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Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

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Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#11
post #2

Okay, so like, I'll defend them on this in principle. That said, can you address, like, you know, the myriad scandals you have BEFORE doing something ELSE? It's a bad look.

The timing isn’t great for the antitrust investigations. It’s not a particularly monopolistic move, but it creates new threat vectors for narratives of their potential villainy.

E.g. “Facebook’s market abuse could easily extend to coercing its millions of ad customers to use its cryptocurrency, enabling nefarious ad campaign spending for political causes without a way to trace the source.”

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#13
post #6

Can anyone explain what the point of a pegged cryptocurrency is? Since you are dependent on the issuing entity to honour the stated peg, why not just have your balance be an entry in a regular database maintained by that entity? What exactly does the blockchain gain you here? One thing it does _not_ get you is censorship resistance. If the central authority wants to take away coins from a wallet, all it needs to do i…

Have you transferred money across borders to an individual lately? As much as I want to criticize this FB is probably in an excellent position to navigate the kyc minefields.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#14
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Public company, that is their job and legal fiduciary duty.

Thing is, is that true with FB with their dual class structure and MZ owning most of it?

He may have the voting majority due to the stock class voting configuration, but he is not the owning majority.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#15
I think the angle here is international blockchain Venmo with a goal to convince the non-destitute Facebook holdouts to finally sign up so that they can commerce.

For the record I doubt that will work. The early adopters will be scammers and people duped into thinking this is their get rich quick opportunity.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#16
post #13
post #6

Can anyone explain what the point of a pegged cryptocurrency is? Since you are dependent on the issuing entity to honour the stated peg, why not just have your balance be an entry in a regular database maintained by that entity? What exactly does the blockchain gain you here? One thing it does _not_ get you is censorship resistance. If the central authority wants to take away coins from a wallet, all it needs to do i…

Have you transferred money across borders to an individual lately? As much as I want to criticize this FB is probably in an excellent position to navigate the kyc minefields.

That does not really answer the question.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#17
post #13
post #6

Can anyone explain what the point of a pegged cryptocurrency is? Since you are dependent on the issuing entity to honour the stated peg, why not just have your balance be an entry in a regular database maintained by that entity? What exactly does the blockchain gain you here? One thing it does _not_ get you is censorship resistance. If the central authority wants to take away coins from a wallet, all it needs to do i…

Have you transferred money across borders to an individual lately? As much as I want to criticize this FB is probably in an excellent position to navigate the kyc minefields.

My question was "what does blockchain bring to the table compared to a regular database?".

How does using a blockchain/cryptocurrency make it easier to sidestep regulations compared to a regular old database?

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#18
A few points:

- some pegged currencies are still decentralised (e.g. MakerDAO) - they rely solely on smart contracts - even with a centralised peg, you have to trust an organisation to keep the collateral, but the contract can state that anyone can move the funds around, so the managing organisation cannot just remove funds at will

Also, compared to a centralised database, you have an interoperability aspect - if it's just an organisation keeping everyone's balances, it's hard to make those balances interact with the rest of the blockchain ecosystem (e.g. how do you participate in an ICO, if the crypto balances are stored in one system, and token balances are stored in another? implement APIs for every single one of them?)

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#19
post #12
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Public company, that is their job and legal fiduciary duty.

As far as I know there is no legal requirement to do so.

Indeed there isn’t:

> Third, corporate directors are not required to maximize shareholder value. As the U.S. Supreme Court recently stated, "modern corporate law does not require for-profit corporations to pursue profit at the expense of everything else, and many do not do so." (BURWELL v. HOBBY LOBBY STORES, INC.) In nearly all legal jurisdictions, disinterested and informed directors have the discretion to act in what they believe to be the interest of the business corporate entity, even if this differs from maximizing profits for present shareholders. Usually maximizing shareholder value is not a legal obligation, but the product of the pressure that activist shareholders, stock-based compensation schemes and financial markets impose on corporate directors.

https://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/academics/clarke_business_...

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