Thread by @Tr0llyTr0llFace

Allow me to present the only piece of news in crypto that's worth your while. It's about what's really backing Tether's stablecoin.
It's not dollars.
It's not Bitcoin either - not entirely, at least.
It's loans to miners, backed by Bitcoin.

Follow my train of thought on this.

We all know miners need real cash to pay their electricity bills. They could sell their rewards on exchanges - which someone (cough Tether cough) would have to buy, to prevent $BTC from crashing. But when everyone knows that everyone knows, something different happens.

Tether has real money, because Bitfinex has real money from sheering muppets dumb enough to trade on its exchange. But why would they buy miners' Bitcoins, when they can LOAN them the money instead, and get a death grip on their balls?
Tether is secured by these loans, not cash.

In any case, Tether would be secured by loans, not cash. Nobody keeps $7B in cash in a bank account, especially not the kind of bank that would accept Tether's pedo laundromat money. Too much credit risk.
Instead, you opt for loans - like US bonds (loans to the US Treasury).

But buying US bonds doesn't serve any business purpose. Your money isn't really working for you. It's firepower that you choose not to use. That's just dumb.
What if, instead, you called up Bitcoin miners, and offered them a lifeline, promising them...

... to pay their electricity bills, in exchange of a small favour - a promise they won't sell their Bitcoin for a while? Let's put these Bitcoins in escrow, or, in finance words, let's offer miners a loan secured by their Bitcoins.
Miners are happy because...

... they can pay their bills without going through all the trouble of selling their rewards, while Tether is happy because, well, when someone owes you a lot of money, you have a metaphorical gun to his head.
And the beautiful part in all this, the risk Tether would be running...

... from these loans - if a miner defaults, good luck on getting of your money back! - is transferred to USDT holders, by something that's known in Wall Street as securitisation. If a miner defaults, it's not Tether the company that takes the hit, but USDT holders.
BEAUTIFUL.

That's the real reason why Tether / Bitfinex don't want an audit. Not because USDTs aren't backed. That's the low-level idiot conspiracy theory.
The real reason is that USDTs ARE backed, by the worst collateral possible - the balls of Bitcoin miners. Tether controls Bitcoin.

All crypto bros' daydreams of "decentralisation" and "hard money" are bullshit when you know that USDTs are backed by loans to miners. Tether controls the miners, which means that Tether controls Bitcoin.
It's absolutely brilliant, if you ask me.