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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

#211

Post by treve »

tzs wrote: post #198
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'…

> 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". For most of the "banked" in the US, doesn't Zelle cover all that for transfers within the US?

It's still absurd that you need additional services just to do transfers. I can't understand why an IBAN-like system can't seem to get off the ground in the US.

Re: Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra

#214

Post by camgunz »

fastball wrote: post #167
noelsusman wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Obviously the biggest one is concern over things like hyperinflation, which has happened in the real-world many times. Or, not quite at hyperinflation, but your government is enacting policies based on MMT or similar and you are worried that this could hurt you (as a holder of the currency) in the long-run. Or, maybe you're worried about governments being able to dictate what you are allowed to purchase with "their"…

I don't always agree w/ my government here in the US, but I do like that--while it's not a perfect process--as a democracy I can influence it. The reason it's illegal to buy certain things in the US (people, organs, drugs, assassinations) is that we all got together and thought people shouldn't do that. Many people disagree but, that's what voting is for. Subverting the will of a democratic people is... immoral?

The typical counterargument is something like "well what about Saudi Arabia", but I think it's pretty easy for an oppressive regime to just say "you can't use cryptocurrency" and punish you severely for it--to the degree you won't.

Anyway, I just don't think cryptocurrency is a solution to this, and even if it is it's antidemocratic.

Re: Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra

#215

Post by camgunz »

shuringai wrote: post #197
camgunz wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can dismiss it as such, but can you really deny that: - Cryptocurrency uses tons of electricity - Climate change is real and super bad I would (obviously) rather have a livable Earth than cryptocurrency, and I don't think that's weird.

Las Vegas also has a shitton of electric waste, how about we start suddenly going green with that? How is it that people only care about green earth when the target is the smallest slice of the pie?

Oh I care about that too, and I also care about the draining of aquifers in the US Southwest, etc. etc. But this is a cryptocurrency thread so, here we are.

Re: Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra

#216

Post by gonehome »

tzs wrote: post #198
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'…

> 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". For most of the "banked" in the US, doesn't Zelle cover all that for transfers within the US?

Zelle, Venmo, PayPal, Square, Apple Pay - there are a ton of companies that all do this same thing in the US because the bank software is terrible and expensive.

I thought stellar was similar to what the parent comment describes, but it’s also not proof of work (which makes need for blockchain unclear).

https://www.stellar.org/

Re: Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra

#217

Post by jamesmehaffey »

flixic wrote: post #103
x87678r wrote: post #31

Are any crypto currencies widely used for transactions these days? ie the classic coffee shop purchase. BTC had a start but now seems only useful for people buying as an asset.

Today's Bitcoin's average transaction fee is $6.34. For "coffee shop purchases" that is horrendous. Ethereum is better, at $1.43, but still not usable for coffee. Only highly-centralized cryptocurrencies, such as Stellar, have reasonable transaction fees. I think for the time being it's meaningful to think of cryptocurrency transactions as stock purchases / fees to the stock exchange.

I agree with you that the fees for some of the cryptocurrency’s make them impractical, and this certainly will hinder mainstream adoption. I do not think that I will try to pay for coffee with some of my antique gold coins any time soon, but that does not render them any less valuable. bitcoin plays a similar role in the context of digital assets for the moment. It frustrates me when I read other comments here dismissing cryptocurrency out of hand without taking the time to understand it. As you rightly point out, some tokens are better at certain tasks depending on the situation In the same way that some fiat currencies are circumstantially better than others... I think a number of people in Lebanon would prefer BTC to LBP right now regardless of the fees. For my part, I am more concerned with micro transaction fees for running applications, and I will leave the speculation to someone else.

Re: Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra

#218

Post by err4nt »

tomp wrote: post #102
user-the-name wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> low-cost, fast, reliable, accessible money transfers - clearly something missing right now in this world Missing in the US . At least Europe has had those for a long time already, using normal banks.

I'm not sure I agree. First of all, it's not "Europe" but rather "Euro-accounts" (so no cross-currency transfers). Also not that fast - don't work overnight, on the weekends, payments might take a day to arrive. I just checked - paying 10EUR from my UK account to the EUR area takes 2-4 days (I'd need to pay 15GBP for an "urgent" next- business -day transfer) (same rate as TransferWise) whereas if I want to send 10kEU…

Here in Canada we have e-transfers securely from bank account to bank account, in minutes/hours.

Re: Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra

#219

Post by dest »

Acrobatic_Road wrote: post #202
geraldbauer wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From The Awesome Diem (formerly Libra) Page [1]: Diem stems from the famous latin phrase 'Carpe Diem' translating to 'Enjoy the present, make the most of today', a common mistranslation is 'Seize the Day' (via Wiktionary) Carpe is the second-person singular present active imperative of carpō "pick or pluck" used by Horace to mean "enjoy, seize, use, make use of". Diem is the accusative of dies "day". A more literal t…

Using the accusative case as nominative. Ugh.

Nominative is "dies" which is not stellar as a brand in English.

Re: Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra

#220

Post by AsyncAwait »

grey-area wrote: post #131
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'…

In the UK, I have low-cost, fast, reliable, accessible money transfers. Basic bank accounts are free, and come with reliable free instant transfers to any other UK bank. That may not be reality in all countries, but it is in many. That's quite a high bar for rival payment methods to clear, but I think the main problem for corporate currencies like this will be rivalry from government issuers. Governments jealously gu…

> In the UK, I have low-cost, fast, reliable, accessible money transfers. Basic bank accounts are free, and come with reliable free instant transfers to any other UK bank.

As an EU citizen living in the UK, it boggles my mind that "EU Faster Payments" was not implemented as part of the eurozone, if not the EU as a whole.

As far as I know there's nothing technically preventing this, anyone has an insight into why it isn't a thing?

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