Samson Mow: Stablecoins Are a 'Mid-Step Towards Hyperbitcoinization'

Stablecoin Tether is clearly the preference among investors but will not see a retail use case, Samson Mow says.

The Blockstream CSO, who was speaking at Cointelegraph's ongoing BlockShow conference on Nov. 15, noted that Tether's first-mover advantage placed it in another league from the increasing number of other stablecoins on the market.

Mow made the comments during a panel dubbed "The progress of stablecoins - if any? Can I use it yet?" It featured representatives of several stablecoin companies, along with Chia Hock Lai, president of the Singapore FinTech Association.

"Tether is controversial because it's the king of stablecoins," he summarized, wearing a Tether T-shirt.

"I don't think stablecoins will be adopted in retail use cases. They're used mainly for traders to take advantage of arbitrage opportunities," Mow added.

National digital currencies could kill off stablecoins.

Going forward, Mow said he envisaged no threat from Bitcoin, but national digital currencies such as China's could disrupt stablecoins' use case.

"Stablecoins are a mid-step toward hyperbitcoinization. They're a temporary thing. The main threat they face is from the national cryptocurrencies. How open will those national cryptocurrencies be? But stablecoins will then have no reason to exist with a national cryptocurrency," he continued.

He additionally foresees more USDT - and other stablecoins - migrating from the Ethereum network to Blockstream's Liquid sidechain to avoid well-known congestion issues.

Mow added that Japanese yen, Canadian dollar and Australian dollar stablecoins are currently being developed to launch on the Liquid network in the near future.