This is a much more optimal solution than blockchain.

that we need one company to achieve such big scale that they literally are regulated in every single country and basically become monopolistic in terms of their influence?

a Blockchain based system can maintain similar effects but with a balance of power

think about it

No worries, if any DLT-system would become somewhere somehow relevant, any regulator will catch it sooner or later.

Though, its an issue for the company, as this allocates a lot of resources wrongly.

I get a push notification if a wire comes in.

And if I send one I’m carful the details are correct, but I’m not completely doomed if I typo the account number.

Stablecoin issues are just waving their hands and saying “blockchain” to try to magic away that liability.

Otherwise they’re doing the exact same thing.

We need to trust those running the system.

Societies cannot function without trusted intermediaries, in finance and many other things.

If we are in a democracy then the government regulates such organisations and should punish those who do not comply.

Blockchain doesn’t scale as a replacement so the point is moot.

Why does it have to be decentralised (by which I assume you mean permissionlesss to join as a validator?)

The only reason for this - it would seem to me - is the ability to have nobody in control who can be subject to law enforcement.

If you need this kind of decentralisation blockchain, and all its inefficiency, is the only choice.

Societies should not require such things though. They need to have trustable institutions and intermediaries to function, in finance and many other areas.

> Societies should not require such things though. They need to have trustable institutions and intermediaries to function, in finance and many other areas.

...which is more or less the same conclusion that I've arrived at by the end.

There is a grain of truth in what you say, but your conclusions are off.

Tether started as a way to pump the Bitcoin price, under the guise of better facilitating payments on crypto exchanges. They’d issue Tethers out of nowhere and use it to buy BTC and wash trade.

It was so successful it got to the level many people thought of it as “as good as dollars”.

This led to massive demand for it outside of Bitcoin pumpers - with criminals, sanctions evaders, money launderers of all kinds. Your granny needs to buy tethers to send money to the scammer she’s on the phone to.

So yes I do think they’ve probably moved away from issuing unbacked tethers. But only because they’ve found another niche which is also extremely suspect.

There is nothing to commend these guys. It’s a massive scam.

Just because they ditch the proof-of-work doesn’t make it efficient.

The blockchain structure, the validation mechanism etc are still a very inefficient way to do general compute or database type functions.

“Post the collateral”

I’m fairly sure if you want a bank loan and are prepared to lodge cash in the bank to secure it they won’t need too much paperwork.

Usually people getting loans don’t have the funds in cash already. Defi is nothing like that its currency speculation at best.

If you want to buy a house and you need a loan, it is a deep investigation into your bank finances.

If I have the money for a down payment, and I want to buy a house, I don't need someone poking around at my finances, even if I have nothing to hide.

> Usually people getting loans don’t have the funds in cash already.

Source? People get loans for all sorts of reasons. Loans are backed by some sort of collateral and if that isn't assets, it definitely involves having someone look at your records.

> Defi is nothing like that its currency speculation at best.

Wrong. DeFi itself has nothing to do with speculation. There is $57B locked up in AAVE on ethereum alone. It isn't a toy.

Not unless you lie about what money you have and just print them out of thin air.

Not real audits by a major firm.

Just pinkie promises. David Gerard discussed a while back:

https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2021/03/30/tether-produ...