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Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

decrypt.co

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Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#121

Post by baby »

imw wrote: post #37
baby wrote: post #21

I'm biased as I'm working on this project. But I'm super happy it's finally out there :) There's a lot of really cool cryptography and tech on this project and there's still a lot for people to discover!

There's a lot of interesting physics in building thermonuclear weapons. Doesn't mean you should do it. Your talents could be used to help the world. Instead, they are being used to enclose common spaces and pull apart the fabric of society. Get a better job?

I appreciate your point of view, FWIW I believe that I'm doing net positive work for the world.

If you don't believe such projects should exist, you can at least agree that such project will inevitably happen and that it is a good thing that they have people like me onboard to influence them in the right direction.

I will write more about the things I work on and why I think these are good things on my blog www.cryptologie.net

Hope we can have some civilized discussions :)

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#122

Post by LunaSea »

mbrock wrote: post #119
toomuchequate wrote: post #117

Hmm, should I use United States Dollars? OR Facebook United States Dollars? I'm going with G.) Other. Hording cash is a terrible investment idea. EDIT: Hording and Investing typically means to generate future value. Daily spending money can be done in cash. I would hope I didn't need to explicitly say this, but hey, economics is hard.

That’s why I personally don’t use money at all and do all my daily shopping by negotiating bond trades with the cashiers

Trading cattle is my way to go but I have to say that I'm getting sick of all the chickens I get back as change.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#124

Post by alangibson »

seibelj wrote: post #118

I will answer the question that is always asked in every post regarding blockchains on HN: "Why blockchain? Can't this be done with a database?" Blockchains are databases. They are distributed, append-only, tamper-proof databases. You could call them that, or instead you could just say "blockchain" as that is what type of database the word blockchain has come to be understood as. The reason to use a blockchain rather…

Libra is explicitly centralized. The protocol depends entirely on Validators, of which there are few, and the Libra Association controls who's a Validator.

If Libra is decentralized, then so is the Fed because it's distributed across 12 regional banks.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#125

Post by prepend »

jarfil wrote: post #78
prepend wrote: post #16

“Moreover, Marcus insisted that the $10 million buy in would not grant validators exclusive access to users’ transactional data.“ So they don’t get exclusive data. That’s an odd statement, it just means that data can be sold to others as well.

If the blockchain is public, the transactions themselves are public, so can't really be sold. The association between user data and transactions, might be valuable though.

I think Facebook will be in the best position to link identity to wallets. Doling this out to initial backers and anyone who pays later on would keep the truth of the statement.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#126

Post by aflag »

Interesting. I'm curious to see how it plays out. I can see it working if they make Libras look valuable in itself for their user base (eg. Being able to get Libras from other users for services or content and then being able to buy real things with it). Given it's not "real money" would you be exempt of most taxes?

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#127

Post by gruez »

aflag wrote: post #126

Interesting. I'm curious to see how it plays out. I can see it working if they make Libras look valuable in itself for their user base (eg. Being able to get Libras from other users for services or content and then being able to buy real things with it). Given it's not "real money" would you be exempt of most taxes?

Pretty sure barter is taxed as well. Otherwise you’d see people evading sales taxes by transacting in bitcoin a long time ago.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#128

Post by chewbacha »

seibelj wrote: post #118

I will answer the question that is always asked in every post regarding blockchains on HN: "Why blockchain? Can't this be done with a database?" Blockchains are databases. They are distributed, append-only, tamper-proof databases. You could call them that, or instead you could just say "blockchain" as that is what type of database the word blockchain has come to be understood as. The reason to use a blockchain rather…

One minor correction, centralized databases are faster than distributed databases. By choosing blockchain, they are choosing a slower db.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#130

Post by username444 »

IAmEveryone wrote: post #105
sschueller wrote: post #45

Their next efforts will probably be lobby like crazy to ban any other coin that is not "Approved".

It’s funny how one of the core believes of cryptocurrencies has always been that (a) government will fear and attempt to ban it, and (b) that the technology would make such attempts impossible. Yet what we have seen over the years is really more of a bemused interest from existing institutions, with targeted and rather effective interventions only where actual harm was done, such as ICOs. It’s almost as if these cons…

You're looking at the wrong timescale. Institutions and founders of powerful corporations have life long time scales to subtly tweak and manipulate their messaging and approach.

Look back in 10 years to see whether the conspiracy theorist were wrong. I have no doubt the lobbying to exclude and put "regulations" in place is coming.

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