Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Facebook-bucks Missed opportunity to call them "Marks", although maybe only German speakers will get the joke.
Word on the blockchain is that the crypto people are calling them “Zuck Bucks”
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Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Gets Big Backers
141–150 of 277 posts
Re: Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Gets Big Backers
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except next to no one is using Bitcoin, not to mention Ethereum or Lightning Network. It's very much like the Linux Desktop - it exists, some people love it, it's never going to disappear, but it is very much a niche interest that will never be mainstream, for a multitude of reasons.
It is absolutely clear that every year Bitcoin is being used by more and more people or the price wouldn't be going up consistently over the years.
The price is heavily manipulated and volatile, most of the volume appears to be fake, and the only major 'use' anyone is making of it is speculation.
Also it hasn't gone up consistently, it's still at around 50% of its peak almost two years ago.
Re: Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Gets Big Backers
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
Papiermark ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Papiermark ) pre 1924 was the hyperinflated currency, then followed the stable Reichsmark and after World War II Deutsch Mark and East Deutsch Mark. Deutsch Mark remained until 2002 when the Euro got introduced. For Germans Mark is just a name for currency like Kronas (Sweden), Francs (France), Lira (Italy). Hyperinflation is too long ago to remember.
> Hyperinflation is too long ago to remember. Germans use cash much more than the average Western European. The memory of hyperinflation and bank system collapse is one of the explanations why people prefer to store value in currency (often foreign currency) and not trust so much a bank or card issuer.
Also, in West Germany, the Deutsche Mark (1948-2002) is strongly associated with the post-war economic boom. It's still a common rhetoric among conservative populists to argue for a return to the good old times ^W Mark.
Re: Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Gets Big Backers
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Is it really a cryptocurrency when it's completely centralized? No. What is decentralized about a handful of Chinese miners controlling all supply?
That there is a well established (if expensive) method to re-take the decentralized control should things go south. Same for open source software, the best pieces are generally run by a no-nonsense autocrats.
Could you please expand? If the big Chinese miners go rogue (actually go rogue, take over a currency and actively tries to stop the larger public from taking it back), what recourse does the larger public have? Wouldn't they need more mining power, or an impractical fenced-off network that's still decentralized in some manner?
Re: Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Gets Big Backers
#145> It has been a decade since bitcoin was born, yet consumers hardly use it—or the hundreds of other cryptocurrencies—to pay for things. And why would they? Adding two extra steps to paying someone -- the buyer converting local currency to bitcoin, and then the seller converting bitcoin to local currency -- can never compete with just transferring local currency directly. Cryptocurrency was meant to be much more than…
I had a similar idea about closing the loop a couple of years ago. I actually built the buying half you mention (olodolo.com) and it is still used by a small handful of happy customers. On top of it I imagined an Uber-like app where you're paid in tokens along with fiat currency, thus closing the loop, but never got further along than that thought.
Re: Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Gets Big Backers
#146Is it really a cryptocurrency when it's completely centralized? No. This is just Facebook-bucks. Store dollars. It's has absolutely none of the benefits of a real cryptocurrency.
If it's a currency and is implemented using cryptographic concepts, I feel comfortable calling it a cryptocurrency. "Decentralization" is a spectrum and a highly subjective one, so I don't think it should be a requirement.
Re: Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Gets Big Backers
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would anyone want a facebook coin that is completely controlled by Facebook which can be controlled by the government when with Bitcoin you get complete sovereignty?
If this coin can be traded freely on crypto exchanges, then it will provide a convienient on/off ramp for other cryptocurrencies.
I don't see Facebook allowing that. This is going to be a locked-down, siloed currency that can only be purchased with a Facebook account and real currency, with the consortium members taking a cut.
Re: Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Gets Big Backers
#148Why does this centralized stablecoin need to be crypto? It's not like they need to raise funding for this. They could have made their own boring but extremely well positioned WePay / Paypal alternative ages ago, and instead they waited until cryptocurrencies are past peak hype to launch this. Puzzling. I guess the only thing they have to sell here is the privacy aspect of crypto, but I doubt you'll get effective priv…
It's a token i.e. a financial derivative. So Facebook is not giving it's users bank accounts. So there is less regulation e.g. Know Your Customer.
A block chain will make it easier to build trust because (some) third parties can audit it.
Re: Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Gets Big Backers
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
Libra is the portuguese word for pound sterling
it's the latin word for a scale and is the root of many money-related words in european languages
Including the British pound - until decimalisation in 1971, the abbreviations for pounds, shillings and pence were Lsd (with the L often having a single or double cross bar) from the Latin libra, solidus and denarius respectively.
Re: Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Gets Big Backers
#150Is this a brutal, final, swing at the Winklevoss twins?