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App\Entity\Article {#1094
  -id: 5077
  -title: "Coming UnTethered"
  -slug: "coming-untethered"
  -introtext: "<p><span style="color: #000000;">Tether may or may not be backed by dollars, but nobody seems to care anymore.</span></p>\r\n"
  -content: """
    \r\n
    <figure class="jw jx jy jz ka gs t u paragraph-image" style="text-align: center;">\r\n
    <div class="kb kc br kd v">\r\n
    <div class="t u jv">\r\n
    <div class="gx y br gy">\r\n
    <div class="ke y"><img class="ij ik z ab ac fw v hd" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/12480/1*rWyqLfY9AvQREtfQMtVAZA.jpeg" alt="" width="800" height="512" /></div>\r\n
    </div>\r\n
    </div>\r\n
    </div>\r\n
    <figcaption class="bb bp kf dx kg w t u kh ki aw gd" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #808080;"><strong><br />Money takes on a different form from this perspective. (Photo by&nbsp;Matthew Ansley&nbsp;on&nbsp;Unsplash)<br /><br /></strong></span></figcaption></figure>\r\n
    <p id="bb82" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx ky" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;"><span class="y kz la lb lc ld le lf lg lh br">J</span>ohn Wilson was hot and there was no escaping the heat. It didn’t matter if you stood up, it didn’t matter if you sat down. Like a rabid dog, hounding your every movement, the heat was just one step away from finishing you off.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="8071" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">It didn’t matter how much water you drank, you were always dehydrated. Sweat covered you when you lay in your cot, sweat smothered you when you were out in the yard and sweat shrouded you when you were in the dining room.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="ef00" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Sweat. That was the one inescapable prison within a prison.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="f353" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">To say that Wilson had a troubled childhood was like saying Charles Manson had some minor mental health issues.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="1dcf" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Living under the whip of an abusive, alcoholic father, Wilson had run away from home four times by the age of 10. By 14 he had been in and out of foster homes so many times that he didn’t even bother to unpack each time he arrived at his new digs.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="66e7" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">By 16, he had already been in and out of juvenile detention so many times that the wardens didn’t even bother to ask him what he was in for anymore.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="4085" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">And by the age of 20, had spent the better part of his life in some form of incarceration or other till the point where he knew no other life.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="33fa" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">And one of the peculiarities of being in and out of prison so often is that over time, you start to lose track of what holds value.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="df2c" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Because in the joint, cigarettes are currency. Phone time is currency. Bread is currency. Things that the outside world take for granted, become the lifeblood that lubricates a vast underground economy behind layers of armed guards, watchtowers and steel bars.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="f11d" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">So during the brief moments when Wilson was not staring at the four walls of his cell, when an old friend offered him a cigarette on the street corner, his immediate reflex was to put it in his pocket instead of light it up.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="4bf0" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Because what value is depends on who you’re asking that question to and where they are.</span></p>\r\n
    <h2 id="b81b" class="li hf cs ax aw ee lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt" data-selectable-paragraph="">Paying in Cryptocurrencies</h2>\r\n
    <p id="d3aa" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn lu kp lv kr lw kt lx kv ly kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">So while the New York Attorney General’s office may be pursuing its allegations of fraud against Bitfinex, the company whose owners also own and issue the world’s favorite stablecoin, Tether, that is supposedly tied to U.S. dollars — the rest of the cryptocurrency world have shrugged off the allegations and added to Tether’s use.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="b282" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">And it’s not just Tether that has seen a spike in usage.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="89f9" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">While you wouldn’t expect someone to pay for a meal in gold bullion, that seems to be precisely what people with the digital equivalent are doing.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="955b" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">According to Chainalysis, in the first 7 months of this year, the amount of cryptocurrency sent to 16 merchant service providers, including BitPay rose some 65%.</span></p>\r\n
    <figure class="jw jx jy jz ka gs t u paragraph-image" style="text-align: center;">\r\n
    <div class="kb kc br kd v">\r\n
