How do you explain this phenomenon that no one really likes these centralized stablecoins, yet they are the ones with the greatest market cap among stablecoins?
Because they're much more easy to manage, I think - Dai or BitUSD for exchanges are a complete headache because they can get "settled" (their inner workings can change completely in some situations, like BitUSD did a couple of weeks ago, up to the coins automatically being converted into the currency forming the collateral). And also,
if they're well managed and you
really get 1:1 from the business managing it, they can offer almost perfect stability versus the fiat currency.
But they are not really something different than other IOUs like the "PayPal USD" or the "Bitstamp USD", and so technically they're not really interesting.
OP, I'm not sure if you're aware of bitmex.com? They run a 'fixed' version of bitUSD on their centralised exchange where both shorts AND longs pay/receive interest based on the deviation of the price from the peg.
Thanks. You're right, that's not for my list, but anyway interesting. I'll take a look at it ...