Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#321

Post by snarf21 » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 2:54 PM UTC

the_duke wrote: post #313

> Unlike previous stablecoins, Libra will not be issued by a central party. Instead, Facebook has enlisted 27 fellow Silicon Valley titans—among them PayPal, Visa, Spotify, Mastercard, Uber, and eBay .... This really surprises me, since it is somewhat of a direct attack on Visa, Mastercard and Paypal. Maybe the thinking is that if Libra becomes a success, they'd rather be in on the deal, or they plan on becoming midd…

They joined because it allows them increased market share. This play is mostly about cross border remittance and the unbanked. This gives all these companies a percentage of all the money that gets moved in this way. They have almost no exposure to those customers today. And all they have to do is run some software on some servers and invest $10M. Seems like nothing but upside to me.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#322

Post by herrvogel- » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 2:54 PM UTC

renaudg wrote: post #260

moosey wrote: post #233

If this succeeds, it will be a data collection tool the likes of which the world has never seen, which is why so many companies are willing to put their name on it. The data, along with ML/AI, and our contemporary understanding of the human mind, means that this is a major step towards control that we can't understand. Dr. Harari explains it better than I do in "21 Lessons for the 21st Century", but this tool is part…

There is at least this from Zuckerberg's announcement : "Calibra will be regulated like other payment service providers. Any information you share with Calibra will be kept separate from information you share on Facebook."

This statement does not include ads. Which is the real use case in my opinion. Facebook will link shown ads to purchases made with Calibra. This will allow them to target users even more and generate more revenue per ad.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#323

Post by navigatesol » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 2:55 PM UTC

gridlockd wrote: post #246

DenisM wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We've all seen in the past on how well "financial oversight" worked It worked remarkably well - no consumer lost their deposits to a bank failure. The fact that banks lent out too much money had no impact on consumer deposits, thanks to oversight.

That had nothing to do with oversight and everything to do with the fact that the government can just print the money to save a bank - and it did so. That expectation itself caused reckless behavior of the banks - and it still does. People just don't fully grasp the consequences. Also, you may say this "worked" in the US, but other countries didn't get quite so lucky playing that game.

>That expectation itself caused reckless behavior of the banks - and it still does. People just don't fully grasp the consequences.

What most people don't grasp is just how regulated the financial industry is.

Silicon Valley loves taking risks (and failing!), but when a bank does it it's unacceptable? This stuff happens in a capitalist economy. I mean, it's not like it was "the banks" in a vacuum. It was governments, mortgage brokers, builders, house-flippers, your neighbour, speculators...everyone benefited from the wealth effect of cheap money and rising home values. Until they didn't; then it became the banks' fault.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#324

Post by _khau » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 2:55 PM UTC

renaudg wrote: post #260

moosey wrote: post #233

If this succeeds, it will be a data collection tool the likes of which the world has never seen, which is why so many companies are willing to put their name on it. The data, along with ML/AI, and our contemporary understanding of the human mind, means that this is a major step towards control that we can't understand. Dr. Harari explains it better than I do in "21 Lessons for the 21st Century", but this tool is part…

There is at least this from Zuckerberg's announcement : "Calibra will be regulated like other payment service providers. Any information you share with Calibra will be kept separate from information you share on Facebook."

He said data on WhatsApp would be kept separate too.

He lied. Again and again and again.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#325

Post by pastor_elm » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 2:56 PM UTC

baby wrote: post #121

imw wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.crypt…

> they have people like me onboard to influence them in the right direction.

what influence do you have? Can you tell Zuck not to steal my personal info?

Also, how much of your salary is getting paid out in Zuck Bucks? Or are you going to wait until some third world citizens with no other options test out the utility of this before you dip your toe in?

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#326

Post by dannyw » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 2:57 PM UTC

mwest217 wrote: post #297

I feel like the biggest losers here are open consensus-based cryptocurrencies like [Stellar]( https://stellar.org ) and [Ripple]( https://ripple.com ). Libra seems to have the same niche: a consensus-based blockchain protocol rather than proof of work. I fear that having the clout of a bunch of tech companies behind it will get consumer buy-in much faster than Stellar will (with IBM World Wire). A stablecoin backed b…

Neither Ripple and Stellar are open.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#327

Post by chvid » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 2:58 PM UTC

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!

I have taken a cursory look at the github repository and the whitepapers. It looks like a very high quality project and a major contribution to the space. Facebook as a commercial company did not have to release this as open source but it did. In short, excellent work.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#328

Post by ravenstine » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 2:59 PM UTC

tetrisgm wrote: post #22

It’s going to be interesting. “Unlike previous stablecoins, Libra will not be issued by a central party. Instead, Facebook has enlisted 27 fellow Silicon Valley titans—among them PayPal, Visa, Spotify, Mastercard, Uber, and eBay—to operate as preliminary “validator nodes” who will each share a transparent copy of a vast ledger of transactions reflecting all the activity on the network.” That sounds amazingly dystopia…

Seems like a way to further entrench the status quo in Silicon Valley.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#329

Post by karlmcguire » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 2:59 PM UTC

bradenb wrote: post #202

loceng wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, if an army of HODLers develops who buy into this Facebook coin think they can make profit off of holding it - then there will be a growing body who promote it and speak positively of it, and not care about Facebook's other wrongdoings because money. Those big name brands also already buying into it means quite the global powerhouse of marketing ability to onboard people into something that is relatively unknown…

Libra is a stablecoin, holding it isn't going to make you rich.

I think you're underestimating the cryptocurrency "hodl" hysteria...

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#330

Post by navigatesol » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 3:00 PM UTC

sins wrote: post #67

jrvxo wrote: post #52

It was already tried. It was called Bitcoin. It failed spectacularly. At least this looks like it could work. I trust my government more than I trust these companies so I will keep using fiat, but this may be an option for other people.

Could you elaborate on what Bitcoin failed at?

>Could you elaborate on what Bitcoin failed at?

I wouldn't say it's failed, but I don't see it succeeding, either. Is Bitcoin more or less mainstream than it was 2 years ago? Are transactions faster? Is it used at more retailers?

I don't see any of that. It seems like it's only a tool for speculation.