SGA, Saga’s novel reserve-backed token, is now available for trading on Bithumb Global. The financial project, which is several years in the making, officially launched in December and hopes to bring digital currencies into the mainstream.
The first global stabilized cryptocurrency controlled by its holders, SGA’s January 14 token listing on Bithumb Global – the worldwide platform for South Korea’s top virtual currency exchange – will enhance its liquidity, giving investors the chance to purchase and transact with a new form of currency. SGA is the first example of a digital asset that replicates the infrastructure of central bank national currencies and applies them on a global scale.
To commemorate the official listing, Bithumb announced a 10,000 SGA Grand Prize Pool to engender community participation. While 5,000 SGA will be awarded to the outright winner, smaller rewards will be allocated to users who have deposited a minimum of 500 SGA.
What exactly is SGA?
Backed by a stable basket of trusted national currencies that replicate the International Monetary Fund's SDR, SGA is also supported by a blockchain-based, liquidity provider: a smart contract that offers to sell and issue new SGA tokens or buy back and burn them. Because the mechanism actualizes tokens as consumers buy in, and burns excess tokens as holders sell them back, volatility will be reduced while still enabling SGA value to be influenced by independent market forces.
Notable for its streamlined KYC and AML onboarding process, and a multi-branch checks-and-balances governance structure wherein token-holders can take key decisions on protocol changes, SGA is intended as a cross-border medium of exchange that complements existing national currencies. Although monetary authorities have been wary of unchecked stablecoins, SGA’s monetary and governance policy – not to mention its experienced team – make it a different proposition entirely. Indeed, the stablecoin adheres to the Financial Action Task Force’s crypto asset guidelines.
From pegged to unpegged
While trust in SGA is determined by the volume of tokens in circulation, as issuance grows, the monetary model is expected to depend less and less on the stabilizing mechanism of the pegged basket. Eventually, the hope is that SGA will demonstrate intrinsic value and evolve beyond that of a regular fiat-backed stablecoin, with value dependent on the number of tokens in general circulation. Throughout this evolution, the Saga website will continue to report the funds held in its reserves via daily attestations.
As per Bithumb’s announcement, SGA will be initially paired against USDT, BTC and ETH, with more pairs expected to follow. It shall be interesting to see how this Saga unfolds throughout 2020 as adoption grows.