Tether is cypherpunk as fuck, but not Austrian.

It lets you transfer US dollars around the world with pretty good privacy, at a fraction of the cost of a wire transfer. Only the issuer and the redeemer must be known.

But it’s backed by fiat + treasury bonds, it’s inflationary by nature, and it doesn’t threaten the hegemony of the US dollar around the world. If anything, it extends the coverage and availability of the USD beyond the banking system.

Philosophically speaking, Tether is in line with the cypherpunk ethos of the early 1990s. Ecash supporters would have loved it.

But it’s the opposite of the aspirations of the Bitcoin project, as it was defined by Satoshi Nakamoto himself when he included “Chancellor on the brink of second bailout for banks” in the genesis block.