Cryptocurrency gateway SpankPay recently announced the addition of the DAI stablecoin to the platform, expanding the options available to SpankPay merchants and users to include another manner of coin – this one substantially less volatile in terms of value fluctuation than some other cryptocurrencies.

DAI (also commonly rendered “Dai”) is a stablecoin that endeavors to keep its value as close to $1 USD as possible, a feat accomplished “through an automated system of smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain,” as described on the stablecoin’s Wikipedia page. DAI is maintained and regulated by MakerDAO (“DAO” stands for “decentralized autonomous organization”), an open-source project on the Ethereum blockchain created in 2014.

In a white paper about its “Maker Protocol,” MakerDAO sought to differentiate DAI from other, more volatile forms of cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin. In the white paper, MakerDAO notes that blockchain technology “provides an unprecedented opportunity to ease the public’s growing frustration with – and distrust of – dysfunctional centralized financial systems.”

“By distributing data across a network of computers, the technology allows any group of individuals to embrace transparency rather than central-entity control,” the white paper continues. “The result is an unbiased, transparent, and highly efficient permissionless system – one that can improve current global financial and monetary structures and better serve the public good.”

The MakerDAO white paper acknowledges that Bitcoin was “created with this goal in mind,” but notes that “while Bitcoin succeeds as a cryptocurrency on a number of levels, it is not ideal as a medium of exchange because its fixed supply and speculative nature results in volatility, which prevents it from proliferating as mainstream money.”

“The Dai stablecoin, on the other hand, succeeds where Bitcoin fails precisely because Dai is designed to minimize price volatility,” the white paper continues (emphasis in original). “A decentralized, unbiased, collateral-backed cryptocurrency that is soft-pegged to the US Dollar, Dai’s value is in its stability.”

In announcing the addition of DAI to the SpankPay platform, the company emphasized that the addition of DAI means merchants and other SpankPay users can now “pay and park your favorite SpankPay crypto assets with the decentralized DAI equivalent of USD.”

“So, what’s the big deal? Well, this means your money will always belong to you,” SpankPay explained in its newsletter, adding: “Consider this an appetizer for the DeFi (“decentralized finance”) feast to come.”

The addition of DAI to the platform further expands the options for SpankPay merchants and users, joining Bitcoin, ZCash, Monero, Litecoin, Ethereum and USDC, among others. For more information, visit SpankPay.com.