What is a Stablecoin? A Stablecoin is a digital asset pegged to a traditionally stable fiat currency like the US Dollar. The use of stablecoins in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is considered a cornerstone for smart investing. Stablecoins provide an excellent way to hedge during times of market instability. Stablecoins are also used as a safer and consistent valued token in trading pairs when added to Liquidity Pools. The primary use of stablecoins is centered around its stability and predictability in a traditionally volatile crypto coin market. It offers DeFi users, especially traders, a hedge against volatility and provide stability when farming token pairs.
There are a few methods of issuing a stablecoin that can maintain a consistent market value peg. Some Stablecoins are entirely Fiat backed(USDC), others are crypto-collateralized(DAI), there are also some algorithmically stabilized(Basis, ESD, DSD). The issue with Fiat-backed stablecoins is that they are not 100% decentralized(USDC) and crypto-collateralized stablecoins(DAI) have issues with over-collateralization. The purely algorithmic stablecoin protocols (Basis, ESD, DSD) provide a very noble solution to maintain the consistency of stablecoins with out any Fiat backed assets. The issue with these purely algorithmically backed stablecoin protocols is their tendency to overreact during a big but quick correction in the market. This results in many of these algo-stablecoins ending up in a dead zone and struggle to return to their peg. The answer lies in utilizing a bit of each approach to creating a true decentralized stablecoin.
