Tether (USDT): Price, Charts and Market Cap

Blockchain has numerous advantages over traditional financial technologies, as it offers cheap, fast and unlimited transactions without intermediaries. However, the volatility of blockchain-based currencies’ exchange rates does not allow them to become widespread.

Tether combines the technology of bitcoin with fiat currencies, which allows one to take advantage of blockchain, using a currency backed by the US Treasury or the European Central Bank. According to Reeve Collin, the project’s CEO, Tether converts the dollar into digital form and transfers this digital dollar to the blockchain.

The Tether platform allows one to convert the US dollar, euro or Japanese yen into the corresponding Tether tokens. Tether coins are 100% backed up with fiat currencies on the accounts of the company, which remain completely transparent and audited to guarantee full compliance with the declared reserves. Tether can be exchanged for the respective currencies using the platform at any time.

Tether uses the mastercoin / omni protocol to create tokens. Thanks to Omni, Tether transactions are hashed and passed through Bitcoin blockchain, where they are checked by Bitcoin-miners along with other transactions.

Transfers between Tether wallets are completely free.

For many ideological fans of Bitcoin Tether is too similar to a fiat currency –  and not because of its link to the dollar. Tether is also centralized, requires permission to use and depends on the users' trust in an organization – which is the opposite to the principles on which bitcoin is based.