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Facebook Cryptocurrency Plan Faces Opposition in France

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Re: Facebook Cryptocurrency Plan Faces Opposition in France

#71

Post by gexla »

> When people are asked why they remain on the fringe of the existing financial system, those who remain “unbanked” point to not having sufficient funds, high and unpredictable fees, banks being too far away, and lacking the necessary documentation.

Unfortunately the reality of being "unbanked" is that government regulations will still put up a barrier. KYC laws require "necessary documentation" which these big providers won't be able to get past. Local options may still be better in these cases.

For example, people who were born stateless may not be able to easily acquire KYC documentation. They may not have documentation of being born. Being locked out of ID options puts a limitation on getting past KYC.

In the Philippines, there are mobile options where you can deal with small amounts of money without having to verify your identity. These options are run by the major telco's here.

Re: Facebook Cryptocurrency Plan Faces Opposition in France

#72

Post by kumarvvr »

Facebook has already wreaked havoc with it's power, it has shown how deceptive it is, it has resisted regulation, it's chief executives have refused to testify to governments.

Now them having a cryptocurrency is alarming. Why does it really need to do this? There is nothing anonymous about facebook. Whatever transaction is done, will be linked to your account.

This is dangerous.

Whether they start or not is irrelevant, as informed users, we must spread word in our circle to avoid such cryptocurrency like the plague.

It will no longer be sufficient to try to prevent FB from going ahead with this plan, because they will, if not now, after a few months or years from now. The only thing that will prevent this from wreaking havoc in the world is to spread awareness of how bad this is and how much more power it will give to FB.

Re: Facebook Cryptocurrency Plan Faces Opposition in France

#73

Post by yumraj »

themagician wrote: post #63
ei8htyfi5e wrote: post #56

I put this in another thread but I've been shouting it far and wide today. I've lived in China and seen how this plays out. Facebook's new Libra Blockchain will be a centralized bank but way more dangerous. It will allow for a worldwide social credit system. If Facebook decides to remove you for wrong speak or wrong think, your money and many services will be inaccessible. Further, they have no mandate like the centr…

Don't worry so much. You can stop shouting. This will lead to nothing because no one will use it. Every attempt Facebook has made at commerce has failed miserably. No one trusts Facebook enough to purchase on Facebook, let alone use a Facebook currency. Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, et al. have all tried over and over again to get people to transact on their platform. Shop on Facebook, Buy on Twitter, Snapcash have al…

That is a very wrong way of looking at it.

It is the same as people deciding not to vote and then realizing that the wrong candidate had won with devastating consequences.

Re: Facebook Cryptocurrency Plan Faces Opposition in France

#74

Post by codesushi42 »

TomMckenny wrote: post #70
codesushi42 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It will allow for a worldwide social credit system. If Facebook decides to remove you for wrong speak or wrong think, your money and many services will be inaccessible. How is this different than what we have today with banks and credit card companies? The government can already freeze your funds. And now there are examples of people being censored online by being dropped by PayPal, which sets a scary precedent no…

While the grandparent post may have misstated the threat, there is a real danger here. It is not just a new style of credit card. And while it will act like a bank, it appears it will dodge regulation and consumer protection (limited as it is) under the word "cryptocurrency" or some other neologism poorly understood by the public and legislators. Will Libra deposits be covered under FDIC? Will it be subject to closur…

>Will Libra deposits be covered under FDIC?

That's not Libra's use case. It is pegged to other assets; it is meant to be transactional, not held as a store of value.

>Will it be subject to closures when there is a panic?

Why do you consider that a good thing? Would you really rather have your money held by some bank in Argentina then?

Besides, the idea of cryptocurrency is that the money supply is not governed by policymakers, which will help to avoid the conditions leading to those kind of panics. In the case of Libra, it's pegged and its monetary policy is more decentralized than that of a central bank.

>What rights do depositors have in the event of wrongful transactions?

What rights do you think that you have today? You're being subject to wrongful transactions all of the time in the form of outrageous banking fees. Make no mistake, the cost of "wrongful transactions" is being foisted upon you, plus much more in the bank's own interest of making money.

Re: Facebook Cryptocurrency Plan Faces Opposition in France

#75

Post by on_and_off »

ei8htyfi5e wrote: post #56

I put this in another thread but I've been shouting it far and wide today. I've lived in China and seen how this plays out. Facebook's new Libra Blockchain will be a centralized bank but way more dangerous. It will allow for a worldwide social credit system. If Facebook decides to remove you for wrong speak or wrong think, your money and many services will be inaccessible. Further, they have no mandate like the centr…

After seeing paypal screw small companies for years just as a payment system/not quite a bank (In practice it is, but it is not regulated as such); I really don't want a company that is just as scummy with even more power.

