week6
In 2009,Satoshi Nakamoto created the first Bitcoin,he however wasn't the first to have come up with the idea as David Chaum a cryptographer had earlier in 1983 developed a system called E-cash , twelve years later he developed Digicash that used cryptography to make economic transactions confidential,. In 1998 Wei Dai revolutionised the idea of focusing mainly decentralization. This system had no financial institution behind it.
The economic crises of 2008 drove Nakamoto to create his crypto currency as the crisis affected millions of citizens, he wanted individuals to see a new form of money apart from the conventional one and how they can benefit from it. The adoption of this new coin however created other challenges for it's teaming market with the issue of volatility of the coin taking center stage. This prompted the creation of stable which have their values fixed to $1.
Tether(USDT) co founded by Brock Pierce and Craig Sellars (the latter being a former CTO of mastercoin foundation).Tether originally called "Realcoin" and was announced by co founders:Brock Pierce,Craig Sellars and Reeve Collins in July 2014 as a santa Monica based start up. It's first issuance of tokens occurred in 6th October 2014 in the Bitcoin blockchain. However on November Tether CEO Reeve Collins announced it's renaming to Tether. Originally designed to build the necessary bridge between Fiat currencies and crypto currencies and offer stability, transparency and minimize transaction charges.
Tether price decreased to lows of $0.98 on 15th October 2018 owing to fears that investors were losing faith in the token, on November reports emerged that U.S Federal prosecutors were looking into whether Tether was used to manipulate Bitcoin price. For a while it processed US dollar transactions through Taiwanese banks which in turn sent the money through the bank Wells Fargo to allow the funds move outside Taiwan. However on April 18th 2017,these transactions were blocked, Tether would in conjunction with Bitfinex file a lawsuit against Wells Fargo, this however was withdrawn a week later. In September 2019,Tether announced the launching of an additional ERC-20 token for both US dollar and Euro . From January 2017 to September 2018 outstanding Tether's grew from $10 to about $2.8 billion.
New York attorney general, Letitia James filled a suit accusing Bitfinex of covering losses to the sum of $850 million, this involved another company, crypto capital corp- a Panamanian payment processor. With Bitfinex alleged to have deposited $1billion to the company due Bitfinex's inability to obtain normal banking relationships. With Bitfinex and Tether having prior knowledge in 2018 that the company (crypto capital)had absconded with the said money and failing to inform investors. At a settlement on February 2021 Bitfinex and Tether agreed to pay 18.5 million as penalty and Reggie who is alleged to have link with crypto capital indicted on 30th April for running an unlicensed money transmitting business for virtual currency traders.
Tether runs on Ethereum and has been linked to Ethereum network congestion. Tether tokens can be transacted in popular exchanges that includes Binance, Coinspot, Bitfinex and Kraken.
Image source:Crypto Logos