Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group set to launch Stablecoin in 2019

Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group launching its stablecoin for remittances and payments in March 2019, Nikkei reports.

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and other Altcoins can extremely volatile. Some of them moving up and down by around a factor of 20 to 30 percent within a couple of hours. It is believed that stablecoins can help bring much-needed stability and predictability into crypto markets though this hypothesis remains to be tested to be true. Stablecoins are generally pegged against fiat currency like USD, EUR, CNY or JPY and sometimes against gold or oil.

Mizuho Financial Group's new virtual currency will be pegged at 1 yen (1 cent) per unit. It will not fluctuate on the market similar to other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. Thus we can call this digital currency as stablecoin.

There will not be any fees for transferring funds to smartphone from a bank account, returning funds to the bank account, or sending funds to other users.

A newly developed app will be needed on the smartphone to use will be introduced virtual currency. The app will use QR codes for making payments.

Japan's Mizuho Financial Group plans to bring 60 regional banks to use their virtual currency. According to Nikki report, "The digital currency is the result of the J-Coin project announced in 2017 by Mizuho Financial Group Chairman Yasuhiro Sato, who was president and CEO at the time. It will become the first of its kind operated by Japanese megabanks."

Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) has already classified bitcoins and other virtual currencies into a category called “crypto-assets”, according to The Japan News reports.

The name of the newly introduced coin is still not known to us.

Other Four Stable-Coins In Brief

The Gemini Dollar (GUSD) is the world's first regulated stablecoin. It operates on the Ethereum network according to the ERC20 token standard. Issued by Gemini, a New York trust company, GUSD is strictly pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar. It is backed by the combined strength of blockchain technology and the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) regulation.

MakerDao (DAI), Dai Stablecoin is ERC20 token/coin and it is a collateral-backed cryptocurrency whose value is stable relative to the US Dollar. However, it is not regulated by any central authority per se. Maker, a smart contract platform on Ethereum, uses Collateralized Debt Positions (CDPs), autonomous feedback mechanisms, and appropriately incentivized external actors to stabilize DAI value.

The Paxos Standard Token (PAX) stablecoin is an ERC20 token built on the Ethereum blockchain. It is fully collateralized on a 1:1 basis with U.S. dollar. PAX stablecoin is issued by the Paxos Trust Company. It is approved and regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).

TrueUSD (TUSD) is an ERC20 stablecoin is backed by the U.S. dollar. It is fully legally secured and verified by third-party attestations. TrueUSD is a project of the TrustToken platform. Every TUSD is 100 percent collateralized by USD and held in professional trust firms and banks.