Tiberius: Move Over Stablecoins… The Era of the Basket Coin Is Upon Us
October 3, 2018 by Paul de Havilland
Tiberius is planning on launching a cryptocurrency backed by a basket of seven metals. The Tiberius seven-metals coin is set to join the can of stablecoins that has been opened recently, soon to become one of few cryptos to be backed by physical commodities.
Also see: Is Noble Bank on the Brink of Insolvency and Will Tether Collapse With It?
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Commodity Coins a New Twist on the Stablecoin Phenomenon
Cryptocurrencies typically rely on a coded limit of supply as the basis of their value. Exceptions arose when exchanges issued their own tokens, such as Binance’s BNB, backed by a use case of cheaper trades on the Binance exchange and the promise of reduced supply over time. And the utility token frenzy that marked the ICO heyday of 2017 ushered in a tsunami of cryptos backed by specific, and often very targeted, use cases.
The volatility that has mired crypto since bitcoin was invented saw the emergence of the stablecoin, the first of which was the infamous Tether (USDT). Tether is supposedly backed by U.S. dollars on a 1:1 basis, though the fine print on Tether’s website once suggested otherwise. (Note that the questionable Term 3 has been amended.)
Beyond the Brock Pierce Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge-backed Tether
The Tether and Bitfinex connection and their refusal to comply with requests for audits has been a long-term cause for concern among the crypto community. Tether has seen a veritable rash of stablecoin competition over the past few months, as neatly summarized by Bitsonline last month. New breed stablecoins include the exchange-backed Terra, Circle’s USDC, True USD, the Taiwan Dollar-backed TWDT, and the Gemini Dollar.
There have also been other commodity-backed coins created. One is Venezuela’s Petro, backed by a barrel of Venezuelan sweet crude oil, in turn backing the reimagined national fiat, the Sovereign Bolivar. Gold-backed OneGram and HelloGold are Sharia-compliant. But Tiberius marks yet another twist in the tale of the quest to back cryptocurrencies by more tangible things than cryptographic security.
Enter Tiberius, the Basket Coin
The Swiss-based asset manager and commodities trader, Tiberius is working on a cryptocurrency backed by a basket of metals: copper, aluminium, nickel, cobalt, tin, gold, and platinum. What the company describes as a crypto-financial hybrid, its aim appears to be to allow retail investors more accessible and simplified exposure to commodities trading.
They are planning an Initial Metals Sale to launch the coin, which represents the digital ownership of 25 grams of copper, 5 grams of tin, 25 grams of aluminium, 6 grams of nickel, one gram of cobalt, 3 milligrams of gold, and one-and-a-half grams of platinum. The choices of metal align with a rational spread of risk (technology metals, electric vehicle metals, and stability metals).
Whether Tiberius will inadvertently usher in a new wave of basket coins remains to be seen, but in reality, Tiberius coins are little more than certificates of metal ownership cashing in on the cryptocurrency craze.
Have your say. Is Tiberius merely creating a fancy way to issue proof of commodity ownership, which has largely been digitized anyway?
Images via Pixabay
