The question that comes to my mind is whether HBD has the potential to ever be more than a tiny niche on the fringes of the stablecoin market.
Yes, I'm playing the skeptic again, but right now HBD is tiny in the greater scale of things. But let's assume an "imaginary world" in which HBD has a $billion market cap... wouldn't it (and Hive, in general) suddenly find itself squarely in the sights of regulators? We may be decentralized and "there's nothing they can do," but they might not need to "do" anything beyond make Hive extremely difficult to trade.
I mean, I live in the US (Washington state) and I already can't access 90% of the CEXs, and using DEXs is often a complicated mess... not saying anyone can stop Hive/HBD, just that the "complexity factor" would make most users choose a path of less resistance.
Totally get what you're saying. Most folks will choose what's easiest for them, even if it means giving control to a gatekeeper. I'm of the opinion that for blockchain tech to be adopted by the masses, it will have to be in the backend with a shiny easy-to-use and familiar name on the front end.