Coffeezilla (on 2nd channel voidzilla) had an interesting take on it: "I haven't seen a lot of people talking about the fact that centralized assets were kind of the hero in this story ironically... that's actually the reason why losses weren't so bad in this case". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HaySrzDyWU
Is crypto like USDT really decentralized if they can freeze assets... I guess it's in some middle ground between banks and true decentralization?
How is that a middle ground? It’s entirely centralized.
its middle ground in a sense that it has all centralisation (1) and none of legal accountability (0) so averages at 0.5 (middle ground)
If the company behind USDT can block founds, they will be subject to the law and requested to comply.
> Is crypto like USDT really decentralized if they can freeze assets
No.
> I guess it's in some middle ground between banks and true decentralization
Also no. It's the same as a bank in that one party holds your money and can decide to stop you from spending it. Its worse in that its much faster and has no regulation with regards to what is required for them to make that decision, like a legal warrant for example.