Tether cryptocurrency price today. (GlobeLiveMedia/Jovani Perez)

Tether is a cryptocurrency issued by Tether Limited. Born as a stablecoin, it was initially stated that each token was backed by a US dollar, however, several controversies have brought this point to the table.

Attached it was the first stablecoin to exist. It was launched in 2014 by businessman Reeve Collins; bitcoin investor Brock Pierce; and developer, Craig Stellers. Since then, it has become the largest by market capitalization.

Tether was originally available through Omni Layer, but now it can be accessed in various block chains. With the approval of Limited tetheryou can switch between USD and Tether, a mechanism that helps keep the stablecoin pegged.

The Tether Limited network is in turn controlled by the owners of the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange, which has been accused by the New York Attorney’s Office to use Tether funds to cover 850 million missing funds since mid-2018.

Cryptocurrency investors and regulators also joined the debate pointing out that the stablecoin is not fully guaranteed, a situation that brought 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 linked to a change of $0.74.

Physical representations of various cryptocurrencies (REUTERS / Banco Santander)
Physical representations of various cryptocurrencies (REUTERS / Banco Santander)

While the debate heats up every day on the convenience or not of its use, Tether is trading today at $1.0002244, which is a change of 0.01% compared to the last 24 hours and a change of 0.01% with reference to its value reached in the last hour.

Physical representations of various cryptocurrencies.  (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic)
Physical representations of various cryptocurrencies. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic)

cryptocurrencies They cease to be outsiders and begin to enter the language of everyday life, attracting the interest of those who are preoccupied with finances or even to the point of being legalized in some parts of the world.

As the name suggests, virtual currencies they use cryptographic or encryption methods to perform transactions in a decentralized system and, most of them, by block chains (blockchain), which moves it away from traditional models where banks operate as intermediaries.

Its innovation has made many people interested in investing in digital currencies, as its value has increased significantly in recent years, being bitcoin, ethereum and dogecoin the most popular and those with the largest market capitalization.

Each of these units is founded by a process called “mining” and users can acquire them through various agents or cryptocurrency exchanges, to later store them in “crypto wallets” or perform various transactions with them through unique keys.

    An ATM to buy cryptocurrencies.  (EFE)
An ATM to buy cryptocurrencies. (EFE)

Cryptocurrencies have several factors that make them unique: not being controlled by any institution; not require third parties in transactions; and almost always use accounting blocks (blockchain) to prevent new cryptocurrencies from being illegally created or transactions already made from being altered.

However, by not having regulators such as a central bank or similar entities They are flagged as unreliable, volatilepromoting fraud, not having a favorable legal framework for its users, allowing the operation of illegal activities, among others.

Although it may be a paradox, cryptocurrencies in turn guarantee security to their miners in terms of the network in which it is located (lattice) and this involves code management; breaking this security is possible but difficult because whoever would try it would have to have more computing power even than Google itself.

Anyone investing in this type of digital currency should be very clear that this form brings with it a high capital riskWell, just as there can be a surge, it can also crash unexpectedly and wipe out the savings of its users.

To store them, users must have a digital currency or wallet, which is actually software through which it is possible to save, send and transact cryptocurrencies. In reality, this type of wallet only stores the keys that mark a person’s ownership and right to a certain cryptocurrency, so these codes are the ones that really need to be protected.

Categorized in:

Tagged in:

, ,