Stablecoin Tether Launched on Liquid Network of Blockstream
As per the official announcement dated 29th July, the widely utilized stablecoin Tether (USDT), has been launched on the Liquid Network of the blockchain technology firm called Blockstream. Introduced in October 2018, the Liquid Network is a ‘sidechain protocol’ that is designed to connect exchanges. With this new addition, bitcoin traders, as well as firms, will be provided with newer features which are unavailable on Tether’s original platform.
According to the CSO of Blockstream, Samson Mow, the Liquid Tethers would not only be faster and better but also more secure. This newly introduced Liquid USDT is available now on Bitfinex, the sister company of Tether, for both withdrawals and deposits. It will open on more venues soon.
What’s more interesting is, users will be now able to swap the network’s bitcoin-pegged crypto L-BTC (Liquid Bitcoin) with the Liquid USDT. For those who came in late, Liquid Network was designed for supporting a higher load of transactions than the network of Bitcoin at a greater speed. Liquid allowed trading nominal Bitcoin value utilizing L-BTC. With Liquid USDT on the network now, there will be reduced counterparty risks for people performing OTC trades. Moreover, the quicker block times of Liquid will also let traders complete fiat transfers between exchanges rapidly, increasing the efficiency of arbitrage trades.
When it comes to storing the assets, the company’s wallet called Blockstream Green will facilitate the storage of Liquid USDT during downtime. The wallet will also support moving the funds to crypto exchanges when active trades are taking place. The Liquid USDT users will be able to enjoy the same set of features that are available to L-BTC users, such as 2FA-protected multi-signature security. The buzz is that hardware wallet support is going to be added soon.
Mow also said that Tether’s addition is a huge milestone in advancing the Liquid Network’s utility. Paolo Ardoino, Bitfinex and Tether’s CTO, stated that deploying Tether on Liquid was a natural decision as the Blockstream team has been doing amazing work. Continuing further, Ardoino said that issuing diverse digital assets as well as stablecoins under a single blockchain platform is a sensible choice because it significantly enhances industry efficiency. At the same time, it also lets traders manage a variety of their digital assets from just one wallet app.
