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Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay exit Facebook’s Libra project

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Re: Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay exit Facebook’s Libra project

#21

Post by nostrademons »

Matthias247 wrote: post #9
CathedralBorrow wrote: post #5

I wonder how much of this is companies distancing themselves from Facebook rather than being purely about the cryptocurrency project.

On the other hand if it weren't facebook they likely would not even have been interested in yet-another cryptocurrency. Especially if it's even not available, but just a work-in-progress thing.

They've been interested for a while - Stripe used to accept Bitcoin, and various Stripe employees have said they're watching developments in the space. For that matter, a number of other big tech companies (notably Apple) said they're watching the space.

I think the main issue is that cryptocurrency still has a few unsolved research & regulatory problems (like how to handle more than 10 TPS, or how to record taxes transparently) before it's ready for mainstream adoption. No big company wants to take the risk that an unsolved research problem may not have a solution, and so they wait and see how the space evolves rather than committing large amounts of resources to it. (Other than FB, who has resources to burn.) If it starts taking off they'll buy a bunch of startups and then start throwing engineers at it; otherwise they risk nothing.

Re: Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay exit Facebook’s Libra project

#22

Post by alibert »

I guess that why one of the first investor in Libra - famous Xavier Niel - published this editorial [1]

(small reminder for people who don't know him, he created the ISP french "Free" that kind of totally changed the telecom market in France (DSL and mobile), he also owns Scaleway (cloud), Kima Ventures (VC))

[1] https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/42886/libra-is-inevita...

[2] Original : https://www.lesechos.fr/idees-debats/cercle/europeens-libra-...

Re: Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay exit Facebook’s Libra project

#23

Post by apazzolini »

echelon wrote: post #6
justinzollars wrote: post #3

I'm actually kind of bummed out about this. I may not like FB, but I like the idea of a digital currency backed by a floating basket of currencies.

Not one that isn't regulated and that is controlled by a company with a penchant for walking the legal gray area line.

Not only the legal gray line, but also the equally important moral gray line. Good riddance.

Re: Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay exit Facebook’s Libra project

#25

Post by raister »

jasoncartwright wrote: post #18
raister wrote: post #13

I guess people had issues of the currency being used to all sort of illegal things, e.g., human enslaving, human organ trafficking, and so on...

If this is true, then it was true when they signed up initially. What changed?

Because raw ideas seem good, then when people ponder it may turn out to be bad ones... Have you ever heard of the Solar Powered Highway in France?

Re: Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay exit Facebook’s Libra project

#27

Post by canada_dry »

justinzollars wrote: post #3

I'm actually kind of bummed out about this. I may not like FB, but I like the idea of a digital currency backed by a floating basket of currencies.

I'm actually quite relieved about this. I don't know who I want to control such a thing, but it sure as hell isn't Facebook (or Google, Amazon, MS, Apple for that matter).

I think what it'll take is a company with a profit (i.e. subscription/fee) model that clearly doesn't rely on pimping out consumer data to any/all comers and takes GDPR privacy to heart.

Re: Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay exit Facebook’s Libra project

#29

Post by codesushi42 »

justinzollars wrote: post #3

I'm actually kind of bummed out about this. I may not like FB, but I like the idea of a digital currency backed by a floating basket of currencies.

I am overjoyed. Because now a truly open and decentralized solution has a chance instead.

Re: Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay exit Facebook’s Libra project

#30

Post by xemdetia »

kbenson wrote: post #4
undefined3840 wrote: post #2

Other than eBay, guessing the reason why the payment cos are dropping out first is because they have the highest regulatory/compliance burden as is, and don’t need more scrutiny dealing with something they don’t even fully understand just so they can win some brownie points with FB.

Well, Ebay owned Paypal until they spun it off again. Perhaps the execs still have nightmares about dealing with financial regulations (or trying to walk the line so they didn't have to) and don't want to deal with it again.

I'm more of the opinion that there was a Q2/Q3 deadline to get some sane regulatory framework by the Libra team and they just whiffed on it or it was wholly insufficient for normal international banking standards (which was probably laid out by all the parties that left). The fact that everyone seemed to bail all at once sounds like there was just a lack of commitment/slipped deadline by the Libra side. Generally as a new thing is being stood up under a regulated framework there is some slack provided to get the ship in order while other interested parties look on, but at a certain point major requirements must be done. If you are one of the interested parties and it doesn't look like the other side is making sane progress, the hammer drops swiftly.
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