211 sats \ 2 replies \ @m00ninite 29 Aug 2022 \ on: Lyn Alden AMA bitcoin
Because stablecoins are so popular on ethereum, big issuers like Tether and Circle have an outsized impact on consensus. A stablecoin cannot be redeemed for fiat on both forks of a chain, so they get to decide what the “real” chain is, and the rest of the ecosystem is likely to follow.
This makes me deeply concerned about stablecoins on lightning becoming very popular and these same entities having similar control over bitcoin forks. Do you have any feelings or concerns about this attack vector?
It's something to monitor, but the difference is that Ethereum is primarily meant for apps to build on top of it, while Bitcoin is primarily meant for hard money and by extension apps can build on top of it. Stablecoins on Lightning would have to reach tens of billions of dollars in value before I'd consider any concern in terms of its impact on forks. Even then I doubt it would be an issue due to bitcoin's small nodes and pleb culture. Bitcoiner's won't make any network sacrifices for stablecoins.
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While you're right that until we're in the $Bn of value locked it isn't a concern -- it is a big stretch to believe that the pleb culture will scale if stablecoin adoption grows substantially on LN.
By definition, if we get more mainstream adoption we will get less small-node/pleb culture.
Focus on the overarching human qualities - greed and fear; This itself heavily incentivizes choosing the chain with the stablecoins.
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