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Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

techcrunch.com

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Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#191

Post by Geee »

negamax wrote: post #136
fullshark wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A payments system on Facebook makes a ton of sense and would be very useful. I just don't get why it has to be cryptocurrency.

Biggest benefit of using blockchain and cryptocurrency here is open trust (this term is the best way I can think about describing this). Any internal database is subject to all kind of human and technical errors. But with a network of trusted parties that solves the Byzantine Generals Problem. This becomes secure and trusted as trust is given. No one can hack it at will without taking the 50% of the network down and…

Not true for stablecoins, which aren't really cryptocurrencies. The most important single-point-of-failure in currencies is the supply mechanism, which must be trusted. The supply of centralized stablecoins can't be trusted. It is open to human greed, errors and hacking. Do you trust Mr. Zuckerberg having control of the future money supply?

Centralized stablecoins should be illegal, because the issuer can print money from thin air without collateral, unlike banks which are regulated and the money supply is controlled with interest rates.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#193

Post by nicky0 »

callmeal wrote: post #59
alehul wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

>Do you think it's as easy for those in India, China, or Kenya, for instance? Actually yes. Take a look at xoom.com and it's competitors for example (flat rate money transfers at a fraction of swift fees). Only issue is getting money out of those countries. But that is a political and national issue.

And how about Venezuela?

Or for people without a bank account?

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#194

Post by grey-area »

InvisibleCities wrote: post #156
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…

But that doesn't really answer the question being asked. If the cryptocurrency is completely controlled by a centralized authority who has absolute rights over the system, why bother with the technical and cognitive hurdles of using a blockchain? A standard ledger in a centralized database is more than adequate for that task, and much easier to maintain.

In this case it's simply being used as a system of control while distancing FB from the responsibility for issuing currency. Facebook wants to own the money you spend and collect a vig on each transaction. The parent was just pointing out that's the real motivation here. If you go looking for a technical reason you won't find one.

Unask the question and ask who benefits instead.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#195

Post by bufferoverflow »

wz1000 wrote: 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…

There's only one real advantage of a pegged crypto currency: easy and cheap transfer. It's generally a pain in the ass to move money, everyone wants a cut. Wire transfer, international wire tranfer, paypal - they all want their cut. For a simple update of a single row in some database.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#196

Post by 013a »

negamax wrote: post #118

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.

Every new financal technology tries to kill the existing middlemen, then replace them with new middlemen who promise to be better. Turns out, these new middlemen (1) never fully comprehend how complex modern finance is, which raises costs, and (2) are human and thus become corrupt, whether subtly or unsubtly, over time.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that, in conjunction with point (1), many of these modern finance plays also totally fail to comprehend the vast investment into technology that traditional finance companies have made. They see a shitty iOS app, think "wow Old School Bank is never going to understand computers, let's disrupt them", so they start with an amazing iOS app, then struggle to reliably implement the rest of the stuff that matters (process automation, scalability, government relationships, customer support).

Point being, the world turns, time goes on, the players might change, but the game doesn't.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#197

Post by xwdv »

jbverschoor wrote: post #189

More and more I get the feeling that the majority of the HN crowd are FB employees. Any other post about crypto is a scam. Any other tech than react is immature. Etc etc. Have fun at FB guys, I hope your share vest soon

Not an FB employee but like many HN members with assets in tech stocks, a sizable portion of my portfolio consists of FB stock from the days when it was around $50.

FB has made me good money, and I don’t get shaken by what I see on the news. At the end of the day, FB still does more good things than bad, and I am more likely to take them seriously when they set out on a new venture.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#200

Post by awrence »

seanalltogether wrote: post #153
awrence wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On paper, you're basically entirely right. Stablecoins including FB are all smokescreens to sell managing fiat on an internal database for you with "blockchain" wrapped around it. This project and stablecoins in general have nothing to do with cryptocurrencies. With that said i can tell you at least one solid reason why any issuer would do it. At a bare minimum they can earn overnight on the holdings since stablecoin…

> This project and stablecoins in general have nothing to do with cryptocurrencies. I would disagree, using a central authority to sign transactions and exchange crypto back to fiat is fine, but the real power of a cryptocurrency is the ability to generate wallets and create transactions without having to register a profile with a central authority. Whether facebook allows that or not would really determine whether t…

Which is basically my "regulatory loophole" comment.
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