Tether is a cryptocurrency issued by the company Tether Limited. Born as a stablecoin, it was initially stated that each token was backed by one US dollar, however, several controversies have put this point on the table.
Tether it was the first stablecoin to exist. It was launched in 2014 by businessman Reeve Collins; bitcoin investor Brock Pierce; and the developer, Craig Stellers. Since then it has become the most important by market capitalization.
Originally tether was available through the Omni Layer, but now they can be accessed in various blockchain. With the approval of Tether Limitedyou can switch between USD and Tether, a mechanism that helps keep the stablecoin anchored.
The Tether Limited network is in turn controlled by the owners of the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange, which was accused by the New York Attorney’s Office of using Tether funds to cover 850 million in missing funds since mid-2018.
Investors and regulators of cryptocurrencies have also joined the debate by pointing out that the stablecoin is not fully guaranteed, a situation that has taken it to court because its users have no guarantee that their tokens can be exchanged for dollars. On April 30, 2019, the company’s lawyer confirmed that the token was tied to a change of $0.74.
In 2018, the Bloomberg media revealed that the tether company was under investigation by the United States Federal Prosecutor for an alleged manipulation of bitcoin; the following year this crypto surpassed the most popular in trading volume per day and monthly.
While the debate is heating up every day about the convenience or not of its use, Tether is trading today at USD 1.0002392, which represents a change of 0.01% with respect to the last 24 hours and a variation of 0.03% with reference to its value reached in the last hour.
Regarding its market popularity, it has maintained the position number 3 between digital currencies.
A cryptocurrency is a digital medium of exchange that does not exist physically and that uses a cryptographic encryption to ensure the integrity of its operations, while maintaining control over the creation of its new units.
Bitcoin was the first to hit the market and was followed by others that have also had great relevance, such as litecoin, ethereum, IOTA, tether, cash, ripple, decentraland, even some that emerged from memes like dogecoin.
Cryptocurrencies have different characteristics that make them unique: not being regulated by any institution; not require intermediaries in transactions; and almost always use accounting blocks (blockchain) to prevent new cryptocurrencies from being created illegally or transactions already made from being altered.
However, by not having regulators such as a central bank or similar entities, they are singled out for not being reliable, being volatile, promoting fraud, not having a legal framework that supports its users, allowing the operation of illegal activities, among others.
Although it could be a paradox, cryptocurrencies in turn guarantee security to their miners in terms of the network in which it is located (lattice) and that implies code management; Breaking this security is possible but not so easy to achieve, since whoever tried it would have to have a computational power superior even to that of Google itself.
To buy and exchange them you can through specialized portals. Its value varies based on supply, demand and the commitment of miners, so it can change faster than traditional money, but the more people are interested and want to buy a certain coin, the higher its value.
However, whoever invests in this type of digital asset must be very clear that this form brings with it high risk to capitalWell, just as there can be an increase, it can also unexpectedly crash and wipe out the savings of its users.
To store them, users must have a digital purse or wallet, which is actually a software through which it is possible to save, send and make transactions of cryptocurrencies. In reality, this type of wallet only stores the keys that mark the ownership and right of a person over a certain cryptocurrency, so these codes are the ones that really must be protected.
