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Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Gets Big Backers

wsj.com

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Re: Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Gets Big Backers

#221

Post by buboard »

mountainofdeath wrote: post #200

So a cryptocurrency that is more currency than crypto? Again, back to the argument that the market is the same as in-game currency, store gift cards, Chuck-E-Cheese tokens, etc. Let's be honest, most of the hype around cryptocurrency is for speculation and not as a legitimate means of exchange. Normal money works fine for means-of-exchange barring a few exceptions e.g. capital flight, money laundering, generally esca…

What about people being excluded from payment controllers and banks because they are adult sites / fringe ideologies / whatever paypal’s terms disallow?

Re: Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Gets Big Backers

#222

Post by buboard »

superkuh wrote: post #17

Is 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.

Can it be exchanged in binance for bitcoin? If yes, and this gets a lot of users, then it s a huge deal, centralized or not. (And yeah it is cryptocurrency as long as it is based in Cryptography )

Re: Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Gets Big Backers

#224

Post by opportune »

derefr wrote: post #211
mountainofdeath wrote: post #200

So a cryptocurrency that is more currency than crypto? Again, back to the argument that the market is the same as in-game currency, store gift cards, Chuck-E-Cheese tokens, etc. Let's be honest, most of the hype around cryptocurrency is for speculation and not as a legitimate means of exchange. Normal money works fine for means-of-exchange barring a few exceptions e.g. capital flight, money laundering, generally esca…

People are using the wrong term here. Stablecoins (what Facebook has made here) aren’t cryptocurrencies in-and-of themselves; they’re systems that expose regular fiat currency to smart contracts, so that you can pass e.g. “5USD” from one contract to another without it losing value; or so that exchanges don’t all have to have their own relationships with physical payment-processors and banks, instead just allowing you…

Or more cynically, stablecoins are fiat wrappers that people hope will trick regulators into not applying financial regulations to them.

Re: Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Gets Big Backers

#225

Post by opportune »

colechristensen wrote: post #111
raquo wrote: post #68

Why 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…

Yes. The biggest fans of Bitcoin have been all about the privacy and freedom of the coin but unless you have perpetually perfect opsec what actually happens is total information awareness. Everybody knows what everybody else is doing.

Monero doesn't require as good opsec since it effectively does all the tumbling for you

Re: Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Gets Big Backers

#226

Post by [deleted] »

akdfd wrote: post #171
Nursie wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a bank also means having security, reversibility and a whole host of other great things. Bitcoin cannot compete on this.

Cash can't do those things either. It would be relatively easy to have a regulated bitcoin bank that offers such services. Coinbase is heading that way.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Gets Big Backers

#227

Post by pjc50 »

runeks wrote: post #179
pjc50 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arguably there already is a global dollar-denominated credit market, it's just highly intermediated. And the risk history of p2p credit shows why the intermediaries are useful. > in order to earn a low-risk return on their money How does the economics of this work - you're claiming lower risk and higher return, but cryptocurrency does nothing to help with default risk?

> Arguably there already is a global dollar-denominated credit market, it's just highly intermediated. Correct. However, the fact that the Federal Reserve can underbid everyone (with regards to interest) on short term credit causes a destabilization of interest rates (which is why they've been falling for the past ~40 years). There's no point in saving dollars when you can't protest against a too-low rate of interest…

> This can't happen with non-centrally produced money.

As cryptocurrency investors keep finding out the hard way, you can create credit in bitcoin very easily, every exchange balance is a credit; what the lack of a central bank means is that when there is a bank run or "liquidity event" you definitely can't get your money back. The Tether people have been very effective at centrally producing decentralised money too.

> I'm claiming a higher return by not competing with a party (the Fed) that can always underbid you on short-term credit.

OK, so what does the other side of this equation look like: what's the advantage to the borrower in taking out more expensive credit? Even worse, they're taking out credit in a currency that's appreciating against the dollar?

Re: Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Gets Big Backers

#228

Post by HocusLocus »

rattlesnakedave wrote: post #177

Finally! A cryptocurrency with the ethics of Uber, the censorship resistance of Paypal, and the centralization of Visa, all tied together under the proven privacy of Facebook. Just what I’ve been waiting for.

I am not an ultra PC tech startup fantron and I found your comment hilarious. Keep striking, rattlesnakedave!

Re: Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Gets Big Backers

#229

Post by colordrops »

glitchc wrote: post #170
colordrops wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What sort of crypto? Just hiding the ledger behind SSL or encrypting the data is not what makes the "crypto" in cryptocurrency.

Neither does calling it crypto, which stands for cryptography. Call it distributed ledger technology or blockchain for specific popular variations.

Unlike a centralized ledger, a distributed ledger could not exist without cryptography.

Re: Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Gets Big Backers

#230

Post by snitko »

jeffwass wrote: post #96
snitko wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speculative vehicle? We're paying devs salaries in Bitcoin, what are you talking about?

I’m curious. Is their salary paid as X BTC per month, regardless of the movement of BTC? Or are they paid the BTC equivalent of Y USD (or similar currency) per month?

Btc equivalent of USD.
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