Hi friends, I'm here again to participate in this week's homework Week-7 task Lectured by @yohan2on. Lessons by @yohan2on has continued to be more informative and impactful, maybe my reason why I will always want to start up with it's homework before others.
Week-7 lessons on stable coins: part2 is well detailed and I will want to write on the USD coins (USDC).

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INTRODUCTION

Firstly, just a recap of what a Stablecoins before giving an overview of what USDC is and it's features. A Stablecoin is simply that cryptocurrency designed to stabilize the price volatility of another fiat, crypto or commodity. The price stability which is a key function of any Stablecoin allows traders transact freely. This enables ease of moving funds without distortion or price changes in and out of exchanges bearing in mind it's low costs and efficiency.

USD coin (USDC) in this context is one of the allowable traded Stablecoins in the cryptocurrency blockchain that was launched in September 26, 2018. This was designed to be pegged to the USD (US Dollar). The USD Coin is also seen as one of the alternative to the USD backed cryptocurrencies. Other known USD backed cryptocurrencies also include the USDT and TUSD.

The USD Coin was necessitated to tokenize US Dollars and enhance it's use over the internet and blockchain. This would help to circulate and move the USD easily in minutes anywhere in the world. In doing so, this brings the needed stability in the cryptocurrency blockchain which thrives to opens up more new opportunities with more trading and lending services required.

This coin (USDC) brings the flexibility required whereby it can be changed back to the USD at anytime. This exchange/swap deal is ensured with ERC-20 smart contract (built on the Ethereum blockchain) and as we all know, most recent and old wallets are compatible to it.

USD Coin is developed by the Centre consortium, a partnership between Circle and Coinbase. The technology and governing framework are developed by Centre, while Circle and Coinbase are the first commercial issuers of USDC.
Circle was founded in 2013 by the entrepreneurs Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville.

HOW DOES USD COIN WORK
The USD COIN goes in line with every single USD, and this process of converting both coin/fiat is know as tokenization. Tokenization may happen in either ways; the USD can be swapped for the USDC or the USDC be swapped for the USD.

During Tokenizing USD into USDC, these are the required steps.to follow;

• The user who wants the USDC sends USD to the token issuer's bank account.
• The issuer bank account creates an equivalent amount of USDC for the USD sent into the issuer account by the use of the USDC smart contract.
• Finally, the newly created USDC are delivered to the user who sent in USD to the issuer account.
  Let us also bare in mind that the substituted USD sent in are held in the account reserve.

Also, redeeming your USDC for USD is just like the first process, but in this case it is the reverse. For example, if a user sends in USDC into a user account, the following is expected to occur to redeem an equivalent of same amount in USD sent in as USDC;

• The USDC smart contract receives a request from the issuer unit to exchange the equivalent amount of USDC for USD and immediately takes such USDC amount out from circulation.
• This request is granted and the issuer sends the USD equivalent into the user's account. Amount sent is less all incurred fees.

The USDC is seen to work in full transparency in all her dealings. This is facilitated by the use of some financial institution where this USD reserves are domiciled in Fiat currency. In furtherance to this transparency, all USDC issuers are required to publish their USD holdings.

HOW TO USE THE USD COIN*

Let's quickly remember that USDC represents every single USD on the Ethereum blockchain which is also an ERC-20 tokens. And most wallets seems to support this standard since it runs on the Ethereum blockchain. For a user to redeem or start tokenizing, the user needs to register and account with KYC bearing in mind that a legitimate account would be linked to it, to enable it perform some various actions in the platform.

Some of the various actions to be taken when this user account has been set up include the following;

• Ability to tokenize USD
• Ability to Redeem USDC
• Ability to transfer USDC to other ERC-20 compatible wallets.
• Ability to deposit from other ERC-20 compatible addresses.

In USDC platform, there are no charges on transactions which include tokenizing and redeeming services. But there $50 charge fee for incorrect/rejected transfers done in the platform. The minimum amount that could be Redeemed is 100USDC with transactions only done in business days and process age of up to 24hrs.

DIFFERENCE OR SIMILARITIES OF USD TO OTHER STABLECOINS

When we talk about Stablecoins, the first thing that should come to our mind is what type or category of Stablecoins are we referring to. We have stablecoins
designed differently for its purpose but with all having the same business module.

We have about 4 different categories of stablecoins namely;

• Fiat Stablecoins: This is where the USDC falls into. They are designed to maintain the fiat value they are pegged to. More examples of the fiat Stablecoins include Tether, True USD(TUSD), Gemini Dollar (GUSD), Digix Gold (DGX) etc.

• Crypto Stablecoins: Stablecoins in this category are designed to maintain the crypto value they pegged to. Example is the Makercoin (MKR & DAI).

• *Algorithmic Stablecoins: These are economic models basically software based geared towards stabilizing price of assets. Note, just unlike the fiat and crypto Stablecoins who are all collateralized, the Algorithmic is Non - collateralized. Examples of the Algorithmic is the Basis, Kowala, Fragments etc.

• Hybrid Stablecoins: This is seen to be a combination of all the listed categories as seen above. It puts the workings of all the collateralized and Non collateralized business models in a blend suitable to harmonize the price of assets. Example is the Carbon, Projects etc.

Most Stablecoins have the same business models but the distinctive difference lies in their fee policies and different partner organizations. Apart form the Tether which is among the fiat Stablecoins that seem not to be transparent in its auditing, others have the same modules operandi. Also is Digix Gold (DGX), whose value is pegged to gold.

WHERE CAN I STORE USD COIN OR GET USDC
USDC can be seen in most exchanges like the Binance, Poloniex, Coinbase pro, Coinbase, CoinEx etc and other host of exchanges.
USDC is an ERC-20 token that runs on the Ethereum blockchain, which means it can be stored in any of the Ethereum wallets. It can be stored in MyEtherWallet, Metawallet, Jazz wallets etc.

Conclusion

Generally, we should know the primary reason for floating a Stablecoin is to maintain and stabilize price volatility of assets; fiat, crypto or stock commodity etc.
It has also helped avoid the usual traditional financial instruments by it's introduction, ameliorate issues of hyperinflation as seen in venezuela and turkey, eased difficulty encountered during transactions with benefits of low transactions fees etc.

Thank you all for reading through my post. Professor @yohan2on , this is my entry for homework week 7 Task

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