Paypal Withdraws from Facebook's Libra Cryptocurrency • Hacker News Board

Re: Paypal Withdraws from Facebook's Libra Cryptocurrency

#51

Post by csomar » Sat, Oct 05, 2019, 12:06 AM UTC

not-satoshi wrote: post #50

csomar wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that 1. Same has been said of Bitcoin, and yet the government kinda embraced it. 2. Facebook is not making Libra. It is a non-profit based in Switzerland. 3. Libra is backed by USD-EUR-JPY and the related countries might turn a blind eye because of that.

1. Where are Bitcoin's offices?

Bitcoin mining is actually quite centralized in a few players; and the exchanges have established offices. The gov.s could have done some serious damage.

edit: nice try Satoshi!

Re: Paypal Withdraws from Facebook's Libra Cryptocurrency

#52

Post by capsulecorp » Sat, Oct 05, 2019, 12:07 AM UTC

csomar wrote: post #48

vertex-four wrote: post #20

If Facebook attempts to become a money transfer service or bank without the required licensing, they will have their offices raided and their doors locked on them. This is something Governments don't tend to mess around with.

Except that 1. Same has been said of Bitcoin, and yet the government kinda embraced it. 2. Facebook is not making Libra. It is a non-profit based in Switzerland. 3. Libra is backed by USD-EUR-JPY and the related countries might turn a blind eye because of that.

About #1 Bitcoin is decentralized, there is no "office to raid", so whoever said that doesn't know what they are talking about in the least bit.

Re: Paypal Withdraws from Facebook's Libra Cryptocurrency

#53

Post by Ruphin » Sat, Oct 05, 2019, 12:09 AM UTC

csomar wrote: post #48

vertex-four wrote: post #20

If Facebook attempts to become a money transfer service or bank without the required licensing, they will have their offices raided and their doors locked on them. This is something Governments don't tend to mess around with.

Except that 1. Same has been said of Bitcoin, and yet the government kinda embraced it. 2. Facebook is not making Libra. It is a non-profit based in Switzerland. 3. Libra is backed by USD-EUR-JPY and the related countries might turn a blind eye because of that.

Bitcoin does not have an "office" that governments can raid. Governments never embraced Bitcoin, they have no choice. It is not within reach of their usual methods of control (law enforcement, diplomacy, warfare).

Re: Paypal Withdraws from Facebook's Libra Cryptocurrency

#54

Post by TheSpiceIsLife » Sat, Oct 05, 2019, 12:17 AM UTC

oneplane wrote: post #46

krn wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I still think that email is good enough medium for personal communication, but most of the people I know have replaced it with Messenger. The same might happen with money transfers, if Messenger becomes another WeChat, just outside of China. From the legal perspective, could Facebook be like Coinbase, but with a single currency?

Messenger isn't all that popular outside of north america. Doesn't matter how much money transfer options you add to a program if nobody is using it. I do wonder what happens if any non WeChat thing starts going for banking type functionality (legal or not).

Multiple search results lead me to believe Facebook Messenger is the second most popular messaging app after WhatsApp.

Are you able to provide references supporting your claim?

Re: Paypal Withdraws from Facebook's Libra Cryptocurrency

#55

Post by fivre » Sat, Oct 05, 2019, 12:22 AM UTC

Ruphin wrote: post #53

csomar wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that 1. Same has been said of Bitcoin, and yet the government kinda embraced it. 2. Facebook is not making Libra. It is a non-profit based in Switzerland. 3. Libra is backed by USD-EUR-JPY and the related countries might turn a blind eye because of that.

Bitcoin does not have an "office" that governments can raid. Governments never embraced Bitcoin, they have no choice. It is not within reach of their usual methods of control (law enforcement, diplomacy, warfare).

MtGox and BTC-e are somewhat examples to the contrary.

Re: Paypal Withdraws from Facebook's Libra Cryptocurrency

#56

Post by drdeca » Sat, Oct 05, 2019, 12:22 AM UTC

vertex-four wrote: post #27

krn wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't Facebook just get something like the UK's Electronic Money license? That's how TransferWise operates without being a bank.

Even if the regulators let them get away with that, nobody in Europe is particularly in need of a cryptocurrency for moving money around Europe, we have near-instant money transfers for free (or close to it) through our banks. I guess they could go for the remittances market, but that's really not where I see Facebook wanting to go.

Oh, that's neat.

Is it easy for an individual to set up like, a program to automatically do money transfers that way, in a for-profit way?

Because if so, that's pretty cool.

I mean, I understand that most people don't particularly want to do that, but I still think it could be cool to have it as an option.

Re: Paypal Withdraws from Facebook's Libra Cryptocurrency

#57

Post by kbenson » Sat, Oct 05, 2019, 12:23 AM UTC

freeopinion wrote: post #45

markdown wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But FB must be spending a lot on lobbying That only helps them in countries like the US where bribery is legal.

Why wouldn't it help in countries where bribery is illegal?

The insinuation is that lobbying is bribery (and on the more egregious end of the spectrum, it is). In countries where lobbying isn't legal, it would at least help much less.

Re: Paypal Withdraws from Facebook's Libra Cryptocurrency

#58

Post by thrillgore » Sat, Oct 05, 2019, 12:29 AM UTC

fivre wrote: post #55

Ruphin wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin does not have an "office" that governments can raid. Governments never embraced Bitcoin, they have no choice. It is not within reach of their usual methods of control (law enforcement, diplomacy, warfare).

MtGox and BTC-e are somewhat examples to the contrary.

And what happened to MtGox?

Re: Paypal Withdraws from Facebook's Libra Cryptocurrency

#59

Post by whoanow » Sat, Oct 05, 2019, 12:32 AM UTC

jameslevy wrote: post #32

justapassenger wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Libra is nothing like bitcoin - it doesn't have investment potential - it's 100% backed by basket of fiat money.

It does have some potential to act as a hedge against USD. It will probably produce some small amount of capital gains (or losses) for its users.

I don't think so, there is no way it would achieve mainstream adoption if there was a potential tax liability for users spending their after tax dollars.

Re: Paypal Withdraws from Facebook's Libra Cryptocurrency

#60

Post by origami777 » Sat, Oct 05, 2019, 12:33 AM UTC

csomar wrote: post #48

vertex-four wrote: post #20

If Facebook attempts to become a money transfer service or bank without the required licensing, they will have their offices raided and their doors locked on them. This is something Governments don't tend to mess around with.

Except that 1. Same has been said of Bitcoin, and yet the government kinda embraced it. 2. Facebook is not making Libra. It is a non-profit based in Switzerland. 3. Libra is backed by USD-EUR-JPY and the related countries might turn a blind eye because of that.

You don't seem to know much about gov financial regulation.

1. Gov didn't embrace bitcoin, they regulated it. The exchanges have to do KYC and AML monitoring and report activity.

2. If you think FB doesn't 100% control it, I have a bridge to sell you.

3. This doesn't really mean much at the end of the day. It's a tactical decision with low impact on regulations.

What you're failing to appreciate is how important it is for governments to control their financial operations. They don't make it hard just to make it hard. They make it hard because if they don't criminal activity will flourish.