FB need to put money on lawmakers pocket only.. then all laws can be rewritten
House lawmakers ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold
71–80 of 81 posts
Re: House lawmakers ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Forced to choose between Facebook and a government controlling anything, I'd rather have the government at the wheel. For me this is a "devil I know" type of thing.
Thankfully there's a third option of society itself controlling everything. This post is talking about whether government or Facebook controlling money but the third decentralized option of cryptocurrency is far more appealing to me.
"Society" is not a thing that can wield control. Or rather it can, by forming into things like governments and corporations. It is not parallel to those things, but their substrate.
I'm with you that seeing power concentrated in those places seems worse than spreading it out. But the way it looks to me now, people aren't going to generally mind their own bitcoin wallets, and will tend to use centralized brokers.
I think that's human nature, specifically some algorithm for operating in a group. If I don't feel confident doing X, maybe X is not my strong suit, and I should trade jobs with another person. If I mess up my crypto wallet, my money could almost literally disappear, so my confidence is low.
People are afraid to control their own destiny, and that's at least somewhat rational.
Re: House lawmakers ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Facebook only knows what I put into my Facebook registration form. Did they verify anything? No. Email me for government identification? No. Can Facebook comply with KYC/AML type regulations? Yes. But that I'm aware of, they currently don't do anything of the sort with all their users.
They know what you put in the registration form, every device and IP address you've ever used, who your friends are, who you parents are, who your coworkers are, what websites you visit, what stores you shop at, who you're likely to vote for, and a whole lot more. I think they can verify my identity without a copy of my driver license.
If you are doing something illegal, I doubt you would connect with all your friends and family. If you do, you deserve jail time.
Re: House lawmakers ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
They know what you put in the registration form, every device and IP address you've ever used, who your friends are, who you parents are, who your coworkers are, what websites you visit, what stores you shop at, who you're likely to vote for, and a whole lot more. I think they can verify my identity without a copy of my driver license.
If you are doing something illegal, I doubt you would connect with all your friends and family. If you do, you deserve jail time.
True. But I wouldn't be surprised to see additional verification required for new Facebook accounts (or those with little to no history/network) to use Libra. We shall see.
Re: House lawmakers ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
What does libra do for money laundering that other currencies like zcash and nano don't already do much better?
Guessing here, but potentially allow you to actually mix fraudulent funds into real (or seemingly real) transactions? Assuming people actual use Libra to buy stuff. To use a Breaking Bad example, the car wash cashier says 100 people paid $30 each for a car wash (and generates receipts for those) when only 10 cars actually showed up. Zcash is great for anonymously moving money, but you can still trace the inputs and o…
Libra will almost surely be fungible on Facebook marketplace. I can easily think of a scheme to list fake stuff and use the money to buy it between two complicit parties or one. Do it at scale with bots, you have a great, completely automated way of squirrel away tons of money $10-15 at the time. Nobody would be able to effectively trace all those transactions if it's done well enough, and budget is not exactly an issue for the people involved in this kind of stuff.
Re: House lawmakers ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold
#76>“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.
Forced to choose between Facebook and a government controlling anything, I'd rather have the government at the wheel. For me this is a "devil I know" type of thing.
Facebook does not have a licit right to first use of force. I'll take it any day over government.
Re: House lawmakers ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold
#77“These vulnerabilities could be exploited and obscured by bad actors, as other cryptocurrencies, exchanges, and wallets have been in the past.” Says one bad actor to the other bad actor.
I really want to see what happens if Facebook says no.
It's not a law, it's a request. You just acquiesce without making any concrete commitments and carry on as if the request was never made.
Re: House lawmakers ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold
#78The 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 summarise…
It's not even the amounts that would be the killer if it's capital gains taxed really, it's the overhead come tax filing time for the average American.
Except Facebook can just write an algorithm to calculate it all for you, and then say "write 16.47 in box 18".
Facebook could even promise to cover all the taxes owed, which would give them an incentive to keep the currency value stable.
Re: House lawmakers ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
Actually, a bank is obligated to report suspicious activity, no warrant is needed. If you walk into a bank in the USA and deposit irregular amounts of money or a large sum of cash, they can and will report you to the Treasury and banking regulators.
> Actually, a bank is obligated to report suspicious activity, no warrant is needed.
Warrants are issued all the time.
You're erroneously assuming that banks can detect all possible suspicious activity on their own.
Re: House lawmakers ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not even the amounts that would be the killer if it's capital gains taxed really, it's the overhead come tax filing time for the average American.
Except Facebook can just write an algorithm to calculate it all for you, and then say "write 16.47 in box 18". Facebook could even promise to cover all the taxes owed, which would give them an incentive to keep the currency value stable.
> Facebook could even promise to cover all the taxes owed, which would give them an incentive to keep the currency value stable.
Stable compared to what?
If the Euro falls relative to the Libra (same as Libra gaining against the Euro) then Europeans owe capital gains tax. Same goes for USD/Americans, CNY/Chinese people, etc.