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Facebook, Libra, and the Long Game

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Re: Facebook, Libra, and the Long Game

#31

Post by JumpCrisscross »

cflewis wrote: post #18
padobson wrote: post #9

I can't help but think that Facebook doomed this "distributed ledger" possibility by trying to be first to market with a tarnished brand. The developing world would hugely benefit from a scalable technology that can efficiently service digital transactions. The piece demonstrates this with how quickly WeChat Pay and Alipay penetrated China. I can't imagine the possibility for prosperity when 3 billion consumers enter…

I was thinking the same thing. Either the product managers or the PR people are tone deaf (or why not both?). I once saw a PR person talk about how you had to earn your way to allow yourself to be part of certain larger societal conversations. Start at grass roots, earn trust there, step up to communities, earn trust there, step up to local governments etc etc. Being big doesn't earn you anything out the gate. I like…

> the product managers or the PR people are tone deaf

Evidence points to a massive lack of co-ordination with this launch. Government relations (together with the relevant House and Senate committees) learned about the launch from the news briefing. This whole thing appears to be a shambling mess, born out of desperation more than ingenuity.

Re: Facebook, Libra, and the Long Game

#32

Post by educationcto »

drcode wrote: post #4
PaulHoule wrote: post #2

I too dismissed Libra out of hand, but the coalition that Facebook is building is interesting. People say that "Fintech threatens the banks" but almost all Fintech companies partner with the banks in one way or another. Look at the companies involved with Libra and see that none of them are banks. Libra will still have a lot of money on deposit with the banks, but it might be the first Fintech that will really bypass…

Where is the Visa press release? Where is the Uber CEO interview on Libra? The Libra membership list is kind of meaningless, given that none of the partners seem to have any interest of promoting the project... mainly Zuck just asked these companies "Hey, you want to be on a list for a tech project for some free PR?" and until we hear more from the partners there's no reason to take this list seriously.

Visa press release: https://usa.visa.com/visa-everywhere/blog/bdp/2019/06/13/vis...

"Visa announces intent to join the Libra Association"

Re: Facebook, Libra, and the Long Game

#33

Post by cschneid »

Pamar wrote: post #19
cschneid wrote: post #10

Something I haven't seen yet: If my computer has a bit of malware land on it, do I lose my entire wallet worth of Libra irrevocably? If so, this seems pretty questionable as a mass-market money...

It's a bit early to tell but... do you lose access to FB, whatsapp or whatever when your computer/smartphone gets infected? Or are you talking about malware designed to transfer money from your account to someone else's? Is this a problem for Paypal?

Paypal can reverse transactions, can Libra? Or is it like bitcoin, where I must protect my private key by any and all means, and then if it's lost, sucks to be me?

And yeah, I mean "lose all your money due to a 0 day in your browser".

Re: Facebook, Libra, and the Long Game

#35

Post by drcode »

educationcto wrote: post #32
drcode wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is the Visa press release? Where is the Uber CEO interview on Libra? The Libra membership list is kind of meaningless, given that none of the partners seem to have any interest of promoting the project... mainly Zuck just asked these companies "Hey, you want to be on a list for a tech project for some free PR?" and until we hear more from the partners there's no reason to take this list seriously.

Visa press release: https://usa.visa.com/visa-everywhere/blog/bdp/2019/06/13/vis... "Visa announces intent to join the Libra Association"

OK, that's fair- It's still an awfully soft commitment to the project... they're not even part of the association yet.

Re: Facebook, Libra, and the Long Game

#37

Post by JumpCrisscross »

kabwj wrote: post #27
padobson wrote: post #9

I can't help but think that Facebook doomed this "distributed ledger" possibility by trying to be first to market with a tarnished brand. The developing world would hugely benefit from a scalable technology that can efficiently service digital transactions. The piece demonstrates this with how quickly WeChat Pay and Alipay penetrated China. I can't imagine the possibility for prosperity when 3 billion consumers enter…

The developing world doesn’t care about the reputation Facebook has on HN.

> The developing world doesn’t care about the reputation Facebook has on HN

The developed world does: "based on an analysis of SimilarWeb Android data, Jefferies analyst Brent Thill found daily average users for core Facebook have declined in the U.S., U.K., Germany and France over the last 12 months—although he notes sequential user growth across geographies in April and May. In the U.S., time spent on core Facebook and its photo-and-video-sharing platform Instagram also has declined over the last 12 months, with users spending sequentially less time on both apps most recently" [1]. Antagonism to Facebook not a niche issue.

Autocracies won't cede power to Zuckerberg. Poor democracies have no incentive to sign up to a cartel without rich countries' wealth. Without at least some OECD support, the project is DOA.

[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebooks-pricey-ad-spend-may-n...

Re: Facebook, Libra, and the Long Game

#38

Post by pjc50 »

Pamar wrote: post #19
cschneid wrote: post #10

Something I haven't seen yet: If my computer has a bit of malware land on it, do I lose my entire wallet worth of Libra irrevocably? If so, this seems pretty questionable as a mass-market money...

It's a bit early to tell but... do you lose access to FB, whatsapp or whatever when your computer/smartphone gets infected? Or are you talking about malware designed to transfer money from your account to someone else's? Is this a problem for Paypal?

Centralised systems like paypal can just un-transfer the money; for the other examples, you can usually get the account back through some out-of-band account recovery process.

For a decentralised system, you're on your own. It's not clear which one Libra really is.

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