tl;dr

We're not doing a good job promoting the use of Rai. This is bad, and you should feel bad. Let's use Rai more, and here's a way to do it.

USDC is a crutch

Recent events with Dai and USDC prove yet again why stablecoins backed by USD are toxic assets. The reality, as Arthur Hayes put it, is that DeFi will always be hamstrung if we depend on US dollar stability. It introduces centralization risks, and also draws the ire of regulators who want bond stability. When you realize all liquid stablecoins are backed mostly by US treasury bonds, guarded by centralized commercial banks, you realize just how this house of cards can fall. When certain market conditions are met, the bonds are liquidated at market rates, where you may receive $0.94 on every dollar.

Oh wait, that's what just happened

You can do research on bond mechanics and how the combination of Silvergate and Silicon Valley Bank destroyed the value of USDC, but look no further than the PSM on Dai to see how destructive this crutch is. It currently stands at 63% USDC as everyone panic sold USDC for Dai to get out of fears that Circle was undercollateralized, which it turns out they are.

Stop using USDC challenge

Now here's the hard part. I know you want to larp as a decentralization maxi, but it's time to stop it and actually be a decentralization maxi. Here's how you can do it.

As a user

As a user, how can you promote Rai? By actually using Rai. Instead of going to conferences and larping about how great ETH is, but then splitting bills with Venmo, why don't use use Rai?

• Buy some Rai
• Use it to split bills with other DeFi native people.

I understand risks that it could go down, so just use Rai in a small fashion just to get used to it. You don't need to go crazy and buy $100K in Rai, but keep a small amount on a layer 2 and slosh it around.

As a DeFi trader.

Big bag boys, have I got news for you. Rai is currently paying you to generate it. As it stands, it has over 4% APY to mint new RAI. How does it work? The stability peg is currently negative.

• Make a Reflexer Safe and generate Rai. Long ETH using Reflexer bonds.
• Take the Rai and market make with it. Preferably on L2s.

Now here's the interesting part? Want leverage? Use DeFi Saver to mint new RAI and rebuy ETH. You can do this in 1 swap and have some good capital efficiency.

As a Project Owner

This is an interesting part. You're a project owner, so you have sweet yield farming rewards for people who want to use your project. I want to ask, why are you using anything else but Rai as the base token in your project? Why are you doing ICOs with USDC? Why is your NFT project selling in Dai/USDC and not even giving the option for Rai? Rai is right there. Use it. Help bootstrap Rai liquidity. Why should you do this you ask? Well even if you complain about the possibility of Rai going down in value, considering this weekend USDC dropped to $0.88, you clearly do not have the safety you think you have. You have just as much volatility risk as Rai already, except you also have the trust risk where you hope to god Circle or the Bitfinex Cartel actually has the bonds they say they do. You are effectively ignoring your risks, while Rai's risks are right in front of you and clear. You're just risking your project, and may wake up one day with $0.50 on every USDC. Here's an idea:

• Stop doing token raises with USDC. Use Rai.
• Generate yield farm liquidity with Rai. Preferably run your yield farm programs on L2s so general users can access Rai.
• Promote Rai. Use Rai as payment tokens for your merch. Support Rai in your app as a base token. Use Rai as a payment for conferences. Enjoy Rai within your organization and offer it as salaries.

Fin

If you've made it this far, I hope you're now thinking. You're all far too deep into USD stablecoins, and you don't realize you are not supporting decentralized finance. Every USD has a link to a commercial US bank, regulated by the government, and will always be crutched by regulators who manage bond volatility. The next few weeks, you will see people use the recent bank failures as an excuse to regulate these tokens further, as they are directly linked to US treasuries markets. This is foolish. Simplify your risks. Rai is risky, but it's simplified risks backed by pure ETH.

We need you to help promote Rai

The hard part? You're not going to get rich doing it. It's not like promoting your digital beanie babies or new yield farm. It won't make you a token billionaire. No one is making a yield farm strategy for Rai, because it's already mostly crystalized. The project owners aren't going to get rich from it, and neither will you. It's an already deployed token, that has been in the wild for over a year, that's just sitting there waiting for you to realize it's use. Use it.

A note from Satoshi

The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that's required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust. Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely a fraction in reserve. We have to trust them with our privacy, trust them not to let identity thieves drain our accounts. Their massive overhead costs make micropayments impossible.

• Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin Release Memo

Additional Readings

Why Rai was better than Terra

Stability Without Pegs

Rai Whitepaper