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France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

reuters.com

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Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#51
post #41
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your German example is a bit silly to use here given that its exchange rate is 1:1 with euros. There are other regional currencies in other countries, they don't usually operate independently from the country's own currency though.

How so? The Libra proposal kept its value constant with respect to a basket of currencies.

Not quite the same kind of inflation hedge as "free floating" limited-issue cryptocurrencies then?

(This is one of the things that confuses me about Libra's target market; if you believe the cryptocurrency marketing about privacy and permissionlessness and inflation-hedging, then Libra is terrible at those things. If you don't, and you're in Europe, you just use SEPA.)

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#52
post #38
post #3

I wish they just blocked facebook altogether. It has caused people more pain than good

If you banned everything that causes people more pain than good, half the economy would evaporate overnight.

I thought the economy existed in the service of human happiness, not the other way around.

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#53
post #27

> “no private entity can claim monetary power, which is inherent to the sovereignty of nations” What a bizarre statement. Providing for security is also inherent to sovereignty of nations, but private security firms flourish. It's also odd in the context of Germany in particular where a private currency has been used for many years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiemgauer I suspect there's a lot more behind this sta…

>Providing for security is also inherent to sovereignty of nations, but private security firms flourish.

They exist entirely at the behest of their respective nation states' laws and regulations, and are completely subordinate to all official law enforcement and military forces. It's a flawed analogy. This would be tantamount to a private military company asserting their right to conduct foreign wars in the name of a subset of citizens.

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#54
post #3

I wish they just blocked facebook altogether. It has caused people more pain than good

Blocking a communication platform doesn't sound right in a free society. There's nothing inherently wrong with connecting people. On the other hand, there should be heavy regulation and enforcement in place so that users don't get their data unknowingly exploited for commercial interest.

If they were a telephone company that intercepted, recorded and sold all communication to the highest bidder it would already be banned.

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#55

Dumbest move ever by Facebook to preanounce and give governments time to complain. They should have moved fast and dealt with the consequences later. They had a reasonable chance of being the dominant cryptocurrency, and instead they get to spend a year apologizing and backtracking before they ever deploy.

Alternatively, they should have worked with governments to make sure to address their worries before announcing it publicly.

There is no “working with government”, for any proposed money substitute that gives normal people a place to hide from central bank inflationary policies.

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#56
post #38
post #3

I wish they just blocked facebook altogether. It has caused people more pain than good

If you banned everything that causes people more pain than good, half the economy would evaporate overnight.

Is that a bad thing? Regardless of the fraction, if something really does cause more harm than benefit, we will by definition be better off without it, no?

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#59
post #3

I wish they just blocked facebook altogether. It has caused people more pain than good

Blocking a communication platform doesn't sound right in a free society. There's nothing inherently wrong with connecting people. On the other hand, there should be heavy regulation and enforcement in place so that users don't get their data unknowingly exploited for commercial interest.

There are different ways to connect people. I'm don't think the way facebook drives engagement does it's a net plus for society.

Bullfighting for example is also a social activity, nobody pays to see a bull getting killed, but to connect to people; and there's enough good reasons to outright ban the practice.

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#60
post #32
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you stop people obtaining it and using it through their buddies on the internet? Is libra tied to an account like game money? AFAIK it's a cryptocurrency? Haven't looked at the details but cryptocurrency implies it stays on some distributed ladger and no 3rd parties have control over the transactions. Isn't that the case?

why would people want to use libra? Especially if the currency is declared illegal to use inside the EU/Eurozone. Let's not forget that the euro is a stable currency compared to most other markets libra wants to compete in (the developing world). What is in it for me as a consumer? Atleast the Eurozone has rules in place to protect my savings (up to 10.000 euro[0]). Libra brings nothing to the table in terms of trans…

People who want to buy drugs over the internet, but using their real name facebook account?

(No, I don't get it either)

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