Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency pegged to a country's national currency, or to commodities like gold. The idea is that their value is linked to a stable asset, and is therefore less prone to volatility than regular crypto.

What a sham. Currencies have their own problems, but have the backing of the state. Gold is the real deal in every way. When the tides go out and we find who was swimming naked, holders of real assets will be fine, holders of derivatives will find themselves ruined.

Even calling it "stablecoin" reeks of scam. Like the scammy "Honest" in the used car salesman's name. "Trust me". From wikipedia:

In July 2025, the United States passed the GENIUS Act, a bill which allows banks and other financial institutions to issue stablecoins backed by fiat currency or other high-quality collateral, such as US Treasuries.

Lol, calling it the "Genius" bill is really calling buyers of it idiot suckers.

Pegging a crypto to gold can't work. In the good times, it satisfies demand for gold and gold like assets. If it has convertability, meaning I can trade my crypto for gold on demand similar to the old gold standard of currency. Then it has to be limited in number to real gold and is no different than an easily tradeable certificate of gold deposit. Certified by who? If it is pegged to the price of gold, but no limited to the amount of gold being held, then in the good times it dilutes the real price of gold, and in the bad times it's worthless because the price link to gold and or convertability to gold can't be maintained. Those who hold real gold have an asset, those who own gold pinned crypto have a tragic story to tell of how they bought into a scam.

If it's crypto pegged to fiat, then it's just fiat that can be stored digitally on a drive as opposed to stashed in one's mattress. Instead of somewhat trusted banks backed by the state, the exchanges have a different risk profile including the technology itself.

In the end they are all just digital confidence scams.

You're not wrong, but you're missing a few things here. The initial promise of crypto was to enable peer-to-peer transactions that do not require trust in any third party. But as the cryptocurrency sphere developed, it became very useful to have a crypto-ized fiat currency reference that exchanges could trade just like normal crypto. So, these Tether folks came along and said "We are releasing a special smart contracts, where each token is backed 1:1 with dollars". Do I trust them? Hell no. But I do have to acknowledge there there have been events over the years that stressed their ability to keep that 1:1 peg, and it hasn't failed yet. So, while their assets are not sufficiently certified by a reputable third party, they have developed a reputation over time that they seem to know what they are doing. (And so much of the Crypto economy relies on Tether that if we're to ever implode, the entire $4 trillion Crypto market cap could evaporate. Still, it hasn't happened yet).

Not all stablecoins are so lucky. TerraUSD was an "algorithmic stablecoin", which aimed to maintain a $1 price using arbitrage wih other crypto assets. That famously fell apart. Should that have been "allowed" to happen in hfe first place? Maybe not, but a key feature of crypto is that it is distributed and the Terra folks didn't need to ask anyone's permission before doing it.

If we're going to have these things to begin with, it would make sense to introduce some regulations to make sure that these things are really fully backed and redeemable. But these regulations can't be too punitive or arbitrary: otherwise, the capital will flee to countries that aren't as punitive, where they can do business in a truly permissionless fashion. The Biden administration seemed hell bent on regulating crypto out of existence, which is a big reason why the crypto world threw a shitload of money at Trump.

All very wonderful and informative. Now tell me, what's the reason to use a dollar-linked stablecoin instead of just using the dollar?

Actual dollars can't be traded as easily on crypto exchanges, it's as simple as that. USDT (Tether) is traded just like any other token riding on top of a blockchain. If you wanted to hold USDT and didn't trust the exchange, you can withdraw it to a wallet you control, just like any other token. (Most crypto nerds don't hold USDT, though, they use it to trade between tokens which they then store in their wallets.)

If an exchange tries to keep it's own dollar-denominated accounts, then their customers need to trust them to not run off with those deposits. It would also subject that exchange to some amount of US oversight, particularly if they also want to participate in the US banking system and let customers deposit and withdraw via ACH.