A fair reply to "How does usdt work?" starts with what a stablecoin promises. USDT, the ticker of the Tether token, is a stablecoin: a crypto token built to hold a steady value equal to one unit of a major traditional currency. Players use it to move money into and out of casinos without the daily price swings of bitcoin. What USDT is, how it works, whether it is safe and how people get it are distinct questions, and each has an honest answer with its own limits.
What is USDC? It is another reserve backed stablecoin, issued by a different company from the one behind USDT. The difference between USDC and USDT lies mainly in the issuer, in how each discloses its reserves and in where each is listed. Both publish reserve reports with different detail and different levels of outside checking, and both have faced criticism. For a casino payment the gap is narrower: the cashier must accept that exact coin on that exact network, and USDC sent where USDT is expected may end up stranded.
How does USDT work? An issuer, Tether, creates new tokens when clients deposit traditional money and destroys tokens when clients redeem them. The issuer says each token is backed by reserves of cash, short term government debt and other assets, and it publishes regular reports on them. Redemption at full value is offered mainly to large verified clients; everyone else trades USDT on exchanges at whatever the market pays, which usually sits very close to the anchor value. The tokens live on public blockchains, so USDT can be sent like any other coin.
Questions and answers
What are stablecoins and how do they differ?
Crypto tokens built to hold a fixed value against an outside asset; some are backed by reserves, some by locked crypto and some only by code, and the backing sets the risk.
Can the issuer freeze USDT?
Yes. The issuer can freeze specific addresses, as it has done with funds tied to fraud, and the holder then has no way to move those coins.
Why keep person to person deals inside the platform?
Inside the platform the coins sit in escrow and disputes can be raised; a deal finished outside it has no protection at all.
What is the difference between USDC and USDT?
Both are reserve backed stablecoins, but different companies issue them, disclose their reserves differently and list them in different places.
Why are high interest offers on USDT a warning sign?
A stable token earns nothing by itself, so a promise of high interest on it means high risk or, often, a scam.