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Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

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Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#461

Post by eddd »

renaudg wrote: post #260
moosey wrote: post #233

If this succeeds, it will be a data collection tool the likes of which the world has never seen, which is why so many companies are willing to put their name on it. The data, along with ML/AI, and our contemporary understanding of the human mind, means that this is a major step towards control that we can't understand. Dr. Harari explains it better than I do in "21 Lessons for the 21st Century", but this tool is part…

There is at least this from Zuckerberg's announcement : "Calibra will be regulated like other payment service providers. Any information you share with Calibra will be kept separate from information you share on Facebook."

Sure it will be kept separate.

In separate sql-like tables with a key to join on.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#462

Post by cowpig »

la_barba wrote: post #449
tetrisgm wrote: post #22

It’s going to be interesting. “Unlike previous stablecoins, Libra will not be issued by a central party. Instead, Facebook has enlisted 27 fellow Silicon Valley titans—among them PayPal, Visa, Spotify, Mastercard, Uber, and eBay—to operate as preliminary “validator nodes” who will each share a transparent copy of a vast ledger of transactions reflecting all the activity on the network.” That sounds amazingly dystopia…

>That sounds amazingly dystopian. I mean, that’s literally a money built on an oligarchy. By design. You can already kind of do that with other crypto currencies. For e.g. > 70% of bitcoin mining happens inside China, and the currency is susceptible to a 51% attack (in theory anyway). This site calculates the cost of executing such an attack. https://www.crypto51.app/

I think there's an argument to be made that Bitcoin is oligarchical, but saying that 70+% of mining happens in China doesn't support the statement.

Nor is susceptibility to a 51% attack relevant to that point.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#464

Post by tryptophan »

Spivak wrote: post #171
muratgozel wrote: post #51

"it will be backed by a collection of low-volatility assets, such as bank deposits and short-term government securities in currencies from stable and reputable central banks." from the whitepaper: https://libra.org/en-US/white-paper/#the-libra-currency-and-... It's like one to one copy of the traditional monetary system with speed of transactions improved. The volatility of low-volatile assets still contradictive in…

Your tone is too cynical, this is exactly what it is and what payment processors have been dreaming of for years. A banking system where money can be moved instantly without weird batching, holidays, manual intervention, and all the rest of the legacy crap that plagues current banking. I'm all for it!

Agree.

Except for privacy concerns, I don't really see any other downsides. Libra just seems to be a transport/UX layer for dollars/other currencies.

I won't use it for privacy reasons, but I'm curious to see how it will work out in practice.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#465

Post by sireat »

baby wrote: post #21

I'm biased as I'm working on this project. But I'm super happy it's finally out there :) There's a lot of really cool cryptography and tech on this project and there's still a lot for people to discover!

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” - U.S.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#466

Post by tgb29 »

It's very possible this initiative will be low impact. Most people don't care about currency -- they just want to spend their money in the terms they're used to.

My one concern: if the libra's value is based on a basket of assets, will US users still see the value in terms of USD? Will French users see their value in Euro? Will the value of my USD change based on the basket of securities backing libra?

I just want an easy solution to send money cross borders. Someone in Mexico right now owes me $80 and there's no easy way to do this. If she could send it to me through WhatsApp with a near zero fee I'd see the value in libra.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#467

Post by dantheman0207 »

jayd16 wrote: post #420
moosey wrote: post #233

If this succeeds, it will be a data collection tool the likes of which the world has never seen, which is why so many companies are willing to put their name on it. The data, along with ML/AI, and our contemporary understanding of the human mind, means that this is a major step towards control that we can't understand. Dr. Harari explains it better than I do in "21 Lessons for the 21st Century", but this tool is part…

>the world has never seen Credit cards already have similar data, no?

Yes, and Facebook already has agreements in place with CC companies to get that data. They’ve had access to that data for a while. This isn’t a new data source, this is horizontal integration.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#468

Post by otakucode »

tetrisgm wrote: post #22

It’s going to be interesting. “Unlike previous stablecoins, Libra will not be issued by a central party. Instead, Facebook has enlisted 27 fellow Silicon Valley titans—among them PayPal, Visa, Spotify, Mastercard, Uber, and eBay—to operate as preliminary “validator nodes” who will each share a transparent copy of a vast ledger of transactions reflecting all the activity on the network.” That sounds amazingly dystopia…

It's hilarious that they say they want to setup a payment network that omits rent-seeking middlemen.... and proceed to immediately recruit PayPal, Visa, and Mastercard, which are the biggest rent-seeking middlemen that exist. Seriously, those 3 companies alone have more control over the US economy than the US Federal Reserve does. I've just been waiting for the day when the Federal Reserve says 'we need more liquidity in the market' and prints more money, and the 'payment processor' mafia respond with 'we disagree' and jack up their per-transaction fees.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#469

Post by drcode »

baby wrote: post #21

I'm biased as I'm working on this project. But I'm super happy it's finally out there :) There's a lot of really cool cryptography and tech on this project and there's still a lot for people to discover!

To deploy a smart contract in production, will I need to apply to be on the appropriate whitelist? If not, how do you prevent people from creating smart contracts that permit non-KYC wallets?

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#470

Post by stcredzero »

jerf wrote: post #277
renaudg wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is at least this from Zuckerberg's announcement : "Calibra will be regulated like other payment service providers. Any information you share with Calibra will be kept separate from information you share on Facebook."

I suspect they are using different definitions of "information", "share", "separate", "Calibra", and "Facebook" than a naive person reading that sentence might expect. I don't mean that as pure snark; I'm dead serious. The legal definition of all those things, the definitions they can get away with using, and the definitions that a normal person would expect from reading that sentence are probably three very differen…

The legal definition of all those things, the definitions they can get away with using, and the definitions that a normal person would expect from reading that sentence are probably three very different things.

This has applied to a bunch of things for years now. Have you flown on an airline? You might well have flown on an airplane operated by a different company, with that airline's branding. Who makes your car and your electronics? The details of all that have been a complex maze since the 1980's. Who makes your toothpaste, and where are all the ingredients really from?

(Note, this comment is written mainly with 3rd party readers in mind.)

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