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Libra White Paper

libra.org

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Re: Libra White Paper

#11

Post by CodiePetersen »

I think this coin is a really bad idea. Its just centralizing a crypto coin and then removing the laws around money because now a dollar has a libra coin wrapper on it so it's obviously totally different than a dollar.

It feels like a federal reserve moment where a bunch of rich folk get together and again dictate the future of currency. Crypto was supposed to change that trend. Unfortunately the want of convenience will probably win out over any sort moralistic/idealistic standing and unless government steps in, it will probably be widely adopted.

Re: Libra White Paper

#12

Post by jasode »

>Libra’s mission is to enable a simple global currency and financial infrastructure [...] This document outlines our plans for a new decentralized blockchain,

The "decentralized" can be parsed different ways. Facebook Libra is decentralizing the transactions but it does not decentralize the currency creation. (This partial decentralization happens because Facebook wants to peg Libra to stable asset reserves.) This is different from Bitcoin's idea of decentralizing both the currency creation _and_ the financial transactions.

We can see this distinction in its list of partners...

> Members of the Libra Association will consist of [...]

The bulleted list includes:

- transaction processors such as Mastercard/Visa, PayPal, Stripe, etc

- ecommerce marketplaces such as ebay, Uber, etc

- telecomm such as Vodafone

We see the industry that's noticeably missing: no banks mentioned such as JP Morgan Chase, Citi, HSBC, etc

That's because Facebook wants to be the "bank" in this new Libra economy. It wants to be the "Federal Reserve" that creates bank notes.

If I misunderstand Facebook's intentions and how it wants to position Libra in the financial world, please correct me.

Re: Libra White Paper

#13

Post by muratgozel »

"it will be backed by a collection of low-volatility assets, such as bank deposits and short-term government securities in currencies from stable and reputable central banks." from the whitepaper: https://libra.org/en-US/white-paper/#the-libra-currency-and-...

It's like one to one copy of the traditional monetary system with speed of transactions improved. Low volatile assets they rely on are not real and therefore not guaranteed to stay low volatile. It may be decentralized technically but not socially or ethically.

Re: Libra White Paper

#14

Post by m1el »

2T1Qka0rEiPr wrote: post #4

As someone somewhat out of the crypto-loop, would someone be able to explain/posit/cite why Facebook are entering this market, and why traditional payment providers are also getting involved? On the face of it, this suggests it aims to essentially reduce transaction costs (which would be to the detriment of the status-quo)?

As far as I can tell, FB wants to be a bank to print money. Their own money. For every country.

All full nodes on that blockchain are going to be owned by FaceBook. FB will be able to see all transactions and take money from people they don't like.

Re: Libra White Paper

#15

Post by bitxbit »

2T1Qka0rEiPr wrote: post #4

As someone somewhat out of the crypto-loop, would someone be able to explain/posit/cite why Facebook are entering this market, and why traditional payment providers are also getting involved? On the face of it, this suggests it aims to essentially reduce transaction costs (which would be to the detriment of the status-quo)?

Put it differently, banks have failed to implement something more efficient and the “bitcoin” innovators have also failed on practical aspects. As a result we have a void and it’s anyone’s game right now. Facebook is throwing money at it. A small chance it works but public trust is a big factor in currency isn’t it?

Here’s what I think: any alternative currency tied to the USD (meaning a currency without intrinsic value) is DOA. The next generation currency cannot be tied to resource constraints.

Re: Libra White Paper

#16

Post by m1el »

jasode wrote: post #12

>Libra’s mission is to enable a simple global currency and financial infrastructure [...] This document outlines our plans for a new decentralized blockchain, The "decentralized" can be parsed different ways. Facebook Libra is decentralizing the transactions but it does not decentralize the currency creation . (This partial decentralization happens because Facebook wants to peg Libra to stable asset reserves.) This i…

I would also like to add that FB is going to tie wallets to accounts so FB will know information about every transation. "Pseudonymous" wallets aren't going to be anonymous to Facebook.

Re: Libra White Paper

#17

Post by thefounder »

m1el wrote: post #14
2T1Qka0rEiPr wrote: post #4

As someone somewhat out of the crypto-loop, would someone be able to explain/posit/cite why Facebook are entering this market, and why traditional payment providers are also getting involved? On the face of it, this suggests it aims to essentially reduce transaction costs (which would be to the detriment of the status-quo)?

As far as I can tell, FB wants to be a bank to print money. Their own money. For every country. All full nodes on that blockchain are going to be owned by FaceBook. FB will be able to see all transactions and take money from people they don't like.

It's no different than paypal. I was hoping the public will at least have read access to the database/blockchain and API to create wallets.

The fact that they print the money can only be good because that's how a stable coin is supposed to work, right?

Re: Libra White Paper

#18

Post by 1in21m »

wslh wrote: post #6

I just skimmed through their documents and I saw they use BFT. BFT algorithms are slow (and slower when more nodes are added) so are they using another layer for gaining performance? Currently the fastest BFT implementation is BFT-SMaRt: https://github.com/bft-smart/library

Moreover, BFT algorithms do not solve BGP in a decentralized, trustless network, consensus remains subjective. Bitcoin relies on proof-of-work to provide objective consensus.

Whitepaper: "We did not consider proof-of-work based protocols due to their poor performance and high energy (and environmental) costs"

Right...

Re: Libra White Paper

#19

Post by 2T1Qka0rEiPr »

m1el wrote: post #14
2T1Qka0rEiPr wrote: post #4

As someone somewhat out of the crypto-loop, would someone be able to explain/posit/cite why Facebook are entering this market, and why traditional payment providers are also getting involved? On the face of it, this suggests it aims to essentially reduce transaction costs (which would be to the detriment of the status-quo)?

As far as I can tell, FB wants to be a bank to print money. Their own money. For every country. All full nodes on that blockchain are going to be owned by FaceBook. FB will be able to see all transactions and take money from people they don't like.

Yes - I was just reading the other article on the front page of HN which gives a summary. Pegged to fiats and traded in for fiats, so... Facebook is creating its own fiat which it wants to profit off, use its existing user network as a leap pad to do so, and to be considered the global fiat? Is that fair?

Re: Libra White Paper

#20

Post by orbifold »

> simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people.

This is the material anti-trust lawsuits are made of, there is no way that nation states will allow private enterprises to gain that much power.

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