Tether (USDT) is a cryptocurrency with a value meant to mirror the value of the U.S. dollar. The idea was to create a stable cryptocurrency that can be used like digital dollars. Coins that serve this purpose of being a stable dollar substitute are called “stable coins.” Tether is the most popular stable coin and even acts as a dollar replacement on many popular exchanges! According to their site, Tether converts cash into digital currency, to anchor or “tether” the value of the coin to the price of national currencies like the US dollar, the Euro, and the Yen. Like other cryptos it uses blockchain. Unlike other cryptos, it is [according to the official Tether site] “100% backed by USD” (USD is held in reserve). The primary use of Tether is that it offers some stability to the otherwise volatile crypto space and offers liquidity to exchanges who can’t deal in dollars and with banks (for example to the sometimes controversial but leading exchange Bitfinex). The digital coins are issued by a company called Tether Limited that is governed by the laws of the British Virgin Islands, according to the legal part of its website. It is incorporated in Hong Kong. It has emerged that Jan Ludovicus van der Velde is the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, which has been accused of being involved in the price manipulation of bitcoin, as well as tether. Many people trading on exchanges, including Bitfinex, will use tether to buy other cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Tether Limited argues that using this method to buy virtual currencies allows users to move fiat in and out of an exchange more quickly and cheaply. Also, exchanges typically have rocky relationships with banks, and using Tether is a way to circumvent that. USDT is fairly simple to use. Once on exchanges like Poloniex or Bittrex, it can be used to purchase Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It can be easily transferred from an exchange to any Omni Layer enabled wallet. Tether has no transaction fees, although external wallets and exchanges may charge one. In order to convert USDT to USD and vise versa through the Tether.to Platform, users must pay a small fee. Buying and selling Tether for Bitcoin can be done through a variety of exchanges like the ones mentioned previously or through the Tether.to platform, which also allows the conversion between USD to and from your bank account.
Released to the public in 2014, Reddcoin is a decentralized social cryptocurrency that allows anyone to instantly send & receive RDD (its native cryptocurrency) payments on social networks with no transaction fees. It’s essentially the blockchain version of Venmo, Facebook Money, or Snapchat's Snapcash, all of which allow you to easily transfer money to friends and family via their respective social media platforms. However, unlike these major social media networks that require you to use their native platform to send and receive money, Reddcoin allows you to seamlessly integrate its payment features on multiple platforms like Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, and more. Reddcoin is a social cryptocurrency that can be integrated with many different social media platforms for sending/receiving money with zero fees. It’s a peer-to-peer open-source cryptocurrency forked from Litecoin. It dedicates much of its efforts to facilitate the “tipping” of small amounts of RDD on social networks, done in a similar fashion to “liking” a post on FB. The PoSV algorithm is a new take on PoS which encourages both ownership (stake) and activity (velocity). Its tipping system has already been enabled on Twitter, Reddit, Twitch, and Justin.TV. Reddcoin was created on January 20, 2014, as a PoW cryptocurrency. On February 2, 2014, after raising $100,000 through their Initial Public Coin Offering (IPCO), Reddcoin was released to the public. On April 29, 2014, they announced that Reddcoin would transition from PoW to PoSV. In 2017, Reddcoin made an official announcement listing their team members, including developers John Nash and Leonard Simonse. In subsequent Tweets, they’ve publicly announced the additions of developers such as Bradley Ploof and James Tweeg. They’ve been active in updating the community via Twitter, but if you’d like to keep informed directly on the teams project progress, check out their GitHub or Trello (which includes the project roadmap).