I effectively agree. However some important points: 1) Tether is “fully-backed” with reserves 1:1 (some of this is btc which is the only reason why it matters). 2) Bank dollars are 0% reserved, full fugaze 3) The government actually is the underlying issuer of bank dollars, the “independence” of the fed is not real. This argument could also be extended to Tether and I would concede that, but Tether isn’t out issuing their own debt into infinity. They already are a proxy for the government’s debt (because much of their reserves are UST’s). So, surveillance- and censorship-wise, no difference. Issuance- and reserve ratio-wise, there are technical differences.

To address your first point, it's only backed 1:1 that we know of. We trust that it is. It is a good point though.

Tether technically isn't a central bank... Yet

This is true. But it's essentially an arm of the Fed. A head from the same Hydra.

I believe it's a competitor to the Fed, not a partner. It's a partner to the treasury, like the Fed. The only part that makes it not the "central bank" is that it doesn't issue fractional-reserve loans to banks that lend out its tether currency... Yet.

But the fed benefits from the demand for dollars. I'm that way I don't believe they are competition. The fed is more than happy to have them. The banks on the other hand... The banks are terrified.

Tether sells their dollars to the federal government for treasuries. Tether doesn't hold dollars, that would be ridiculous since they don't earn interest. Tether holds no large amount of dollars, other than what they need for redemption (if any).