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Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra

diem.com

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Re: Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra

#151

Post by noelsusman »

fastball wrote: post #129
camgunz wrote: post #121

The core feature of any cryptocurrency is "money w/o state regulation", but when you're talking about selling it for any major currency (Dollars, Euros, Sterling, Yen, RMB) guess what, you're regulated. There is no way around this, regulators are wise (more than wise, hypervigilant) to it. As a result, this stuff is just cumbersome currency that roasts the planet. No thank you.

This is exactly like the argument that electric cars aren't actually any better because grid electricity is not currently very green in most parts of the world. The response of course being that as the grid gets greener (which it does every year), your car becomes greener also. If you have a gasoline car, it will be just as dirty in 20 years as it is today. Same thing with crypto. Yes, currently a lot of people buy a…

Why would it be good to free currency from government regulation? This is something I often see crypto advocates blow right past as if it's self explanatory, but I don't think it is.

I like that the currency I use is managed by my government. Why should I want to switch?

Re: Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra

#152

Post by eecks »

another-dave wrote: post #113
flixic wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That "unified" splash screen is menacing. A constant reminder that wherever you turn, it's a FB property. With Google/Apple/Microsoft it's quite straightforward, everything they make is clearly their style, their brand. This is not the case with Facebook's properties, they don't have a unified design language or branding. So adding a unified splash is a step in "marking it's territory", I just hate the feeling of tha…

Would disagree that it's obvious companies like "Beats by Dre" (Apple) or GitHub/LinkedIn (Microsoft) are subsidiaries from styling/branding

Or that Nest, Stadia, Waze is Google

Re: Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra

#153

Post by derefr »

logifail wrote: post #139
colordrops wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is there still so much of ignorance over cryptocurrency this far along after its inception? Just because you buy and sell gold with major currencies doesn't mean gold is regulated. Crypto isn't much different. If you can get it anonymously, you can move it anywhere you want as long as you stay on the blockchain. Once you leave the blockchain, you aren't dealing with crypto anymore. Once you sell gold you aren't d…

> If you can get it anonymously, you can move it anywhere you want as long as you stay on the blockchain Q: Is this fundamentally different to having a suitcase full of cash?

It's very hard to take a suitcase full of cash across a border. It's very easy to take a private key for a wallet-account full of cryptocurrency across a border.

Re: Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra

#154

Post by camgunz »

fastball wrote: post #129
camgunz wrote: post #121

The core feature of any cryptocurrency is "money w/o state regulation", but when you're talking about selling it for any major currency (Dollars, Euros, Sterling, Yen, RMB) guess what, you're regulated. There is no way around this, regulators are wise (more than wise, hypervigilant) to it. As a result, this stuff is just cumbersome currency that roasts the planet. No thank you.

This is exactly like the argument that electric cars aren't actually any better because grid electricity is not currently very green in most parts of the world. The response of course being that as the grid gets greener (which it does every year), your car becomes greener also. If you have a gasoline car, it will be just as dirty in 20 years as it is today. Same thing with crypto. Yes, currently a lot of people buy a…

> Again, short-term thinking. As a purely digital currency, cryptocurrency gets greener every year as the grid gets greener.

I'm happy to pause all cryptocurrency mining and transactions until humanity is carbon free. I doubt long BTCs will be though.

Re: Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra

#156

Post by that_guy_iain »

ardy42 wrote: post #134
that_guy_iain wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is meant to be a completely different ecosystem, no? An ecosystem not controlled with the US. This isn't a normal financal service, it's not banking, it's outside of banking hence why it's aimed and people without banks. And other companies are already in this space providing basically the same service. It seems to me, people applying how companies 1st world countries + the US operate to how companies in 3rd wor…

>>> Says who? Who is going to enforce some random African country that is in the middle of a civil war to have those? > This is meant to be a completely different ecosystem, no? An ecosystem not controlled with the US. This isn't a normal financal service, it's not banking, it's outside of banking hence why it's aimed and people without banks. Last I checked, Facebook is a US company, with a US headquarters, publicly…

It's not legally Facebook though.

Re: Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra

#157

Post by pcurve »

tomp wrote: post #56

Ok, so let's focus on the underlying idea, without the "Facebook is trying to rebrand their evil brand" cruft. Basically, I think the underlying idea is valuable - low-cost, fast, reliable, accessible money transfers - clearly something missing right now in this world, even for the "global rich" (citizens of first-world countries), let alone for the "unbanked". It could even scale even more to a money store but that'…

I like your thoughtful breakdown. Thanks for that.

The video shots of small merchants and everyday people, with voiceover "what if everyone is invited to global economy" was bothersome to watch. I don't like their underlying characterization that the lack of frictionless banking and payment systems are what's holding back Africa and poorer parts of the world. It's just not true.

Re: Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra

#158

Post by fastball »

camgunz wrote: post #154
fastball wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly like the argument that electric cars aren't actually any better because grid electricity is not currently very green in most parts of the world. The response of course being that as the grid gets greener (which it does every year), your car becomes greener also. If you have a gasoline car, it will be just as dirty in 20 years as it is today. Same thing with crypto. Yes, currently a lot of people buy a…

> Again, short-term thinking. As a purely digital currency, cryptocurrency gets greener every year as the grid gets greener. I'm happy to pause all cryptocurrency mining and transactions until humanity is carbon free. I doubt long BTCs will be though.

Ah yes, the luddite approach, an age-old classic.

Re: Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra

#159

Post by derefr »

AtlasBarfed wrote: post #138
colordrops wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is there still so much of ignorance over cryptocurrency this far along after its inception? Just because you buy and sell gold with major currencies doesn't mean gold is regulated. Crypto isn't much different. If you can get it anonymously, you can move it anywhere you want as long as you stay on the blockchain. Once you leave the blockchain, you aren't dealing with crypto anymore. Once you sell gold you aren't d…

He's right about roasting the planet though. Scarcity without computational (and literal) power is necessary. Maybe if we could use the inherent incalculability of the three-body problem as the basis for a cryptocurrency. You'd need to observe the universe to "find" astrocoins. It would be Astrology on steroids. Of course that leaves out verifiability, encryption, anonymous identity yet ownership. What if you (someho…

> He's right about roasting the planet though.

...no? Diem/Libra is built on Cosmos, which is a proof-of-stake system, not a proof-of-work system. Validator nodes in a proof-of-stake system do not compete to work ever harder to mine the same resources.

There are a rather large number of such validator nodes (100+ at minimum), but that's also true of banks when you translate their Highly-Available mainframe stacks into equivalent Highly-Available commodity-PC stacks. (I.e. they're not spending any more electricity per tx than the ACH system is.)

Re: Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra

#160

Post by that_guy_iain »

stu2b50 wrote: post #107
that_guy_iain wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is meant to be a completely different ecosystem, no? An ecosystem not controlled with the US. This isn't a normal financal service, it's not banking, it's outside of banking hence why it's aimed and people without banks. And other companies are already in this space providing basically the same service. It seems to me, people applying how companies 1st world countries + the US operate to how companies in 3rd wor…

If you don't play by the US's rules you can't withdraw in USD. Which is the only fiat currency Diem supports conversion into right now.

> If you don't play by the US's rules you can't withdraw in USD.

The dollar is traded so much that I don't think they need to actually get dollars from the US to be able to use the dollar. If it's going into banks, yea, but if you're just giving people the notes, you're good to go.

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