I hope the steem guys learn something from this...
Is that comparison fair?
Afaik SteemUSD are always liquid and still pay you interest ..
It is fair to make the comparison in the same way it is fair to make the comparison to BitShares smartcoins. But I think the critical difference is that there are hard-coded safeguards in Steem to prevent users from making reckless decisions that lead to a dangerous debt-to-equity ratio. As far as I am aware, there is no limit to how many NuBits can be printed other than self-enforced community policy. In Steem, hard-coded features continually drive the debt-to-equity ratio towards a very conservative equilibrium value of approximately 2%. And conversions only work in one direction: the blockchain can convert SD to STEEM for you, but it will not convert STEEM to SD at a user's request.
So this comes with the disadvantage that there may potentially be a much smaller supply of SD than the demand for it. If this is still true despite dropping interest rates to 0%, then SD will have a large premium over the dollar. This is nothing new to the BitShares community. Even with the shorting-to-existence ability, BitUSD has experienced premiums over the USD as well. But with stronger limits to the supply of SD, I wonder how it will manifest in SD's ability to maintain the peg.
Anyway, that and the fact that it would force all token holders effectively into a short position, is why
I am against using the Steem Dollar mechanism for BitShares smartcoins (at least as the primary mechanism for the peg, I think it is fine as a last resort insurance mechanism similar to what MakerDao is doing with the Dai, but again
not via printing BTS but instead with some other token whose holders have chosen to take on that risk).