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Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

decrypt.co

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Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#631

Post by wmf »

ilaksh wrote: post #567
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.

Correct. Libra coin is backed by Visa. The whole point of cryptocurrency to avoid having to go through middlemen like Visa or even require banks. This is a way for the intermediaries to cash in on the cryptocurrency hype and squash it before cryptocurrency payments become mainstream. They want to insert their own thing that looks like a cryptocurrency but will allow them to continue to profit from and control the exc…

If Libra ends up with 10x more users than all other cryptocurrencies combined, who are you to say what the point is? The existing cryptocurrency space has spent a decade building something that a relatively small number of people are really passionate about but it's the opposite of what the masses want.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#633

Post by sweeneyrod »

thefounder wrote: post #143
knocte wrote: post #131

While I agree with most commenters here that are skeptical about a surveillance-based currency, I'm very positive about the idea of having mainstream apps such as Whatsapp and Messenger introduce the concept of paying with your phone without needing to link your accounts with any bank account or debit/credit card, because the money is in theory being held by your device (under the hood, just holding a private key of…

What's the point of public/private keys if the whole thing can be reversed, recovered and changed by FB with no transparency for the outside world? The private key becomes just a better password, like a SSH key based authentication. Actually I'm pretty sure the wallet will not even require any key. You will be able to sign in with facebook. I see no P2P payments here as everything is really validated by FB and all th…

> The client sees just an old good REST/RPC API with no public access to the backend. The client wallets will be no better/powerful than a paypal client app/wallet. There will be no blockchain to download...as matter of fact you won't even be able to tell if FB really uses blockchain behind the curtains.

What is your basis for this? It implies that the fairly detailed whitepapers describing the blockchain are an elaborate hoax, which seems unlikely.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#634

Post by streetcat1 »

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?

I think that they plan to create a small network of trusted nodes (e.g. visa) instead of huge networks of anonymous nodes (as in the bitcoin case). If I read correctly the initial network will consists of only 10 nodes.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#635

Post by AJ007 »

bufferoverflow wrote: post #490

What I really don't get is the regulatory aspect. They are creating a financial derivative asset/instrument. To be moved across the borders. In what freaking universe will the regulators not be all over it with endless KYC/ML rules?

There aren’t enough public details yet but I think the “blockchain” part is really just between all of the partners, not between the users. So when user A in the US sends to user B in Pakistan, the activity is really only between the two parties which converted the local currencies from the end users. That wouldn’t be particular different from user A sending a Western Union payment to user B in Pakistan.

Conceivably Facebook has all of this user history and is able to make a guess if someone is a real person. Probably they know a lot more than a bank would know. That could take care of some aspects of the KYC issues too.

Using the word cryptocurrency is fairly misleading, because as far as I can tell, it isn’t really one. Blockchain, maybe, but I don’t even know what that word means.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#637

Post by hackernudes »

JaimeThompson wrote: post #218
maaarghk wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

from the whitepaper: The Libra Association also serves as the entity through which the Libra Reserve is managed, and hence the stability and growth of the Libra economy are achieved. The association is the only party able to create (mint) and destroy (burn) Libra. Coins are only minted when authorized resellers have purchased those coins from the association with fiat assets to fully back the new coins. Coins are onl…

Does the white paper make clear how / if those rules can be changed in the future?

It looks like the Libra Foundation would need to approve with a 2/3 majority of representatives.

From https://libra.org/en-US/white-paper/#the-libra-association:

> All decisions are brought to the council, and major policy or technical decisions require the consent of two-thirds of the votes, the same supermajority of the network required in the BFT consensus protocol.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#639

Post by mdorazio »

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…

I'm fairly anti-crypto, but there are a couple items in favor of #1:

- A currency outside of traditional governments would theoretically be free of currency manipulation by those governments (ex. China and the Yuan)

- An international currency can sidestep the artificial middleman fees and friction caused by traditional monetary exchanges. Ex. my friend who is currently studying in Japan wanted to get some money from her US bank account to Japan to pay for tuition and not only had to wait for banks to be open, but also had to pay exchange and transfer fees.

- This one doesn't necessarily require an independent currency, but crypto also theoretically enables the fabled land of online micro-tipping for content creators, publishers, etc.

Re: Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

#640

Post by spaceflunky »

percentcer wrote: post #638
spaceflunky wrote: post #627

I don't know much about how to mine or obtain crypto currencies. Can someone explain to me how I would get Libra?

You buy it from a trusted member node

So there is no way to mine it? You just buy it at a set price?

Does that mean that it is not really designed to be "invested in" the way people invest in bitcoin and others?

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