    <div class="t u lz">\r\n
    <div class="gx y br gy">\r\n
    <div class="ma y">\r\n
    <div class="bq gu z ab ac fw v bj gv gw"></div>\r\n
    <img class="ij ik z ab ac fw v hd" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/8064/1*MnBKiH4cHth4o0Vp86YzNQ.jpeg" alt="" width="800" height="600" /></div>\r\n
    </div>\r\n
    </div>\r\n
    </div>\r\n
    <figcaption class="bb bp kf dx kg w t u kh ki aw gd" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #808080;"><strong><br />Some things in life are priceless, for everything else, there’s a Bitcoin wallet. (Photo by&nbsp;Bitcoin BCH&nbsp;on&nbsp;Unsplash)<br /><br /></strong></span></figcaption></figure>\r\n
    <p id="b762" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">And although Bitcoin more than doubled during the same period, it still accounted for almost 90% of all these transactions despite the fact that in the past, steep price jumps in the bellwether cryptocurrency saw sharp declines in its use as a spendable currency.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="1a80" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Bitcoin as a spendable cryptocurrency may yet see an even greater boost as the Intercontinental Exchange, owner of Bakkt, the platform responsible for delivering the world’s first physically-backed Bitcoin futures contracts, has started testing its consumer app for cryptocurrencies with Starbucks and is set to roll out the application within the first half of 2020.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="8188" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Cryptocurrency payment processors such as BitPay and other payment processing companies are also adding payment support for a wider range of cryptocurrencies which has the potential to boost cryptocurrency-based commerce.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="57f2" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">BitPay, which claims to process more than US$1 billion worth of cryptocurrency annually, anticipates continued growth in that amount and has added Bitcoin Cash, Ether as well as XRP (Ripple) to its repertoire.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="33ff" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">And while the amount of cryptocurrency used in commerce today remains a fraction of mainstream payment methods, growth has been at a breakneck pace.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="0fce" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">At the start of this year, on average US$3 million worth of cryptocurrencies were used per day for payments, by July, that figure had almost doubled to US$5.5 million.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="f62e" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Although inconvenience has been cited as a major stumbling block to greater adoption of cryptocurrencies for payments, there are scores of companies working to improve the speed and volume of transactions that can be processed.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="e2a5" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Transaction confirmation on the Bitcoin network for instance can take up to an hour at times, but non-profits like the Lightning Network are working hard to reduce those times offchain. At a recent Lightning Network meetup in San Francisco, talk of going from 7 to 7,000 transactions per second were slowly but surely coming to fruition.</span></p>\r\n
    <h2 id="bb9b" class="li hf cs ax aw ee lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt" data-selectable-paragraph="">Tethered to The Times</h2>\r\n
    <p id="aab2" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn lu kp lv kr lw kt lx kv ly kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">But where the greatest use of cryptocurrencies for payments has been seen has been the digital dollar — Tether.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="d3f5" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Despite the controversy surrounding Tether, many new initial coin offering (ICO) projects choose to pair their listing with the stablecoin, because it’s easy for investors and traders to value their investments without having to do mental gymnastics.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="6ee1" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Tether’s use in commerce especially has skyrocketed in the first seven months of this year, jumping five-fold and accounting for 9% of all cryptocurrency-based commerce, according to research from Chainalysis.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="fa30" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">And while the&nbsp;crypto Twitterverse&nbsp;is alight with allegations over Tether’s manipulation of Bitcoin’s price, with equally fervent supporters rushing to defend the stablecoin, it has quietly become a popular way to pay for goods and services.</span></p>\r\n
    <figure class="jw jx jy jz ka gs t u paragraph-image" style="text-align: center;">\r\n
    <div class="kb kc br kd v">\r\n
    <div class="t u mb">\r\n
    <div class="gx y br gy">\r\n
    <div class="mc y">\r\n
    <div class="bq gu z ab ac fw v bj gv gw"><img src="/images/articles/global-economy/Unheard_of_in_China.jpg" alt="Unheard of in China" width="800" height="533" /></div>\r\n
    </div>\r\n
    </div>\r\n
    </div>\r\n
    </div>\r\n
    <figcaption class="bb bp kf dx kg w t u kh ki aw gd" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #808080;"><strong>Unheard of in China. (Photo by&nbsp;Sharon McCutcheon&nbsp;on&nbsp;Unsplash)</strong></span></figcaption></figure>\r\n
