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Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency: Privacy and stability concerns

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Re: Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency: Privacy and stability concerns

#222

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Do they ?

I keep coming back to this blog when it comes to Facebook's handling of PII -- they didn't lose it accidentally, but they gave access to it in exchange for developing popular / viral apps for facebook as a platform, "What the f * was facebook thinking" https://medium.com/@jamesallworth/what-the-f-was-facebook-th... They gave out users' unique global ID with the export API so it was trivial to merge PII from multiple…

this is about privacy not security though. and all of these sensationalized articles fail to mention that users consented to share that data with the apps when they first used it through a dialog that's pretty much unambiguous. Even their table says so: "permissions", plus i m pretty sure at that time facebook was already sharing an app-scoped, not the global user id. Regardless , it was sloppy privacy practices, which were fine at the time and nobody cared because Trump had not happened. It's not a security breach, though.

Re: Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency: Privacy and stability concerns

#223

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>> It is just as bad as cash. You mean that it is as good as cash. Bitcoin become a failed project, a big internet casino. Some people want to use digital money to make payments and get paid, you know? The success of the facebook coins depends by the ways to redeem the tokens(i.e do other shops accept it, can they be cashed out at atm, can you use it with 3rd party wallets etc)

Quoting the animated Dilbert TV show when Dilbert buys his mom a gift card: “you’ve exchanged your money for something like money, but less useful.”

Well, you can't send physical money over optical/copper cables, can you?

Re: Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency: Privacy and stability concerns

#224

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you 'll notice in that article that it wasn't facebook's servers that were breached. Also facebook has probably way more accounts than humans, i think just recently they deleted 3 billion fake ones. Regardless, imho from many years working with their platform, they do take security seriously and they ve helped to popularize methods for securing accounts and passwords.

> you 'll notice in that article that it wasn't facebook's servers that were breached A distinction without a difference. If Facebook's security policy permits PII to be moved into insecure systems then Facebook itself is insecure. Here's another: https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-uploaded-1-5-millio... Yeah. 1.5 million, who cares right? No big deal. This is clearly a pattern, not an isolated incident.

this is a privacy issue, but their security is still pretty good, relative to the staggering size of the users and data they hold.

Re: Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency: Privacy and stability concerns

#225
post #208

I think Facebook's reputation will be enough to relegate this thing to the ash heap. The only people who are going to be interested in Facebook coins are some subset of cryptocurrency enthusiast who can find value in moving their cryptocurrency into a coin that will have more onramps to spendable money. For everyone else, it's going to be viewed as yet another digital money app you have to hook up to your bank accoun…

You are severely over estimating the integrity of cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Some of the most highly valued "cryptocurrencies" today are centralized tokens handled by companies with worst reputations than Facebook (XRP, EOS, Tron, ...), yet people do buy and use them. If anything the communities from these tokens might flock en masse to Facebook coin. And if Facebook actually manages to pull off a system where they…

and even bitcoin, between its drugdealing beginnings , and cartel behavior of miners is not much more trustworthy. What actualy matters is that all facebook users will learn what a digital wallet is and will become a potential cryptocurrency user.

Re: Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency: Privacy and stability concerns

#226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> It is just as bad as cash. You mean that it is as good as cash. Bitcoin become a failed project, a big internet casino. Some people want to use digital money to make payments and get paid, you know? The success of the facebook coins depends by the ways to redeem the tokens(i.e do other shops accept it, can they be cashed out at atm, can you use it with 3rd party wallets etc)

Bitcoin has not failed. I know several people personally that are paid in it. They can also use it to buy things.

I guess they have the shopping list ready by the time they get paid otherwise chances are they end-up with less(or more, it becomes a gable) value by the next day. Not to mention the exchange rate(i.e the employer uses a rate, the merchant a different one...). In the real life people don't like to gamble their wages every single day. They want and need a stable currency and low fees. Bitcoin failed to offer any.

Re: Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency: Privacy and stability concerns

#227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you 'll notice in that article that it wasn't facebook's servers that were breached A distinction without a difference. If Facebook's security policy permits PII to be moved into insecure systems then Facebook itself is insecure. Here's another: https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-uploaded-1-5-millio... Yeah. 1.5 million, who cares right? No big deal. This is clearly a pattern, not an isolated incident.

this is a privacy issue, but their security is still pretty good, relative to the staggering size of the users and data they hold.

> still pretty good, relative to the staggering size of the users and data they hold.

Hundreds of millions of exposed users is not "pretty good", it's objectively horrible.

> this is a privacy issue

It is a privacy issue but primarily a security issue since the scandal is that the data was unintentionally leaked, not that it was shared with a 3rd party.

Re: Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency: Privacy and stability concerns

#228

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And when they buy things, are those things denominated in fiat currency or in bitcoin?

> are those things denominated in fiat currency or in bitcoin By your logic if I exchange dollars for euros to spend on a vacation somewhere that means the dollar has failed ?

Bitcoin is volatile. That's the main issue. You can't say that about the dollar or euro.

Now imagine you get paid in bitcoin, save every month for a holiday or a high value purchase. When the time comes to make the purchase you find out that your savings are worth less than 10%. How does it feel using bitcoin?

I tried to use bitcoin(as a merchant) but due its volatility it makes no sense to use it(as merchant or buyer).

Re: Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency: Privacy and stability concerns

#229
post #197

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In practice the Bitcoin and Ethereum hashrate is controlled by far fewer than 100 mining pools.

Do you think there's a way to prevent this gradual centralisation of mining that we see in so many PoW chains?

Algos with asic resistance is a recurring theme even outside of cryptocurrency. All modern password hashing optimises for it.

Monero is currently pushing back with randomx which performs well on cpu's and not much else: https://github.com/tevador/RandomX

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