Essential assets in crypto exchanges, centralized stablecoins have the potential to change the landscape of the cryptosphere according to Vitalik Buterin. The co-founder of Ethereum believes in particular that they will play a decisive role in the disputes around hard forks. Details in the following.
USDC and USDT stablecoins could influence which blockchains to follow
As a reminder, a hard fork is an upgrade resulting in a blockchain protocol code change. The latter therefore exists in two versions, although the former is generally destined to be abandoned by the community. However, these two versions can be coexist in the event of differences of opinion between network developers. This is notably what happened in 2016 with Ethereum splitting from the original blockchain, currently known as Ethereum Classic.
Co-founder of the project, Vitalik Buterin is well versed in the difficulties that arise from contentious hard forks such as the one experienced by his blockchain. Presenting at the BUIDL Asia conference in Seoul midweek, he claimed that centralized stablecoins like USDT and USD Coin could become decisive factors in such crises. In particular, he argued that the issuers of these assets have the ability to influence the choice of the blockchain that will be massively adopted. Buterin then warns that the economic importance of stablecoins could then become problematic.
A major concern for future hard forks
If he is happy that the next major update of Ethereum will not be the subject of disputes, Buterin did not hide his concern for the future. In particular, he fears that centralized stablecoin providers will weaken the Ethereum Foundation to the point of blocking future hard forks. To remedy this, the Ethereum co-founder suggests that communities adopt multiple stablecoins. The objective will therefore be to reduce their dependence on centralized players.
” The best answer I can give is to encourage the adoption of more types of stablecoins. Basically, you know, people could use USDC, but they could also use DAI and like, at this point, I mean, since DAI has taken this kind of very decisive route of saying ‘we’re not going be purely economic, we’re going to be a wrapper for a whole bunch of real-world assets’ “, he said.
If he managed to win the standoff around the 2016 hard fork, Vitalik Buterin is aware that it could be different in the future. In particular, the battle could be lost in advance if the opposing camp has the support of centralized stablecoin providers. The present release of the co-founder of Ethereum therefore sounds like a warning addressed to the cryptosphere in order to prevent it from danger looming on the horizon.
Source : Cointelegraph
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