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Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

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Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#791

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not 100% steeped in cryptocurrency theory, and so I don't understand why this is presented as if it's agreed on by everyone. What problems does the world have that would be solved by an online, independent [of any nation, presumably?] currency? Visa and Mastercard are taking a 3-4% cut of every single consumer payment made in much of the world. That ends up being a very, very big number. There are many people a…

> Visa and Mastercard are taking a 3-4% cut have you tried buying anything with bitcoin? currently the transaction fee is almost $2 to have your transaction confirmed within 10 minutes. Not a lot on big purchases, but that's 20% if you're say trying to buy a $10 lunch with bitcoin.

Bitcoin isn't the only cryptocurrency, and many others have much lower fees

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#793
post #580

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly why I would love to see this fail. I try to be a non-Facebook user, but everyone uses Messenger, and my local Craigslist has deteriorated because everyone sells on Facebook now, so I use it for certain things. Every once in a while, I find myself getting sucked into the "feed" view on my way to the Facebook Marketplace, especially since on mobile, every time I press "back" from a listing that I go into detail…

One of the best things I did was unfollow everything (i.e. friends, family, pages, celebrities, the kitchen sink, EVERYTHING) on Facebook. This explicit unfollowing took a few weeks and wasn't something done in a day. Now, I have the advantage of using facebook for all the useful things I need such as "Login with Facebook" and Messenger without having the risk of ever succumbing to the "Feed" Part of my experience he…

An alternative method is to add the timeline to your ad blocker so you don't see it any more, and only use the Messenger app on mobile!

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#794

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. The world could use an online independent currency I'm not 100% steeped in cryptocurrency theory, and so I don't understand why this is presented as if it's agreed on by everyone. What problems does the world have that would be solved by an online, independent [of any nation, presumably?] currency? > 2. Adding stability to blockchain currencies and having > that work on a large scale is a good thing Having a blo…

> I'm not 100% steeped in cryptocurrency theory, and so I don't understand why this is presented as if it's agreed on by everyone. What problems does the world have that would be solved by an online, independent [of any nation, presumably?] currency? Visa and Mastercard are taking a 3-4% cut of every single consumer payment made in much of the world. That ends up being a very, very big number. There are many people a…

Do we have any indication from Facebook that they intend to use Libra to massively undercut Visa / Mastercard for merchant services? I mean in the developed economies.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#795

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not 100% steeped in cryptocurrency theory, and so I don't understand why this is presented as if it's agreed on by everyone. What problems does the world have that would be solved by an online, independent [of any nation, presumably?] currency? Visa and Mastercard are taking a 3-4% cut of every single consumer payment made in much of the world. That ends up being a very, very big number. There are many people a…

> If you live in a country that has extremely tight currency and economic controls but with a corrupt government, and are experiencing hyperinflation (Zimbabwe, Venezuela, others https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/inflation-rate ), access to alternative currencies can literally be the difference between life and death for individuals, where the money you make on your salary will be worthless by the time you ge…

> There's nothing better about "Venezuelans should've used cryptocurrency" versus "Venezuelans should've used dollars".

US has often taken advantage of its dominant world currency position. For example, massive amount of QE that eventually gets absorbed worldwide with little inflation in US. Similarly "petro dollars". The bottom line is that if someone is allowed to print currency at whim, they will.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#797
Jameson Lopp thoughts on Libra “Blockchain”

https://medium.com/@lopp/thoughts-on-libra-blockchain-49b8f6...

Covers:

Abstract

Introduction

Logical Data Model

Executing Transactions

Authenticated Data Structures and Storage

Byzantine Fault Tolerant Consensus

Networking

Libra Core Implementation

Performance

Implementing Libra Ecosystem Policies with Move

Governance,AML/KYC,fees,capacity,open to developers?

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#798

This reads a lot like the founding of the Federal Reserve: > [The Federal Reserve] had several key components, including a central bank with a Washington-based headquarters and fifteen branches located throughout the U.S. in geographically strategic locations, and a uniform elastic currency based on gold and commercial paper. 1. Geographically dispersed 2. Value elastic but secured by assets 3. Controlled by a small…

The full employment second mandate was only added during the Carter administration, and was mostly ignored by the Fed until Yellen became chairwoman.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#799

Expansion and contraction of the monetary supply by central banks is critical to preventing financial disasters. Cryto subverts this. Not to mention making transactions harder and not easier.

In the US the evidence for a central bank PhD Politburo "preventing" or even "minimizing" financial disasters is dubious at best. Financial panics in the 19th century were generally shorter, less frequent, and probably effected the avg citizen much less, than 1929/1937/1970s/2000/2008.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#800

I've lived in China and seen how this plays out. Facebook's new Libra Blockchain will be a centralized bank but way more dangerous. It will allow for a worldwide social credit system. If Facebook decides to remove you for wrong speak or wrong think, your money and many services will be inaccessible. Further, they have no mandate like the central bank does to increase employment. Their mandate is to make money for cor…

Also, to be up front, some of these points I found on a thread early this morning and I copied it to a note pad for later, then went to sleep. When I woke up, the page had refreshed and I have no way of crediting the original author. But I think it's important to share, so I did. If you are the author, or know who wrote parts of this, please tell me and I will credit you/them.
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