TL; DR
Full story
Before you say anything – we know…
Write a feature article about a stablecoin under the headline “This is cool” feels like a stretch.
So we start with this:
How would you feel if tomorrow someone (and we mean… everyone) with which you have made a transaction via a debit or credit card, can then see and track your finances?
We’re talking: your barista, your landlord, that Nigerian prince you so kindly helped out in the early 2000s…
They can all see in real time how much money you have (had) and what you spend it on.
You would smoke, wouldn’t you? (We’re all used to a certain level of financial privacy, and we’re not about to give it up).
Well, in crypto that waking nightmare is actually a harsh reality.
And it’s exactly what Archblock’s ‘1USD’ privacy-focused stablecoin is designed to combat.
1USD offers people the stability of a US dollar-pegged crypto asset, combined with the privacy they expect from cash – and here’s the kicker:
It fully complies with legal requirements.
That’s an important feature!
Because there is no way on God’s green earth that governments will allow cryptocurrencies that are really its existence is untraceable (we’ve already seen heavy sanctions against crypto privacy tech, such as Tornado Cash).
Cool! So how does it work?
The 1USD token has only just been announced, so the technical details of how these ‘private-but-not-so-private-that-you’ll-end-up-on-a-government-list’ features actually work, but…
Our guess would be this:
Transactions and account balances are not publicly visible. But they have some sort of “audit” switch, which allows outside entities (e.g. the IRS) with the right permissions to take a little look (in the same way they can do with banks).
Does this fit with the sexy-crypto-anarchist-bad-boy lifestyle that some crypto users like to promote?
Absolutely not.
But it solves a big glaring problem (basic privacy) – without you receiving a sanction.
And not getting sanctioned is cool as hell!
