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Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

decrypt.co

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Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#621

Post by helen___keller »

clearfund wrote: post #566

What this truly mimics is a 'security' analogous to a basket of foreign currency traded as an ETF. Once you give them US $1 it is backed by a POOL of currency from multiple countries (i.e. the other people who have traded their currency for Libra). Once you decide to take your US $1 you will get back a different amount based on the underlying value of the pool based on the fluctuating FX market. May be >= Given they…

I don't think that's how this works. It's pegged to a basket of currencies, so the value will match that basket. The composition of the basket isn't tied who chooses to acquire Libra.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#622

Post by throwaway66666 »

dmje wrote: post #542

Kind of interested in what this means for a non Facebook user. As one of those I already feel sometimes marginalised when content is shared on their walled garden and I need my wife to look at the dates for my kids’ sporting events because they’re only published on Facebook. Now I’m going to be unable to carry out financial transactions, too.

Worse. When and if you post something that facebook guidelines do not like, instead of getting a "we removed your post" message, you will get fined! And that fine, will be instantly covered and subtracted from your account's balance!

New avenues for monetization!

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#623

Post by cafed00d »

vgoh1 wrote: post #580
dmje wrote: post #542

Kind of interested in what this means for a non Facebook user. As one of those I already feel sometimes marginalised when content is shared on their walled garden and I need my wife to look at the dates for my kids’ sporting events because they’re only published on Facebook. Now I’m going to be unable to carry out financial transactions, too.

Exactly why I would love to see this fail. I try to be a non-Facebook user, but everyone uses Messenger, and my local Craigslist has deteriorated because everyone sells on Facebook now, so I use it for certain things. Every once in a while, I find myself getting sucked into the "feed" view on my way to the Facebook Marketplace, especially since on mobile, every time I press "back" from a listing that I go into detail…

One of the best things I did was unfollow everything (i.e. friends, family, pages, celebrities, the kitchen sink, EVERYTHING) on Facebook. This explicit unfollowing took a few weeks and wasn't something done in a day.

Now, I have the advantage of using facebook for all the useful things I need such as "Login with Facebook" and Messenger without having the risk of ever succumbing to the "Feed"

Part of my experience here showed me how Facebook would automatically "make me follow" all my House/Senate representatives even if I never explicility followed their pages/profiles.

Ocasionally, I still have to unfollow these auto-followed pages when I log in. But for the most part, I've been feed-free for a 5-6 months now. It's great!

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#624

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#625

Post by behringer »

generalk wrote: post #592
vivekd wrote: post #557

This is an interesting story and I would like to learn more about libra-coin. Unfortunately I think hackernews has a strong anti-facebook bias that is making the opinions here nearly universally one sided. I think we can say three things fairly uncontroversially in favor of this 1. The world could use an online independent currency 2. Adding stability to blockchain currencies and having that work on a large scale is…

> 1. The world could use an online independent currency I'm not 100% steeped in cryptocurrency theory, and so I don't understand why this is presented as if it's agreed on by everyone. What problems does the world have that would be solved by an online, independent [of any nation, presumably?] currency? > 2. Adding stability to blockchain currencies and having > that work on a large scale is a good thing Having a blo…

No doubt if FB (i refuse to call them libra) coins become popular, when world governments limit crypto currency at FB's request, FB coins will no doubt be the only exception.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#626

Post by Florin_Andrei »

JaRail wrote: post #536

I'm surprised to see Coinbase as a founding member. I wonder if they'll allow direct conversions between Libra and other cryptocurrencies. It's interesting to note that there aren't any device manufacturers as members. No Google, Apple, Samsung, HTC, etc. That's going to make this an uphill battle for them. It implies that those companies have their own ideas. Or, perhaps, they just aren't willing to partner with FB…

I think it makes perfect sense for Coinbase to tap into this flow.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#628

Post by Jeff_Brown »

Have they solved the scale-vs-security problem? Bitcoin scales badly for the very reason that it is secure -- every miner keeps a copy of the currency's entire transaction history (the blockchain), and wastes a ton of cpu cycles on proof-of-work, racing with others to verify the next block.

Has Facebook reduced the number of players involved in mining? Are they using some other proof system?

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#629

Post by captn3m0 »

0xDEFC0DE wrote: post #575
jpmattia wrote: post #546

Again: A ledger that is not decentralized is a bank database, not a cryptocurrency. As near as I can tell, Zuckbucks are nothing more than the JPMorganCryptocurrency but with a bigger consortium. The only difference seems to be who is given write privileges to the database.

Can you explain why the ledger being run by ~27 different entities is NOT decentralized? How many governing entities (or validators; or people running blockchain servers) do you need before it qualifies as decentralized? I'm wondering about your definitions, not defending Facebook here.

How many of those 27 entities are registered in US and bound by US sanctions?

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#630

Post by percentcer »

Jeff_Brown wrote: post #628

Have they solved the scale-vs-security problem? Bitcoin scales badly for the very reason that it is secure -- every miner keeps a copy of the currency's entire transaction history (the blockchain), and wastes a ton of cpu cycles on proof-of-work, racing with others to verify the next block. Has Facebook reduced the number of players involved in mining? Are they using some other proof system?

https://developers.libra.org/docs/assets/papers/libra-consen...

This is the actual tech paper, it uses proof of stake (not proof of work per your concern)

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