Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#31

Post by alehul » Fri, Jun 07, 2019, 11:53 AM UTC

CaptainZapp wrote: post #27

A2017U1 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Have you transferred money across borders to an individual lately? Actually yes. From Switzerland to my brother in Belgium. It was transferred on the same business day at no expense to him or me. Look up SEPA[1] for details. Just because the American banking system is the complete shits this does not necessarily apply to the rest of the world. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area

Across very cooperative borders in wealthy Europe, sure.

Do you think it's as easy for those in India, China, or Kenya, for instance?

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#32

Post by lowracle » Fri, Jun 07, 2019, 11:53 AM UTC

kolinko wrote: post #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'…

MakerDAO is not decentralised, simply because the ETH/USD price feed isn't decentralised. If the servers providing the feed get hacked, say goodbye to your ETH collateral.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#33

Post by mbrock » Fri, Jun 07, 2019, 11:55 AM UTC

CaptainZapp wrote: post #27

A2017U1 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Have you transferred money across borders to an individual lately? Actually yes. From Switzerland to my brother in Belgium. It was transferred on the same business day at no expense to him or me. Look up SEPA[1] for details. Just because the American banking system is the complete shits this does not necessarily apply to the rest of the world. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area

Both the US and the eurozone are kind of single market currency unions where you would expect money transfers to be relatively convenient. As soon as you make a transfer outside of the EU you'll get hit by arbitrary and outrageous correspondent bank fees and delays. Payment services like TransferWise's "borderless accounts" get around this by pooling capital in various banks internationally, matching transfers against each other, etc.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#34

Post by pauletienney » Fri, Jun 07, 2019, 11:55 AM UTC

wz1000 wrote: post #29

mbrock wrote: post #23

Facebook's blockchain will most likely be a consortium of corporate validators. In this case you could say that the blockchain is "just" a normal distributed append-only hash-linked ledger with public verifiable records, but nowadays the more concise term for that is "blockchain."

Every git repository counts as a blockchain by that definition.

except for "append-only" and "verifiable records"

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#35

Post by A2017U1 » Fri, Jun 07, 2019, 11:56 AM UTC

CaptainZapp wrote: post #27

A2017U1 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Have you transferred money across borders to an individual lately? Actually yes. From Switzerland to my brother in Belgium. It was transferred on the same business day at no expense to him or me. Look up SEPA[1] for details. Just because the American banking system is the complete shits this does not necessarily apply to the rest of the world. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area

Yeah, this isn't exactly what I meant sorry. I'm always disappointed at the lack of passport stamps in Europe these days.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#36

Post by mbrock » Fri, Jun 07, 2019, 11:56 AM UTC

wz1000 wrote: post #29

mbrock wrote: post #23

Facebook's blockchain will most likely be a consortium of corporate validators. In this case you could say that the blockchain is "just" a normal distributed append-only hash-linked ledger with public verifiable records, but nowadays the more concise term for that is "blockchain."

Every git repository counts as a blockchain by that definition.

Indeed you could even think of them as embodying the "proof of work" principle in that you naturally look for the branch with the most work done to find the true Schelling point fork for your own contributions.

(By the way, I often see these two points in the same thread: "blockchains should be replaced with centralized SQL databases" and "Git repositories are just like blockchains" which makes me wonder if Git repositories also ought to be replaced with centralized SQL databases.)

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#37

Post by CaptainZapp » Fri, Jun 07, 2019, 11:57 AM UTC

alehul wrote: post #31

CaptainZapp wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you transferred money across borders to an individual lately? Actually yes. From Switzerland to my brother in Belgium. It was transferred on the same business day at no expense to him or me. Look up SEPA[1] for details. Just because the American banking system is the complete shits this does not necessarily apply to the rest of the world. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area

Across very cooperative borders in wealthy Europe, sure. Do you think it's as easy for those in India, China, or Kenya, for instance?

Kenya is a relatively bad example. While a lot of people are underbanked mobile banking and - payments took off in a spectacular way.[1]

It's probably easier to transfer funds via M-Pesa then from a bank account in Delaware to a bank account in Detroit

And, at least in theory, America is a wealthy country without any borders.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#38

Post by A2017U1 » Fri, Jun 07, 2019, 11:57 AM UTC

alehul wrote: post #31

CaptainZapp wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you transferred money across borders to an individual lately? Actually yes. From Switzerland to my brother in Belgium. It was transferred on the same business day at no expense to him or me. Look up SEPA[1] for details. Just because the American banking system is the complete shits this does not necessarily apply to the rest of the world. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area

Across very cooperative borders in wealthy Europe, sure. Do you think it's as easy for those in India, China, or Kenya, for instance?

Entirely this, many in the West have no idea how difficult crossborder banking actually is for the vast majority of human beings on Earth.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#39

Post by bigiain » Fri, Jun 07, 2019, 11:59 AM UTC

wz1000 wrote: post #29

mbrock wrote: post #23

Facebook's blockchain will most likely be a consortium of corporate validators. In this case you could say that the blockchain is "just" a normal distributed append-only hash-linked ledger with public verifiable records, but nowadays the more concise term for that is "blockchain."

Every git repository counts as a blockchain by that definition.

Yes.

Which is oe of the reasons my eyes roll so hard when "business types" and "idea guys" decide they need to explain "blockchain" to me, but have never heard of Merkel Trees...

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#40

Post by wz1000 » Fri, Jun 07, 2019, 11:59 AM UTC

pauletienney wrote: post #34

wz1000 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every git repository counts as a blockchain by that definition.

except for "append-only" and "verifiable records"

Git is "append-only". Just like a normal blockchain, you can't modify an older commit without rewriting all the commits since then.

Git also supports signed commits.