USD Coin

USDC, or USD Coin, is a cryptocurrency that is a digital counterpart to the US dollar. It refers to the so-called stablecoins, coins, which exchange rate depends on the hard fiat currency. USD Coin is a classic representative of stablecoins. The main difference between these coins is that their fluctuations do not depend on changes in the exchange rate of other cryptocurrencies. In particular, they are not related to the Bitcoin exchange rate. Companies and individuals can deposit in US dollars and convert tokens into USD Coin.

True financial interoperability requires a price stable means of value exchange. CENTRE’s technology for fiat-backed stablecoins brings stability to crypto. The initial implementation is USD Coin (USDC), an ERC-20 token creating possibilities in payments, lending, investing, trading and trade finance — and the ecosystem will grow as other fiat currency tokens are added.

 Then the cryptocurrency can be exchanged back to fiat, which will be credited to the bank account. And USD Coin is the latest of this type of cryptocurrency. It officially became available only in October 2018. USD Coin is a joint development of Circle cryptocurrency startup and Coinbase exchange, which merged into Center Consorsium for the new project. And they implemented the CENTER technology, launched on the basis of the Ethereum blockchain. The USDC value securing mechanism is fairly simple. Developers collaborate with licensed financial issuers that confirm cryptocurrency dollar parity.

As more goods and services are tokenized, smart contract platforms will become fundamental building blocks of value exchange. CENTRE’s open-source and transparent stablecoin framework allows fiat to interact with smart contracts, giving developers a viable way to use real world currencies in blockchain applications.

The main difference between USDC stablecoin and fiat currency is that when buying a dollar, a person is forced to sell it at a lower rate. In the case of this stablecoin, buying one coin, the user will give exactly one dollar. The price of the USD Coin token is very stable: it never fell below $1 and did not exceed the $1.1 mark. But market capitalization, although growing much faster than True USD, is clearly responding to the market background. Since the USDC is based on the ERC-20, all wallets that support this standard are suitable for storing it. There are all types of wallets for this stablecoin: browser, electronic, hardware, mobile, paper, cold and so on. You can also store the coin on the exchange, though this method is less secure than the rest.

CENTRE stablecoins are issued by regulated and licensed financial institutions that maintain full reserves of the equivalent fiat currency. Issuers are required to regularly report USD reserve holdings, and that information will be made available upon request.