本篇為複水穩定幣賽道研究整理，寫於今年4月。Also Contributed in #MatrixDAO Research Contents。
歡迎大家閱讀！格式上有些用截圖較方便清楚。 另篇，中文版的也與穩定幣相關，將進一步探討5月UST崩盤的好文整理會於下一篇👀 也歡迎留言你對穩定幣的認識和想法！ #目錄

（4月UST尚未崩盤時的穩定幣賽道的表統整）
#What is StableCoins? Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that attempt to peg their market value to some external stable asset such as fiat currency (USD, EUR etc), gold and commodities collateralization (backing) or through algorithmic mechanisms of buying and selling the reference asset or its derivatives.

#Why People Use/Rely on StableCoins? 1. Stablecoins are global, open, and accessible to anyone on the internet, 24/7. They’re fast，cheap，secure to transmit and digitally native to the Internet. 2. It allows people to trade faster without having to rely on slow traditional fiat transfers. 3. As the crypto market and decentralized finance (DeFi) has grown rapidly, more people use stablecoins to *yield high interests* and trade, while some crypto derivatives traders use it as collateral. And now more stablecoin issuers are looking at payments, remittances, and serving as gateways in and out of crypto for banks, asset managers, and other financial institutions.

#How Stablecoins Can Help Some Current Crypto Market Issues?

#Different Types of Stablecoins There are four general types of stablecoins base on collateral that it could be backed by. The purpose of them is all to ensure price stability.

#What Top 5 Stablecoins Backed By Look Like? Currently, 5 biggest stablecoins are USDT > USDC > BUSD > UST > DAI

#Quick History of Stablecoins Stablecoin history may defined start with Tether (runs USDT began in 2014).

#USDT

#USDC/BUSD/TUSD

#Problems Of "Old" Stablecoin > So how to achieve truly decentralised stablecoin? A currency ultimately pegged to and controlled by the Fed and Treasury, limits our ability to build a truly sovereign monetary system and seems defeat the entire purpose of having decentralized stablecoin in the first place. #Cyrpto-Backed Decentralised Stablecoin - DAI > The next important phase comes from cyrpto-backed decentralised stablecoins Such as leading one *MakerDAO’s DAI，an over-collateralized but more decentralized stablecoins. DAI began as a stablecoin collateralized only with ETH, the cryptocurrency that runs the smart contract chain Ethereum. This required it to be seriously over-collateralized, at a minimum 150% or higher. Despite full of new stablecoin competitors, DAI is still the most widely integrated decentralized stablecoin in the crypto market especially at chain Ethereum and with its four year well track record of stability. Also DAI supply surpassed $8.5 billion at 2021.

But as we know cryptocurrencies are pretty volatile, when extremely situation happen and collateral drops way below the 150% collateralisation ratio, MakerDAO’s smart contracts will automatically liquidate the loans. So is there any other way of building decentralised stablecoin?
#Algorithmic Stablecoin - UST > Another important phase from non-collateralized (or algorithmic）decentralised stablecoins） These algorithmic stablecoins are not backed by any collateral. Instead, the price of these stablecoins is managed by an algorithm that controls the supply/demand of these stablecoins. Such as famous and fastest growing one TerraUSD (UST)，an algorithmic stablecoin built on the Terra blockchain protocol. But how UST’s algorithmic mechanism works to target the price peg of US$1?

In addition, UST is building its own ecosystem on Terra and aggressively expanding multichain (to like Ethereum and Sonana). Terra is marching in this direction while compared to DAI continues to serve primarily as an Ethereum reserve.

#Problems Of Algorithmic Stablecoins > Heavy Redemptions & Death Spiral & Bank Runs & Black Swan Algorithmic mechanism sounds simple and effective, but show up an obvious question: “Stability”. Successful price stability for algorithmic stablecoins is not at all assured, since it is determined solely by collective market psychology. Two common *Inherent characteristics* at algorithmic stablecoins:

Therefore, in the absence of true early or sustain demand for algorithmic stablecoin, it need to create that demand through incentives to people or speculators. That speculation will grow reflexivity, but the more reflexive a stablecoin is, the less stable it is. Perceived risk of a future liquidity crisis in the protocol will get bigger. So is there still have any idea for algo-stablecoins ? #Tradeoff Idea for Algorithmic Stablecoins - Frax, Fei > After a hype cycle in Q4 2020, algorithmic stablecoins crashed violently and entered a short disillusionment in 2021. Some tradeoff idea show up: “Fractional Reserve Models” and “Protocol Controlled Value” may have improved algorithmic stablecoins 1. Frax

2.Fei

#New Era of Stablecoins - Non Pegged Olympus(OHM), (3,3) Game > Olympus it’s goal is to achieve price stability while creating a floating market-driven price stablecoins, and eliminating its dollar dependence which are unpegged to fiat currencies. Just like how central banks manage their currencies using reserve assets (i.e USD, Gold, etc), Olympus DAO manages $OHM using reserve assets (i.e DAI, BTC, ETH, FRAX, etc).

But why Olympus so success? may credit to this social meme strategy #The (3, 3) Meme — Game Theory of Olympus > The game theory had been powerful for a while at 2021- in eight months since its fair launch, Olympus has accumulated $3.5 billion in market cap. The dominant OHM staking strategies are to cooperate. Either to the moon (3,3) or tomb (-3,-3) together? The simplest model of Olympus has two players with three possible actions: Stake: Players are most likely to stake when they anticipate an expansion in supply and/or price. Bond: Players are most likely to bond when they do not have a strong directional bias but don’t anticipate significant downside. Sell: Players are most likely to sell when they anticipate a contraction in supply and/or price. Olympus in their game theory article said “Together produces optimal outcomes, so I urge you not to get involved unless you intend to stick around for the long term. Don’t be that guy who sold Bitcoin at $50 to buy back at $20.”

#Stablecoin Futures > “UnRegulated Decentralised” vs “Regulated Central-Bank Like Decentralised” Stablecoin What will the future for stablecoins looks like? While we cannot say what the next milestone in the stablecoin world will be, it is definitely that many exciting developments will unravel in the years to come. But we can think something that the original idea of bitcoin was to create a decentralized and distributed payment system. It’s also the purpose of having decentralized stablecoin in the first place. So that still has a lot work to do and expect! 🙂

Thanks for reading :) More can follow my channel IG/TG/Twitter/Others: @compoundwater