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Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

techcrunch.com

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Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#111

Post by Hermel »

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'…

You are exactly right and it’s astonishing how most of the commenters here are confident about their views despite not getting it.

To provide another example besides the ICO: you can use a pegged blockchain-based coin to trade on Uniswap or any other decentralized exchange. This would not work with the database based coin. The idea is not to gain efficiency, the idea is to gain interoperability with the blockchain ecosystem.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#112

Post by zrobotics »

trophycase wrote: post #89
mbrock wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It totally depends on the source and destination of the transfer. My girlfriend's small art house cinema recently transferred money to pay a filmmaker for festival participation and the correspondent bank fee was something like 60 euros on a 100 euro transfer.

Just use Bitcoin? I mean I know people give it a lot of shit for some reason, but this is a perfect usecase for it.

So instead of a 60 euro fee, they need to spend ~.5-1.5 hours walking the director through how to set up a wallet and how to turn the internet money into actual hard currency? For someone that isn't already familiar, using bitcoin isn't exactly the most user-friendly experience.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#114

Post by PyroLagus »

bduerst wrote: post #109
will_brown wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Can anyone explain what the point of a pegged cryptocurrency is? What was the point of arcades taking your quarters and issuing you tokens for the machines? Why not just allow the machines to take your quarters? The idea is for the issuer to take real money from you and issue you Monopoly money which the issuer can track and control. In a worst case scenario the issuer can make up new rules (change their terms and c…

As many mobile app games have shown, you don't need a cryptocurrency to achieve this, just some arbitrary point system. I think GP was asking, "Why Cryptocurrency?" since the benefits of blockchain don't really translate to this system.

> "Why Cryptocurrency?"

Because it's cool and everyone is doing it.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#115

Post by Lordarminius »

mihaifm wrote: post #9

If you're interested in conspiracy theories, this may be a way for Facebook to circumvent GDPR, since financial data needs to be kept for at least 10 years. Once you make any trade using this currency, you won't be able to request deletion of personal data, since it's required to be kept as financial information.

Circumventing GDPR might not be the principal aim, but I'm sure it's a nice side effect.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#116

Post by andreygrehov »

bduerst wrote: post #109
will_brown wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Can anyone explain what the point of a pegged cryptocurrency is? What was the point of arcades taking your quarters and issuing you tokens for the machines? Why not just allow the machines to take your quarters? The idea is for the issuer to take real money from you and issue you Monopoly money which the issuer can track and control. In a worst case scenario the issuer can make up new rules (change their terms and c…

As many mobile app games have shown, you don't need a cryptocurrency to achieve this, just some arbitrary point system. I think GP was asking, "Why Cryptocurrency?" since the benefits of blockchain don't really translate to this system.

Well, cryptocurrency is a point system. Consider it as a specification to a point system, which allows points to be exchanged across applications.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#117

Post by jacobush »

giaour wrote: post #57

From Facebook's perspective, the advantage is that everyone has already forfeited any expectation of privacy wrt financial transactions, since they're recorded on a public ledger. They would be able to link certain transaction events (i.e., ones that happen over Messenger or other Facebook properties) to real identities, so this project will give them tons of data to mine

This made me a little sick to my stomach. I thought I was jaded, but imagine the worlds economy running in FB.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#118

Post by negamax »

I will revisit this thread in 2021 just to see how wrong everyone was. FB has billions of users that interact with its product everyday. People who make plans, attend events, split all sort of bills.

A borderless stablecoin will be a gamechanger. It can fuel commerce but above that it will kill many middlemen and rightly so.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#119

Post by aianus »

peteretep wrote: post #93
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? Yes, frequently. Using TransferWise or FairFx, depending on where the recipient was, but inclusive of Thailand, USA, Ecuador, and Canada. The process was entirely painless, fast, and the transfer was cheap as chips, while bringing to bear the full weight of European bank regulations to protect me as a customer.

> transfer was cheap as chips

I used TransferWise once a few years ago from USD to CAD and it cost ~1.4% all-in. That's cheaper than my bank but still very expensive if you're transferring your whole salary every pay period like I was. I ended up using Bitcoin instead.

Is it cheaper now?

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#120

Post by stvswn »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #83

> It could be used to offer low or no-fee payments between friends or remittance of earnings to familys from migrant workers abroad who are often gouged by money transfer services. Doesn’t Transferwise already fill this niche? These days you can send several hundred dollars to and from the US for around $2-4 in fees, whereas the fees used to be $40-60 from traditional banks or Western Union.

So you're saying you understand the value proposition and that it's been successful elsewhere, but you don't understand why Facebook would want to do it, or why it might make sense for the company who already has messaging apps on billions of phones?
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