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Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

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Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#221

Post by ilaksh »

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.

I think there are two aspects. One is that it probably actually is a more robust technical approach, and they don't need to do a lot of research, because there are open source projects they can easily adapt.

Number two, they want to get in ahead of other cryptocurrency. They don't want to wait around for Bitcoin or Ethereum to become an expected form of payment, because by that time they won't be able to cash in. If they have their own cryptocurrency, they can take advantage of the hype for bitcoin etc., but still control and profit from it directly.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#222

Post by ipsum2 »

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

This is objectively wrong. Take a look at how often Facebook is mentioned in the title of submissions in the last month, sorted by number of upvotes: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=facebook&sort=byPopularity&pre...

The entire top 10 are entirely negative of Facebook.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#224

Post by BinaryResult »

idlewords wrote: post #207
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…

The point of arcade tokens is to prevent people breaking in to machines, feeding them slugs instead of coins, and reduce the number of employees with access to unlimited free quarters.

I would disagree and that the real point is for them to make their money up front on the token exchange. When you change $5 for tokens they don't care whether you spend them on games or use them as pogs, they have already made their $5 just as if you had pumped it all into the machines. If they change your $5 for just quarters there is no guarantee you will pump those into the machines, you might instead use them to buy a pack of gum or something and they never see that money. You can walk out with a pocket full of quarters and it will still be useful, this allows you to stop when you feel satisfied and they lose out on that money, a pocket full of tokens gains you nothing, might as well use them all up and then maybe you will want to keep going and convert a few more dollars. Very smart.

Beyond that many also use it as a way to introduce inflation and take a cut right off the top so instead of $1 getting your 4 tokens they can say make it so $1 only gets you 3 tokens and most people don't even notice. Now when you start pumping tokens in the machines in your mind you still feel like you're spending 25 cents when in reality you're spending 33 cents. Instant markup for increased profit.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#225

Post by ilaksh »

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.

I am all for borderless stablecoins and agree with everything you say except that you imply that we should let Facebook and and control it, which makes no sense.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#226

Post by news_to_me »

xwdv wrote: post #197
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.

> At the end of the day, FB still does more good things than bad

I don't think this is a claim you can make these days without a good argument behind it. It certainly seems false to me.

> I am more likely to take them seriously when they set out on a new venture

This is real, though. Whatever FB are, they're not dumb and whatever they do should be taken seriously.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#227

Post by apo »

At some point the "blockchain not Bitcoin" crowd will wake up to the fact that Bitcoin's value proposition is censorship resistance. Nobody can block you from making a payment. The idea is still revolutionary, as evidenced by the large number of people for whom Bitcoin still doesn't look like anything (other than maybe something scary or bad).

Whatever Facebook comes up with will be the antithesis of censorship resistant. There is no point to buy or use it because it solves no problems for regular people.

Which brings us to why Facebook is bothering. For the simple reason that governments print currencies. Control (through censorship) and self enrichment ( through inflation).

This only works by compelling people to use the currency. My prediction is that Phase 2 of this ridiculous plan is to force people on Facebook to use the token while gradually cutting third party payment processors out.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#228

Post by village-idiot »

flycaliguy wrote: post #209
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.

Don’t forget that Facebook is extremely capable of reading the public. It could be a marketing tool designed to capture early adaptors.

They’re also capable of the self delusion that is depressingly common for large companies.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#229

Post by elevenoh »

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

There's def a sizeable representation of FB folks on HN, know some personally.

Re: Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut

#230

Post by e12e »

zeroxfe wrote: post #154
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.

Two things I can think of: - you can get transparency (the entire ledger must be public, so you reduce the risk of many kids of internal fraud and manipulation.) - you can use these coins outside the facebook ecosystem -- I can't think of immediate value here, but I can see a long play where Facebook can turn into a bank

Surely the long play is turning Facebook into sovereign nation state? Only half-joking...
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