    <p id="bbb5" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">One reason of course is its ease of use.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="c4c3" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Till date, the Federal Reserve has yet to issue a digital dollar or its equivalent.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="f674" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Whereas China has the ubiquitous WeChat Pay and Alipay which can be used not just to pay merchants, but between peers as well, there is no such equivalent application in the United States.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="03c1" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">At sites like CoinPayments.net, one of the largest processors of cryptocurrency payments, Tether accounts for as much as 1 in 3 of transactions, an increase of 30 times what it was from a year ago, based on data from the Cayman Islands-based firm.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="25b8" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">CoinPayments.net claims to work with no fewer than 2.4 million vendors.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="3c7d" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Over at B2BinPay, Tether now makes up a fifth of all transactions originating from both customers and merchants, compared to less than a tenth a year ago, according to Ievgen Iugrinov, a product manager for the Moscow-based company.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="040b" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">And this perhaps may be why Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s warnings that the U.S. is being left behind when it comes to digital currencies may not be strictly linked to self interest in launching Facebook’s own cryptocurrency Libra.</span></p>\r\n
    <h2 id="08ac" class="li hf cs ax aw ee lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt" data-selectable-paragraph="">Private Solutions Fill Public Spaces</h2>\r\n
    <p id="9612" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn lu kp lv kr lw kt lx kv ly kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">There is clearly a demand for a digital dollar, or at least the convenience of one and supposedly, Libra was intended to be that digital dollar.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="6429" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">The same driving forces that made Tether so popular with cryptocurrency traders when it arrived on the scene in 2017 is now driving its use as a medium of exchange today — its stability.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="e9a6" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Because Tether is tied at a one-to-one ratio with the dollar, it effectively works as a reserve of cryptocurrency that can very quickly and seamlessly be swapped out for other cryptocurrencies when needed.</span></p>\r\n
    <figure class="jw jx jy jz ka gs t u paragraph-image" style="text-align: center;">\r\n
    <div class="kb kc br kd v">\r\n
    <div class="t u md">\r\n
    <div class="gx y br gy">\r\n
    <div class="ma y">\r\n
    <div class="bq gu z ab ac fw v bj gv gw"></div>\r\n
    <img class="ij ik z ab ac fw v hd" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/10368/1*3lySzCYHOU4PNdSXMpNHog.jpeg" alt="" width="800" height="600" /></div>\r\n
    </div>\r\n
    </div>\r\n
    </div>\r\n
    <figcaption class="bb bp kf dx kg w t u kh ki aw gd" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #808080;"><strong><br />A solution to digitize the dollar? (Photo by&nbsp;Tim Bennett&nbsp;on&nbsp;Unsplash)<br /><br /></strong></span></figcaption></figure>\r\n
    <p id="c480" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">As Tether is already pegged to the dollar, there’s no need to struggle with cumbersome fiat-cryptocurrency on and off ramps and Tether is increasingly being accepted by merchants.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="29a3" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Cryptocurrency store directory Cryptowerk currently lists 265 companies that accept Tether for direct payment, a number that is increasing steadily.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="c9f6" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Speaking to&nbsp;<em class="me">Bloomberg</em>, Sean Mackay, operations head at CoinPayments.net noted,</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="9d9c" class="kk kl cs me km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" style="padding-left: 30px;" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">“Merchants used to accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and convert it into Tether in order to hedge against the volatility.”</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="3361" class="kk kl cs me km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" style="padding-left: 30px;" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">“Now we are seeing the payments just being done directly in Tether.”</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="e2e5" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">And while some may be tempted to believe that Tether’s use is coming at the expense of Bitcoin and Ether, that would be a mistaken assumption.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="d464" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">To begin with, Bitcoin has generally been viewed more as a store of value than a medium of exchange and Ether serves the role of the resource which commands usage of the Ethereum protocol’s smart contract system and as a conduit for ICOs — they may be called crypto “currencies”, but that may be more a misfortune of nomenclature then reflective of their value proposition.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="c025" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">The recent surge in Bitcoin’s dollar value may have made some holders (“hodlers” if you must) of the cryptocurrency somewhat reticent to start spending their recently regained wealth, but it has also pushed others to spend while the value is high.</span></p>\r\n
