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House lawmakers ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold

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Re: House lawmakers ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold

#31

Post by codehalo »

luckydata wrote: post #21

This is not surprising. The minute Libra starts operating it becomes the main money laundering tool in the world. Depending on how it's implemented it could easily topple the economies of smaller countries, and significantly increase funding for terrorist organizations and garden variety criminals. I don't see how any government, and especially the US government, agrees to any of that anytime soon.

How will it become a main money laundering or terrorist tool? Can you elaborate?

A launderer or terrorist (actually ANYBODY - good or bad) would have to be the biggest fucking idiot to use Libra and expect the transaction to be anonymous or private.

I sincerely hope you were just whipping out the typical ML/T FUD and don't believe that yourself.

Re: House lawmakers ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold

#32

Post by aNoob7000 »

hjk05 wrote: post #27
ckastner wrote: post #20

> This is why we believe in and are committed to a collaborative process with regulators, central banks, and lawmakers to ensure that Libra helps with the kinds of issues that the existing financial system has been fighting, notably around money laundering, terrorism financing, and more. This was inevitable, but it's surprising to see them acknowledge it. > combined with the ability for law enforcement and regulators…

This might depend on what you consider a “regular bank” but every bank and exchange I’ve ever come into contact with requires documentation and vetting to ensure that I am who I say I am and that I’m not not laundering money, and if the police come with a warrant they get everything they ask for. I think you might be thinking of specific banks and shell company schemes in Panama and not what most people would describ…

Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and Know Your Customer (KYC). I'm going out on a limb to say that most tech companies have no idea what BSA or KYC means and the paperwork involved.

Re: House lawmakers ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold

#33

Post by leetcrew »

simonh wrote: post #15
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #12

The government hates it when you try to make a new ponzi to replace the one they have got going.

Alongside their Ponzi. It wouldn't really replace anything, any more that BTC has replaced Dollars. The only thing anyone cares about with respect to BTC is how many dollars they are worth.

aside from the volatility, one of the major reasons it hasn't attained wide adoption is simply friction. the average consumer or small business doesn't want to think too hard about how to pay or receive payment for things. if Facebook released a simple libra api and many merchants adopted it, we might see it get used a lot more than btc.

Re: House lawmakers ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold

#34

Post by whateveracct »

crazygringo wrote: post #6

This gets it all wrong, IMHO. An "official ask" rather than actual laws or regulations comes across as silly, self-serving and grandstanding -- although it is in Facebook's self-interest to work with Congress. The problem here is the potential for uncompetitive dominance -- just like Google or Apple can unfairly favor their own products in Search or apps, what does it mean for Facebook to favor or only allow its own…

> An "official ask" rather than actual laws or regulations comes across as silly, self-serving and grandstanding

Libra was announced extremely recently. Do you really expect lawmakers to push laws or regulations through the system that fast? Surely not.

If anything, an "official ask" like this is one of Congress' many tools.

Re: House lawmakers ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold

#35

Post by rwmj »

The Financial Times speculated that Libra transactions - because they involve some currency risk - will incur capital gains taxes (CGT). Although the CGT absolute amounts are likely to be very small, and in some countries will be covered by a personal allowance, this will still cause tremendously fiddly problems when filing taxes. I'm afraid the link to the FT article is behind a paywall, but this blog post summarises it: https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2019/07/01/facebooks-lib...

Re: House lawmakers ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold

#36

Post by luckydata »

solotronics wrote: post #28
luckydata wrote: post #21

This is not surprising. The minute Libra starts operating it becomes the main money laundering tool in the world. Depending on how it's implemented it could easily topple the economies of smaller countries, and significantly increase funding for terrorist organizations and garden variety criminals. I don't see how any government, and especially the US government, agrees to any of that anytime soon.

lol.. I don't think people realize how the legacy banking systems already facilitate this activity HSBC was recently fined for laundering billions for the cartels. This activity happens on an industrial scale and a Facebook cryptocurrency isn't needed for these groups to move money.

I'm not sure how I should reply to this. You really believe I don't know how money laundering is currently performed?

Re: House lawmakers ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold

#37

Post by _kmrr »

aNoob7000 wrote: post #32
hjk05 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might depend on what you consider a “regular bank” but every bank and exchange I’ve ever come into contact with requires documentation and vetting to ensure that I am who I say I am and that I’m not not laundering money, and if the police come with a warrant they get everything they ask for. I think you might be thinking of specific banks and shell company schemes in Panama and not what most people would describ…

Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and Know Your Customer (KYC). I'm going out on a limb to say that most tech companies have no idea what BSA or KYC means and the paperwork involved.

Facebook already knows more about you than KYC requires.

That said, according to Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/sites/francescoppola/2019/06/30/the-r...), they'll comply with KYC/AML. I can't find a statement direct from Facebook on that, though.

Re: House lawmakers ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold

#38

Post by ckastner »

hjk05 wrote: post #27
ckastner wrote: post #20

> This is why we believe in and are committed to a collaborative process with regulators, central banks, and lawmakers to ensure that Libra helps with the kinds of issues that the existing financial system has been fighting, notably around money laundering, terrorism financing, and more. This was inevitable, but it's surprising to see them acknowledge it. > combined with the ability for law enforcement and regulators…

This might depend on what you consider a “regular bank” but every bank and exchange I’ve ever come into contact with requires documentation and vetting to ensure that I am who I say I am and that I’m not not laundering money, and if the police come with a warrant they get everything they ask for. I think you might be thinking of specific banks and shell company schemes in Panama and not what most people would describ…

> and if the police come with a warrant they get everything they ask for.

Banks requiring warrants is exactly my point.

The Libra text makes no mention of any safeguards with regards to law enforcement. On the contrary.

Re: House lawmakers ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold

#39

Post by [deleted] »

rolltiide wrote: post #16

Dan Larimer's EOS functions very similar to Libra, with Delegated Proof of Stake. EOS' DPOS encountered much of the same criticisms around centralization when it was launched, but many people swear by it just because it is good enough. Delegates ("block producers") do reverse transactions on EOS and they consider it a feature. EOS is not immutable, but it does have faster transaction capacity than incumbent chains li…

[deleted]

Re: House lawmakers ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold

#40

Post by 6gvONxR4sf7o »

higginsc wrote: post #5

>“Because Facebook is already in the hands of over a quarter of the world’s population, it is imperative that Facebook and its partners immediately cease implementation plans until regulators and Congress have an opportunity to examine these risks and take action,” the letter says. We're scared that you have the ability to disintermediate our control of the financial system just like you did to publishers.

After 2008, that's a very reasonable worry. I'm happy for the government to prevent behavior that can cause that much harm.
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