This is the official HackerNoon wiki for Binance USD. As part of our coin price pages, this living wiki displays on
Binance USD is a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. The stablecoin attempts to match each cryptocurrency unit to a traditional currency 1:1. The coin is issued by the Paxos blockchain and the cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
The Paxos blockchain handles the minting and burning of BUSD. Whenever a person wants to buy BUSD, the Paxos blockchain takes the number of dollars and creates the associated BUSD. Whenever a person wants their traditional dollar, the Paxos blockchain burns the BUSD to take it out of the market and deposits the dollar value to the person’s account.
History
Binance USD was created by Paxos and Binance. BUSD is a result of a partnership they announced in September 2019. Before its launch, approval was given by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), a notoriously hard body to get approval from. BUSD was made purchasable through Paxos USD on September 12th, 2019. It launched on Binance on September 20th, 2019 in trade with the Binance coin, Ripple, and Bitcoin.
Biggest Claims to Fame
As one of the most popular stablecoins, BUSD allows traders to keep their holdings at a steady value without the need to exchange it for traditional currency. This helps those who wish to keep their finances strictly in cryptocurrency form to do so without having to worry about exchanging their finances back and forth from traditional currency each time they are worried about the market dropping.
BUSD is regulated by the New York State Department of financial services. Though regulation is an issue among cryptocurrency users and developers, the fact that BUSD got both approval and regulation from a financial body makes people secure in putting their money in BUSD. This is also an advantage over other cryptocurrencies which have constant issues with governments and regulatory bodies, especially if they deal with or in the US dollar.
There isn’t a cap on how many BUSD can exist. Due to the system BUSD has of minting and burning their coins only as needed, any amount of BUSD can be on the market as long as enough people have put their traditional currency in it.
The Binance USD has maintained its 1:1 ratio very well. The only time it dropped was during the crypto crash in 2020 and even then it dropped by only a few cents. It has performed admirably better than most of the other stablecoins currently in the market today.
As a stablecoin, BUSD allows people, especially those new to it, to experience crypto in a safe and mostly risk-free way. Beginners always worry they will put their money in crypto only for it to immediately fall. BUSD offers a way for them to hold and use a cryptocurrency whose value is assured.
Paxos publishes regular attestations from independent auditors to ensure and to reassure everyone who has money invested in BUSD that every single BUSD is pegged to a dollar. This has served to reassure both investors and those considering putting their money into BUSD that BUSD is a legitimate stablecoin.
Biggest Criticism
Though the BUSD shares the Binance name, Binance is only a promoter. Binance has allowed for promotions on BUSD like lower transaction costs and others but Paxos handles all the financials. This is misleading since most of the people who put their money in BUSD assume they are investing in the crypt exchange Binance, which is something they know.
Attestations are not equivalent to audits. Paxos provides attestations that they have an equivalent amount of dollars to BUSD regularly to reassure those who have money in it. However, the attestations are not in-depth investigations into whether they have the money. The attestations only prove that they had that amount of money at a certain point, not that they have the money now.
BUSD has an issue with centralization One of the founding principles of cryptocurrency was decentralization and separation from traditional financial institutions. Paxos, the financial backer of BUSD, may be a decentralized blockchain but they do rely on a financial institution. Both Paxos and Binance are run by individual people.
BUSD is not an investment. Considering the nature of stablecoins, they cannot be investments. Their value in traditional currency is assumed to be $1 permanently which means a person cannot buy it and hope to gain a profit from it.
Team
Binance USD was created by the Binance cryptocurrency exchange and the Paxos blockchain. Paxos is run by its co-founder and CEO Charles Cascarilla. Binance is run by its founder and CEO Chengpeng Zhao.
In Conclusion
Binance USD is one of the best stablecoins in the market today. The system it uses to maintain its 1:1 ratio to the US dollar is sound. The main issues with the BUSD stem from its regulation by the government and its status as a centralized cryptocurrency. It is, however, one of the most steady stablecoins in the market.
This is the official HackerNoon wiki for Binance USD. As part of our coin price pages, this living wiki displays on