The news of USDT (Tether) that arrives in Bitcoin and Lightning through TaProot resources was welcomed with various reactions.
Some believe that it is a good for Bitcoin (most, in reality, based on a small survey that I conducted on X; yes, I know that the size of the sample is not large enough because the results are significant. I am still sharing) , while others) I’m not so enthusiastic about this.
Tether (USDT) on Bitcoin and Lightning is:
(Please share because in the comments and please vote.)
– Frank Corva (@Frankcorva) February 13, 2025
“Others” include me – I’m not so enthusiastic.
Having said that, I tried to have an open mentality.
Recently I also profiled Jesse Shrader, co-founder and CEO of Amboss, a company that provides intelligent payment infrastructures for payments made on Lightning, who is a supporter of the USDT on Bitcoin and Lightning, in an attempt to see what I could miss to the advantages of being able to transition with US Digital Dollars compared to lightning.
In my interview with Shrader, he did the following points:
- USDT proliferation has shown that there is a demand for US dollars globally
- USDT is a huge payment mechanism; In 2024 he developed over $ 10 trillions of payments
- USDT will bring more liquidity to the Lightning network, which will help the network grow and manage larger payments
From a corporate point of view, it is difficult to argue that the precedents are not good reasons to bring USDT to Lightning. And, as someone who believes that people should be free to use any money they want, I cannot discuss with them when I look at them through a practical lens.
However, I believe that bringing USDT to Bitcoin and Lightning has a price.
A dimension of that price is technical, while the other is philosophical.
On a technical level, the execution of USDT on Bitcoin and Lightning potentially puts Bitcoin’s safety at risk.
If we see another Bitcoin Hard Fork comparable to what we have seen during the block war, the largest economic knots on the Bitcoin network, such as the one managed by Coinbase, which manages most of the bitcoin that supports the United States’s bitcoin Etf, can Choose to choose to support the “tether fork” of the network, which could also include other changes to the network that could jeopardize the safety of Long -term bitcoin.
In other words, if artists of the caliber of Coinbase, Tether and some other important actors in the support of the Bitcoin space and push for the “Fork Tether”, other main economic knots will probably follow the example.
In addition, all those who use USDT on Bitcoin and Lightning would probably also support that side of the fork, because the USDT that remains on the non -“tethe forks” will probably be canceled.
Lyn Alden wrote about it in his essay “Proof-Of-Stake and Stablecoins: a blockchain centralization dilemma”.
In the piece he said that “the custodians can cancel the value of all Stablecoin from any side of the fork do not see like the correct one”.
Of course, Alden referred to an intelligent contract blockchain such as Ethereum and Solana who are based on Defi, of which Stablecoins are an important component, when he wrote this, but the same would be applied to Bitcoin. (Alden was right in this statement, as we saw when Ethereum moved from a work test to the consent mechanism of the test during “The Munge” of 2022.
Post-Merge, Stablecoins broadcasters such as Circle and Tether have continued to support the tokenized dollars on Ethereum, and Non EthereumePow (Ethw), the oldest chain that continued to manage the consent algorithm of the test of work.)
The same type of scenario could take place with Bitcoin in case of chain division, giving the link an excessive amount of power on Bitcoin.
My other reason not to appreciate the USDT on Bitcoin is philosophical.
Bitcoin, which was released into the world in the wake of the great financial crisis of 2007-2009, was created as an alternative to the US dollar.
At the time, the dollar was printed mass (i.e., devalued) to save the same banks that caused the crisis.
Bitcoin, the money that cannot be printed on the whim of a government or a central bank was created to compete with the US dollar, not to help him support.
Bringing USDT, a mechanism that the United States government uses to support hegemony in US dollars all over the world, in Bitcoin it seems morally badly to me – and I’m not here for this.
So, on a practical level, I understand why some are in favor of the USDT that arrive in Bitcoin and Lightning. I just think that many miss the largest picture in that bitcoin has been potentially put in a vulnerable position and has been part of its proposal of obscured value (even if perhaps only temporarily).
This article is a Take. The opinions expressed are entirely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.