I’ve been on a bit of a kick lately bringing to light different ways that cryptocurrency can see an increase in adoption of new users. I’ve mentioned before the need for less price volatility and of course, this leads us into the hands of “stable” or pegged cryptocurrencies.
If you have done even just a little bit of research into these types of cryptocurrency options, most likely you came across Tether, or NuBits, or those options found on the BitShares platform like BitUSD. Each of these use or have used different methods for achieving a relatively stable price, and each of which have either faltered in achieving it at some point, or are using less than transparent methods of maintaining its stability.
Today I will be briefly covering more cryptocurrencies that exist for your stabilization pleasure, but I also want to raise some questions that I think are important to consider when looking at the long term goals of these types of coins.

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First up, let’s go ahead and take a peek at one of the new tokens that has been gaining a lot of media attention and that is the token brought to us thanks to the Winklevoss twins and the Ethereum blockchain: the Gemini Dollar (GUSD).

• The Gemini Dollar achieves their peg and price stability due to the tokens being “strictly” pegged to the reserves of USD held in a US bank. This USD deposit balance will be checked monthly with the results being made public as well.
• Gemini Dollars are the first stable coin to receive a form of regulatory backing thanks to the New York Department of Financial Services. The GUSD tokens are issued by the Gemini Trust Company.
• It's worth it to note that within the fine print, you'll discover that your GUSDs can be frozen at any time depending on the whim of this company.
• Since these tokens are of the ERC20 variety, you can expect to trade them on any Ethereum based decentralized exchange, like IDEX for example as well as the Gemini exchange. They've also recently been added to HitBTC.
• With the kind of consistent and transparent auditing that this stable coin will undergo, it begs the question: As Gemini Dollars grow, how will Tether change or will it change at all to account for this difference in trust.

Next let’s take a look at another new token, this one is called Havven (HAV.

• Instead of going the regulated route like Gemini Dollars, Haaven issues tokens based on a distributed collateral pool. This pool is grown from the transaction fees. With a growing number of transactions brings the ability to issue more HAV tokens, this is what allows the token supply to increase as demand increases.
• Like Gemini Dollars, Havven is also an ERC20 token. As such, you can expect to be able to trade it on Ethereum based exchanges.
• It’s been in circulation for 6 months now and it’s worth it to note that this token has seen fluctuations that span from $0.77-$0.08.

I wanted to cover TrueUSD in this video as well, but it didn’t take me long to realize that this stable coin and the TrustToken platform itself warranted much more time spent explaining how it works and its benefits. So keep an eye out for that video coming in the next week or so.

Each Thursday evening (if you are in the U.S) I host a show on the YouTube channel: Crypto Cast Network, the show is called Crypto Q&A. It’s an hour long livestream show where I host two cryptocurrency or blockchain experts and we answer questions posed by the audience. It’s a great show if you’re looking for ways to voice your questions to experts. But I’m bringing this up because in the last episode, Blake Anderson and Vortex spoke about pegged cryptocurrencies and explored why it’s realistic to view them more as tools that will help new users become familiar and comfortable with this concept of cryptocurrencies. Most likely these type of coins or tokens will be most beneficial to business to business transactions, and bringing new people into cryptocurrency, but after time, will there still be a demand for a cryptocurrency that is pegged to a fiat currency that has itself diminished in value, perhaps dramatically? I’d like to extend these questions to you the viewer, what do you think the future of stable coins will be and how do you see them being utilized best?

The irony here, is that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin will one day prove to be quite a bit more valuable than the fiat currencies these stable coins are trying so desperately to saddle up to.

That being said, for now, they can prove to be quite useful for those searching for some price action relief and for those who are timid to dip their toes into the ocean of cryptocurrency.

Additional Reading/Links:

Gemini Dollar
Havven Chart
Havven White Paper
Crypto Q&A Episode 2
Crypto Cast Network