So far, stablecoins have been used almost exclusively as a settlement currency on the blockchain when trading cryptocurrencies.
However, if people were to start using stablecoins in payment transactions such as euros or dollars, an alternative monetary system could gradually become established. The ECB is already talking about an impending "privatisation of money" and the crypto industry is also fuelling the imagination in the eurozone.
It is interesting to note that real giants of the financial sector are now also joining the future narrative. Following Circle's successful IPO, Goldman Sachs Research writes that most investors expect the volume of stablecoins in circulation to rise from 250 billion dollars to over one trillion dollars within three to five years. The crypto industry sees this as proof that even established financial institutions are slowly realising what stablecoins really are: "fiat money" on the blockchain with superpowers.
In the new videocast, Prof. Dr Schlotmann analyses whether this can happen.