Patri Friedman

1/ Watching #btc volatility & thinking about current use cases, I finally appreciate why @VitalikButerin says it's important to make a StableCoin. Ppl should be able to store value w/o taking on all this currency risk.

2/ Obviously some users can hedge via futures, but if you're stashing money b/c you live in a current/potential kleptocracy (the Holocaust scenario) the CBOE is not an option.

3/ As speculators we expect everyone to just join the hodl club, but that exemplifies the immaturity of the tech/us. Most users don't want to be speculators, so if using and speculating are commingled, that's bad for actual use & ultimately for our investment.

4/ A club that won't let anyone in who doesn't want to gamble is going to end up being a club of gamblers, not the world new financial system. A good StableCoin is one possible answer.

5/ Making one, however, without centralization or counterparty risk, is...non-trivial. But deeply fascinating if you're into monetarism & cryptoeconomics! Looking forward to continued community speculation on the topic.

It's not non-trivial, it's impossible and impractical. Not only do you need a third party to keep prices steady, but the whole concept of "steady" is nonsense, since all prices are relative to something else. Lock it to the dollar, and you're doomed if the dollar crashes.