The meteoric ascendance of DeFi and all its accouterments, including algorithmic stablecoins, would simply not be possible without passing through the gauntlet of volatility duress derived from the auspices of rapid prototyping and permissionless networks. The necessary growing pains are learned from, improved upon, and wielded to build something better.
Stablecoins are the golden goose of monetary experimentation, something Friedrich Hayek portended when he uttered the words:
“I believe we can do much better than gold ever made possible. Governments cannot do better. Free enterprise, i.e., the institutions that would emerge from a process of competition in providing good money, no doubt would.”
That vision was realized when an anonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, unveiled the Bitcoin Whitepaper to a small mailing list of cypherpunks, unleashing a torrent of revolutionary financial exploration.
Replacing the vaunted guard of central banks, enwrapped in political asymmetries, with accessible, decentralized, open-source protocols is not for the faint of heart. Terra’s protocol is a living organism. It’s not in its final state, nor will it be as long as a vanguard of community supporters, builders, and even critics contend to unseat the current monetary hegemony.
Algorithmic stablecoins fulfill the moneda mandate of cryptocurrencies while retaining the censorship-resistance of the underlying blockchains securing them. They enshrine the features of decentralization, robust peg assurances, and a low cost of issuance into community-controlled code that has the power to make the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies possible.
There will be bumps along the road, but we foray into the unseen to illuminate the path that will onboard the financially disenfranchised into a more inclusive financial system — one not handcuffed by suits in boardrooms, political squabbles, or centralized control.
This is Terra, and our goal is to set money free. Welcome, fren.