Referential

Trading pairs are another obstacle in crypto. Historically, the dominant trading pair was Bitcoin before Ethereum became popular as a base. As altcoins became coupled to Bitcoin in a perhaps unhealthy way, we saw stable coins gain in popularity. There are now innumerable stable coins pegged to USD and quite a lot goes into keeping them stable. For many, it is a profitable undertaking as the stable baskets need balancing. Stables are also one of the primary reasons that farming became the popular practice that it did. While in principle the digital dollar makes sense, it has been fraught with peril at times. Tether has come under scrutiny on many occasions, facing legal issues, historical exploits in DAI have hindered confidence at times and many “stables” regularly lose their peg, hence the need for rebalancing and arbitrage. One black swan event in the world of stable coins could upend much of the progress that crypto trading has enjoyed over the last year. This is easily solved with elastic tokens as a trading pair. They are designed to seek an equilibrium that coincides with usage and it does not require the man hours or capital resources required for stable coins.