Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 359 posts

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

#41

Post by capableweb »

lacker wrote: post #38

I hope this doesn't cause Facebook to give up on Libra. I personally have no desire to own Libra. But traditional bank accounts kind of suck as a product and I would like to see more tech companies competing with them. The problems with bank accounts: 1. They charge you fees for things 2. They try to upsell me stupid financial products 3. They are not easy to use in other countries 4. Typing in my credit card number…

Traditional banking replaced by company focused on good technology, sure, that sounds good. That's not what Libra aim(ed) for though.

Libra was designed as a currency to take over the world, replacing the rest.

You do not want a for-profit company to run a global currency. Sure, let them run banks, one bank won't rule the world. But the one who holds all the money, will.

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

#42

Post by BowBun »

mumblemumble wrote: post #36
apazzolini wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Devil's advocate: Pretty much every fiat currency out there is also backed by an entity with an ethical checkered past. That's one of the major political motivations behind cryptocurrencies.

So why repeat the same failures? IMO one of the promises of cryptocurrency was a federalized system where it was owned by the people, not a single entity. No matter the marketing, if Facebook is making a cryptocurrency it will have the opportunity to abuse it and change the rules whenever they want. I'd much prefer a foundation made of a group of industry, political, and technical experts that can at least pretend to be impartial.

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

#43

Post by CamelCaseName »

celticninja wrote: post #40

The centralisation of Libra made it easy to kill. Bitcoin can be hampered but not outright killed, at least not over night. A death by a thousand cuts is the most likely solution but by no means guarantees Victory.

Bitcoin can be "killed" in the sense that it can become useless for the 99.99%.

Simply hunt down vendors who accept Bitcoin and organizations who facilitate its exchange.

At that point, Bitcoin would be essentially dead as a rival to any currency.

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

#44

Post by Barrin92 »

jeremyjh wrote: post #31

It looks like a misstep followed by a hasty and ignominious retreat because thats exactly what happened - no one anticipated the reaction from lawmakers and rules agencies. Its kind of hard to see this from the perspective of people who follow tech and HN, but Libra really may have been the first occasion that the possibility of crypto as anything other than an investment instrument - e.g. an actual usage as currency…

>no one anticipated the reaction from lawmakers and rules agencies.

if that's really the case at the Facebook headquarters they need to do some soul searching about how in touch they are with the world at large.

Because when I read that the biggest social network on the planet is going to try to introduce its own currency it took me and I think a lot of other people exactly two seconds to figure out that Uncle Sam and the EU would have none of it.

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

#45

Post by jonahhorowitz »

lacker wrote: post #38

I hope this doesn't cause Facebook to give up on Libra. I personally have no desire to own Libra. But traditional bank accounts kind of suck as a product and I would like to see more tech companies competing with them. The problems with bank accounts: 1. They charge you fees for things 2. They try to upsell me stupid financial products 3. They are not easy to use in other countries 4. Typing in my credit card number…

1 and 2 are solved by a decent credit union. 3 is solved by a decent credit card, 4 and 5 are solved by Apple/Google Pay. None of these require a cryptocurrency.

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

#46

Post by pat87 »

celticninja wrote: post #40

The centralisation of Libra made it easy to kill. Bitcoin can be hampered but not outright killed, at least not over night. A death by a thousand cuts is the most likely solution but by no means guarantees Victory.

Bitcoin can be killed by means other than technological.

For example it can be outlawed. Sure, people would still be able to use it, but they would be breaking the law and that would deter many, possibly enough to kill it outright.

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

#47

Post by mtgx »

jeremyjh wrote: post #31

It looks like a misstep followed by a hasty and ignominious retreat because thats exactly what happened - no one anticipated the reaction from lawmakers and rules agencies. Its kind of hard to see this from the perspective of people who follow tech and HN, but Libra really may have been the first occasion that the possibility of crypto as anything other than an investment instrument - e.g. an actual usage as currency…

It's not just that lawmakers were against it - it's that most of the so-called "vocal minority" and Facebook's loss of goodwill with users meant that there was nobody left to stand up for them against those lawmakers.

Companies like Google and Facebook abuse their users' trust and goodwill for years and years, thinking they will take it and nothing bad will come out of it while they shower in billions of dollars every year. But eventually something bad will happen and there will find they have zero allies, making them much easier targets.

This is also why the new antitrust cases and talks about breaking them apart have popped up lately - these companies are no longer the "Internet's darlings" -- they had that and they decided to piss all over it with their anti-user actions over the years.

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

#48

Post by jeremyjh »

celticninja wrote: post #40

The centralisation of Libra made it easy to kill. Bitcoin can be hampered but not outright killed, at least not over night. A death by a thousand cuts is the most likely solution but by no means guarantees Victory.

Do you really believe that a consortium of world governments cannot mount a permanent 51% attack against all crypto-coins that they wish? But it doesn't even need to be permanent, just a few hours would send the requisite message.

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

#49

Post by BubRoss »

jonahhorowitz wrote: post #45
lacker wrote: post #38

I hope this doesn't cause Facebook to give up on Libra. I personally have no desire to own Libra. But traditional bank accounts kind of suck as a product and I would like to see more tech companies competing with them. The problems with bank accounts: 1. They charge you fees for things 2. They try to upsell me stupid financial products 3. They are not easy to use in other countries 4. Typing in my credit card number…

1 and 2 are solved by a decent credit union. 3 is solved by a decent credit card, 4 and 5 are solved by Apple/Google Pay. None of these require a cryptocurrency.

What about using your money electronically without permission from a large organization?

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

#50

Post by jplayer01 »

mumblemumble wrote: post #36
apazzolini wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Devil's advocate: Pretty much every fiat currency out there is also backed by an entity with an ethical checkered past. That's one of the major political motivations behind cryptocurrencies.

Except countries have an existential interest in ensuring their citizens are, to a certain degree, well off. Facebook has no such incentive or interest or even responsibility.
Post reply on HN