    <h2 id="e9af" class="li hf cs ax aw ee lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #10228b;">Cash for the Uncashables</span></h2>\r\n
    <p id="366e" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn lu kp lv kr lw kt lx kv ly kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">One area where Tether has gained real traction is among merchants who till now have struggled to gain access to credit card processing fees, or who would rather avoid high card processing fees, including adult stores, online gambling sites, and vape and cannabis shops.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="745b" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Take Toronto’s Green Earth Robotics for instance, which sells sex dolls, where Bitcoin, Ether and Tether are the three most popular cryptocurrency payment methods.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="6533" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">According to the company’s co-owner Michael Chrzan,</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="c70d" class="kk kl cs me km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" style="padding-left: 30px;" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">“Tether, it’s started catching up.”</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="8844" class="kk kl cs me km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" style="padding-left: 30px;" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">“Since their community is growing, we believe it will expand in time. When the community is growing, they start using the coin.”</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="3a56" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">But Tether isn’t without its controversies.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="9079" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Tether’s parent companies are being sued by the New York Attorney General for allegedly trying to hide loses of over US$850 million in co-mingled client and corporate funds.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="81d6" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">But to be fair, Tether itself may have been the victim of a lack of banking services, which may have led to this outcome.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="45c3" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Either way, Tether and its backers have vigorously denied these allegations.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="1478" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Then there’s the once-touted one-to-one backing of a dollar behind each Tether which no longer seems to be the case.</span></p>\r\n
    <figure class="jw jx jy jz ka gs t u paragraph-image" style="text-align: center;">\r\n
    <div class="kb kc br kd v">\r\n
    <div class="t u mi">\r\n
    <div class="gx y br gy">\r\n
    <div class="mc y">\r\n
    <div class="bq gu z ab ac fw v bj gv gw"></div>\r\n
    <img class="ij ik z ab ac fw v hd" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/9504/1*tgYtGJrObuHMFVew530CNg.jpeg" alt="" width="800" height="533" /></div>\r\n
    </div>\r\n
    </div>\r\n
    </div>\r\n
    <figcaption class="bb bp kf dx kg w t u kh ki aw gd" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #808080;"><strong><br />Cash only, but we’ll take your Tethers too. (Photo by&nbsp;David Len&nbsp;on&nbsp;Unsplash)<br /><br /></strong></span></figcaption></figure>\r\n
    <p id="65b1" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">In a court filing earlier this year, Tether revealed that only 74% of Tethers are covered by cash and short term securities and absent an independent audit, users of Tether are going to have to take its owners on their word.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="cb85" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">And if Tether is indeed not “fully covered” and are akin to bank accounts where a simultaneous withdrawal of all deposits would precede a run on the bank, traders and users of the stablecoin seem content to play a game of “Pass the Parcel.”</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="a79d" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Which is why most traders don’t hold on to large deposits of Tether at any point in time and why those who have it are quick to spend it on goods and services and even other cryptocurrencies which at least have the blockchain to back them.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="5f0b" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">Eventually though, the accumulation of risk of Tether failing starts to concentrate on the merchants who accept it for goods and services and who store large quantities of it.</span></p>\r\n
    <p id="ee82" class="kk kl cs ax km b kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx" data-selectable-paragraph=""><span style="color: #000000;">But then ultimately, what a currency is depends on who you’re asking and where they are. By that measure, is a Tether so far different from a cigarette?</span></p>
    """
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