Re: Facebook Cryptocurrency Plan Faces Opposition in France

#76

Post by Lordarminius »

themagician wrote: post #63
ei8htyfi5e wrote: post #56

I put this in another thread but I've been shouting it far and wide today. I've lived in China and seen how this plays out. Facebook's new Libra Blockchain will be a centralized bank but way more dangerous. It will allow for a worldwide social credit system. If Facebook decides to remove you for wrong speak or wrong think, your money and many services will be inaccessible. Further, they have no mandate like the centr…

Don't worry so much. You can stop shouting. This will lead to nothing because no one will use it. Every attempt Facebook has made at commerce has failed miserably. No one trusts Facebook enough to purchase on Facebook, let alone use a Facebook currency. Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, et al. have all tried over and over again to get people to transact on their platform. Shop on Facebook, Buy on Twitter, Snapcash have al…

> This will lead to nothing because no one will use it. Every attempt Facebook has made at commerce has failed miserably. No one trusts Facebook enough to purchase on Facebook ...

I live in the "third world". People are not so discriminatory or probing about FB and friends as the west. In fact,(and regretfully), I daresay FB is viewed positively.

So don't be too sure.

Re: Facebook Cryptocurrency Plan Faces Opposition in France

#77

Post by jeromegv »

yumraj wrote: post #73
themagician wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't worry so much. You can stop shouting. This will lead to nothing because no one will use it. Every attempt Facebook has made at commerce has failed miserably. No one trusts Facebook enough to purchase on Facebook, let alone use a Facebook currency. Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, et al. have all tried over and over again to get people to transact on their platform. Shop on Facebook, Buy on Twitter, Snapcash have al…

That is a very wrong way of looking at it. It is the same as people deciding not to vote and then realizing that the wrong candidate had won with devastating consequences.

It’s not the same. The point, which is a valid point, is that this might never get traction because all their attempts at handling payment/transactions on behalf of other vendors on their platform has been nothing but failures. This isn’t far fetch to think that they are doing all this work and nobody will care to use it.

Re: Facebook Cryptocurrency Plan Faces Opposition in France

#78

Post by jacobush »

orbifold wrote: post #15
Barrin92 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't be so sure that Uncle Sam isn't going to crack down even harder than the EU. Financial control is a big part of US power abroad and I can't imagine that the US government is going to tolerate a private entity taking that control away, and that's probably for the better. This entire Facebook currency thing sounds like something out of Shadowrun.

I think it is likely that this is backed by a substantial set of US political interests. People that want to experiment with UBI might want to see a Facebook sanctioned UBI. This is basically any libertarians pipe dream. On the other hand I think you are right. I expect any US based opposition to move swiftly. Regulations should probably be the least of their concern given how the US has treated entire Nation States…

One can hope

Re: Facebook Cryptocurrency Plan Faces Opposition in France

#79

Post by nabakin »

ei8htyfi5e wrote: post #58
ei8htyfi5e wrote: post #56

I put this in another thread but I've been shouting it far and wide today. I've lived in China and seen how this plays out. Facebook's new Libra Blockchain will be a centralized bank but way more dangerous. It will allow for a worldwide social credit system. If Facebook decides to remove you for wrong speak or wrong think, your money and many services will be inaccessible. Further, they have no mandate like the centr…

Also, to be up front, some of these points I found on a thread early this morning and I copied it to a note pad for later, then went to sleep. When I woke up, the page had refreshed and I have no way of crediting the original author. But I think it's important to share, so I did. If you are the author, or know who wrote parts of this, please tell me and I will credit you/them.

Cant you google some of the text to find the original comment? Or are you saying the original comment was deleted?

Re: Facebook Cryptocurrency Plan Faces Opposition in France

#80

Post by [deleted] »

ei8htyfi5e wrote: post #56

I put this in another thread but I've been shouting it far and wide today. I've lived in China and seen how this plays out. Facebook's new Libra Blockchain will be a centralized bank but way more dangerous. It will allow for a worldwide social credit system. If Facebook decides to remove you for wrong speak or wrong think, your money and many services will be inaccessible. Further, they have no mandate like the centr…

[deleted]
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