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Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

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Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#331

Post by magnamerc »

IAmEveryone wrote: post #102
ianai wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wonder whether cryptocurrency would have been better received if it were named differently. From inception, I’ve only heard it pitched as a currency replacement. This immediately marred it with all of the currency “counterculture”/conspiracy theories. But it seems better suited as a way to trustless-ly track and verify transactions in an actual, traditional currency. That there are ultimately finite amounts…

It certainly didn’t help that the crypto community was choke-full of conspiracy theorists, libertarians that never read anything else after falling in love with Ayn Rand as teenagers, and get-rich-quick schemers. The idea was fascinating, and Bitcoin has held up marvelously considering it was essentially a prototype with high barriers to change after becoming popular. There’s a Nobel Prize waiting if the rightful own…

What's wrong with the culture around Ethereum?

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#333

Post by codethief »

mmsimanga wrote: post #238
_bxg1 wrote: post #200

Terrifying, really. The world is hurdling back towards a feudalist society, with corporations instead of kings.

From where I am standing I wonder if this is not reflection of the ineffectiveness of governments. In my part of the world there is a lot more talk about devolution, basically self governance of the different regions. Everyone is sick and tired of decisions being made from the capital city by people who do not have your interests at all.

Democracies need to be ineffective and slow to some degree in order to be stable and to allow all people to participate. Otherwise, a coup d'état would be far too easy because efficiency means that only little time would pass between a decision (whether legal or illegal) being made and it getting implemented.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#334

Post by entropea »

jrvxo wrote: post #255
entropea wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The government is heavily lobbied by these companies, so essentially the government is mostly just these companies.

I said "my government", which for obvious reasons doesn't have to be the one the US has

I didn't specify a government. The same holds true for most western countries. We have fairly global neoliberalism.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#335

Post by lanrh1836 »

fnoof wrote: post #195

From the white paper: > "Libra’s mission is to enable a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people." They do this by issuing coins in exchange for fiat money, which is held by the reserve. > "Interest on the reserve assets will be used to cover the costs of the system, ensure low transaction fees, pay dividends to investors who provided capital to jumpstart the ecosystem [...…

It’s hard for a govt to stop bitcoin from being used for money laundering but when it’s a small number of mega corps validating transactions + the price stability and privacy features I’m wondering how exactly they will stop money launderers or terrorist financiers from using Libra to thwart traditional bank AML triggers?

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#336

Post by School-Cotton »

andrewaylett wrote: post #268
ghaff wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A couple years ago in London, I seriously confused a young retail clerk by presenting her with Scottish banknotes presumably left over from an earlier trip to Edinburgh. She had to go get her supervisor to assure her that this was indeed real money.

It's really not, though. OK, it's more "real" than an IOU I hand you, because I know that in order to issue their IOU they actually had to deposit an equivalent amount of cash with the Bank of England, but it's not legal tender -- while in practice pretty much anyone should be comfortable using it as a medium of exchange, the only _guaranteed_ use of a Scottish note is to exchange it with the issuer for a Bank of Eng…

No retailer has to accept anything. I can set up a shop in London that only accepts Scottish banknotes and not English ones. Or that only accepts Mexican Pesos or Bitcoin for that matter.

From the Royal Mint's website:

> Legal tender has a very narrow and technical meaning in the settlement of debts. [...] It does not mean that any ordinary transaction has to take place in legal tender or only within the amount denominated by the legislation. Both parties are free to agree to accept any form of payment whether legal tender or otherwise according to their wishes.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#337

Post by abruzzi »

sb636 wrote: post #220

Can someone help me understand how Libra or other cryptos for that matter can actually be used? Who will accept the coin as a form of payment? Can these ever be used to buy essentials (food, clothes, shelter)? It doesn't seem so at the moment, and until then, I find it hard to imagine businesses or individuals would be happy to accept Libra as a form of payment.

Ultimately it depends on how frictionless it is to convert it back to dollars, pounds, euros, etc. This has always been an issue for bitcoin. When I first heard about bitcoin, one bitcoin was worth less than a US dollar. I was curious so I tried to buy $50 worth, but the process was so convoluted and difficult I didn't bother. Today its much easier, but not completely so. But much of the difficulty then, and I presume now, was the distrust of banks. The key vendor on their list of supporters is PayPal (IMO). Paypal is in a position to make currency conversion painless for most users. Maybe in the future there will be enough places that accept this new currency that people can keep their money in that form but initially its all about easy conversion.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#338

Post by logfromblammo »

yumraj wrote: post #278
_bxg1 wrote: post #200

Terrifying, really. The world is hurdling back towards a feudalist society, with corporations instead of kings.

What is even more terrifying is that this is being done by Facebook which has a person like Mark Zuckerberg, who has again and again shown that he has no moral compass and has complete disregard for people privacy rights and by extension other rights, as its dictator, with no real board oversight due to how stocks are structured.

Every mortal may be ousted from their offices; the wisest will provide a peaceful means for doing so.

As Zuckerberg has obviated any lawful means of removing him, by structuring the stock classes such that he holds the majority of votes, he should probably hire more personal security. If he's going to be someone that's completely unaccountable for his actions as head of the company from within the accepted structures, he should anticipate that someone will try to go outside those structures to get to him.

Ordinary people protect themselves from such attacks by not being untouchable jerkwads. He has already left that particular stratagem far behind.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#339

Post by acd10j »

laurent123456 wrote: post #56

I'm curious how it will work exactly. I guess people will need to buy this currency with real money, and then they can spend it on these services. But why would anyone bother to do this when they can directly use their debit/credit card? Or is the plan to someone push people to use this currency by either giving them discount initially, or by not giving any other alternative means of payments?

also for decreasing transaction cost for money transfer.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#340

Post by newscracker »

Kiro wrote: post #72
imw wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of interesting physics in building thermonuclear weapons. Doesn't mean you should do it. Your talents could be used to help the world. Instead, they are being used to enclose common spaces and pull apart the fabric of society. Get a better job?

I can't believe the amount of "you are a horrible human being for working at Facebook" comments I keep seeing as soon as someone says they are working there. HN is great because you normally get comments straight from the source, but I'm worried we will inevitably shame Facebook employees into not posting here at all.

If we could indeed shame people into not doing something (focusing on actions and not people), I’d rather spend my energy on shaming people to quit Facebook en masse and shut it down. Seeing that this sounds ridiculous and unlikely to happen, I doubt any other intent of shaming would work either.
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