Imagine the power of the United States if it controlled the world’s currency through Facebook’s Libra as a reserve currency? Oh wait the U.S. dollar is already the world’s reserve currency and is included in over 50% of the world’s FX transactions. Not much would change.
France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra
501–510 of 821 posts
Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra
#502Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then create a bank. But that's not what this is. They want to make a bank that prints its own currency and skips the paperwork needed for current monetary exchange. It's just as OP has said.
Libra is meant to be safer and better than a bank. Seems almost impossible to fail, it has 100% reserve backing while banks have < 2% in europe. It supports instant payments even in the most remote regions of the eart. It will be a terrible competitor for banks, if it works. The problem is that it s backed by a conglomerate that is too big to trust.
I'll take regulated 2% over promised 100%. Otherwise we get another Tether story: https://cointelegraph.com/news/fractional-reserve-stablecoin...
Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra
#503Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm glad that you live in a country with a stable monetary supply, little to no inflation and no capital controls.
Indeedy. My country has 7% inflation. And that calculation is done by the very state that is responsible for inflation so their word on this only means so much. Any other currency or store of value that solves this is more than welcome.
Would it be a solution for you to buy foreign currencies with lower inflation amount (e.g. EUR)?
Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra
#504Earlier quoted context omitted.
Full reserve: > By fully backing each coin with a set of stable and liquid assets (described later) and by working with a competitive group of exchanges and other liquidity providers, users can have confidence that they will be able to sell any Libra coin at or close to the value of the reserve at any time. [0] They'll fund expenses from the return of the investments. > How will the reserve be invested? Users of Libr…
That doesn't sound like a full reserve though as its not 100% cash. It says right there that its partially invested in risky assets. Whether they're low risk is just an opinion. But even assuming it was a full reserve, I don't think its fundamentally different enough to be allowed to skirt the existing laws.
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Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra
#505Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is unrealistically limiting to think modern wars are fought only with armies. Most wars are quiet and fought with capital, thought, rhetoric, and policy. Armies only come into the picture if all else fails.
Can you point me to a 'modern war' without armies? I'm interested in what you actually think a war is?
cyberwar springs to mind.
Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra
#506Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is Facebook more powerful than Google/Alphabet? > I'm not sure that we as a society have ever dealt with a non-state actor this powerful before. Amazon and Google being of somewhat similar or greater power at least tempers down that statement. And unlike Facebook they have really good reputations outside specific parts of circles like the tech circle.
Facebook has way more control over the social fabric and distribution of information than Google does. We've seen violence-inciting disinformation campaigns spread through Facebook and rack up a literal death count to the point that governments have angrily demanded intervention from FB with the result of FB shrugging their shoulders and going 'our bad, we didn't hire enough moderators'.
Not really though. Apple and Alphabet effectively could cripple Facebook. We are already seeing some of this take place with Apple banning Facebook's VPN apps, options on data shared with apps and by rolling out its new app sign in with Apple feature.
There are benefits and drawbacks to social media/everyone has a voice. On a benign level, the NYTimes released a story misinforming its readership that Apple was proactively promoting its own apps. This was cleared up on Twitter by @drbarnard whose view was promoted via Stratechary.
I realize there is a lot more complexity to nation-states creating false narratives around China or Hong Kong protests, but on a basic level, I believe social media allows a quicker iteration cycle to correct misinformed views with the drawback of initial misinformation traveling at a greater velocity.
In many ways, you can get a more informed and accurate view of the situation in Hong Kong today if you have the propensity to avoid overreacting to the first piece of information and developing a skillset for finding the right person to listen to.
Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra
#507Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is Facebook more powerful than Google/Alphabet? > I'm not sure that we as a society have ever dealt with a non-state actor this powerful before. Amazon and Google being of somewhat similar or greater power at least tempers down that statement. And unlike Facebook they have really good reputations outside specific parts of circles like the tech circle.
Facebook has way more control over the social fabric and distribution of information than Google does. We've seen violence-inciting disinformation campaigns spread through Facebook and rack up a literal death count to the point that governments have angrily demanded intervention from FB with the result of FB shrugging their shoulders and going 'our bad, we didn't hire enough moderators'.
I think you’re underestimating the impact of YouTube. Its driven to prominence extremist ideologies, especially on the far right, that would have had difficulty finding purchase via traditional media outlets. And especially among young, alienated men, who are historically more prone to violence. Just look at the case of the New Zealand shooter and the subsequent violence he has inspired.
Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra
#508As a European I'm very happy about this decision. I'm not against Cryptocurrencies but Libra is an attempt by some of the most corrupt and unethical entities in the world (Facebook,...) to control financial flows. I can only hope other countries will follow soon.
It's a centralized cryptocurrency. That is where the problem is. It's (IMO) not even the corruption of Facebook et al. which is the problem.
Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra
#509Earlier quoted context omitted.
The strange part to me is just that there are already hundreds of crypto currencies available in Germany. When the government says that yes, these hundreds of currencies are fine, but Facebook can’t create one, then it just seems like the policy is anti-Facebook for the sake of being anti-Facebook.
Europe has developed a fairly anti-US-big-tech attitude recently. As a Brit I kind of understand it. We probably don't benefit from importing all of our 21st century products and services from the US, especially when these companies don't pay any taxes in our countries. Europe as a market has higher taxes, more regulation, and has more cultural barriers giving us a huge disadvantage when trying to compete in the glob…
> Europe has developed a fairly anti-US-big-tech attitude recently
I don't think it's an "anti-US-big-tech attitude" so much as an aversion to companies that have repeatedly been found to break the law (be it tax, competition, privacy or otherwise).
You don't (at least I don't) really see much hostility towards Apple, Netflix or Microsoft, despite them being large US tech companies.
The only examples I can come up with for companies Europeans might be hostile towards are companies that have given Europeans reason to be hostile: Facebook (tax, privacy), Google (tax, privacy, competition), Amazon (workers' rights) or Uber (workers' rights, flagrant disregard of the law).
If European companies behaved the same way, they'd face the same consequences (feel free to give counter-examples). I think the reason you hear about American companies so much more often is because:
- They're big, so violations are big and fines are big, making them big targets and big news
- They often break the law (perhaps because they're used to operating in America, which is relatively lawless when it comes to competition and privacy), making them easy targets
- You're reading English-speaking media, so you're less likely to hear about say a mid-sized German or French company being fined
Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra
#510> “no private entity can claim monetary power, which is inherent to the sovereignty of nations” What a bizarre statement. Providing for security is also inherent to sovereignty of nations, but private security firms flourish. It's also odd in the context of Germany in particular where a private currency has been used for many years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiemgauer I suspect there's a lot more behind this sta…
This clip from Mr. Robot S02e11 regarding eCoin, substituted with Libra in this case, maps suprisingly well to the hypothetical narrative on the shifting nature of skewed monetary power. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ee-cHbCI0s
So good. Thanks for sharing