Tether
has gone live on Bitcoin Cash via the Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP), providing users with access to a chain supporting large blocks and low transfer fees. The launch on SLP underlines its central role within the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
The blockchain-enabled platform powers the largest stablecoin by market capitalization, $5.5 billion. Tether’s success and popularity is based upon its status as the most liquid and stable product despite some concerns in the past.
The Bitcoin Cash network prioritizes on-chain scaling and utility as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system, supporting large blocks, with low transfer fees of about 1 satoshi and low confirmation. This provides the capacity for small amounts to be quickly sent across the network. In addition to the collaboration with Bitcoin Cash, Tether also works with Algorand, Ethereum, EOS, Liquid Network, Omni and Tron.
Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Tether, commented: “A key strength of Tether is that it is underpinned by a rich diversity of different blockchains. Our latest collaboration with Bitcoin Cash will provide Tether with a variety of benefits. We expect the adoption after launch to be pretty easy for any integrator. The launch will also support more applications on the Bitcoin Cash chain, with Tether facilitating payment for these applications.”
Roger Ver, Executive Chairman of Bitcoin.com, said: “It’s extremely exciting to hear that the world’s biggest stablecoin will be using the Bitcoin Cash Blockchain and that the millions of Bitcoin.com wallet holders will be able to send and receive Tether using SLP tokens.”
In 2018, the firm appointed Leonardo Real as Chief Compliance Officer (CCO). The former AML Quality Control Manager at the Bank of Montreal. Earlier this year, Tether deployed Chainalysis compliance solution Know Your Transaction (KYT) for Token Issuers, a real-time anti-money laundering (AML) compliance solution for monitoring a token’s full lifecycle, from issuance to redemption.
Much controversy surrounded Tether for a long time as it claimed that each token was backed by one United States dollar, but it failed to provide a promised audit showing adequate reserves backing tether. On 14 March 2019 Tether finally changed the backing to include loans to affiliate companies, but parent company Bitfinex was accused by the New York Attorney General of using Tether’s funds to cover up $850 million in funds missing since mid-2018. On 30 April 2019 Tether Limited’s lawyer claimed that each tether was backed by only $0.74 in cash and cash equivalents.
