Posted on 06/14/2019 5:22:02 AM PDT by DEPcom
Facebook has secured the backing of over a dozen companies for its upcoming Libra cryptocurrency set to be announced next week, The Wall Street Journal reports. These companies include major financial organizations like Visa and Mastercard, and internet darlings like PayPal, Uber, Stripe, and Booking.com. Each will invest around $10 million to fund development of the currency, and will become part of the Libra Association, an independent consortium that will govern the digital coin independently of Facebook.
Agree. And the idea that this is somehow connected to the spirit of the first cryptocurrency is clownish.
If it’s not backed by a country (someone with guns willing to go to war over it), I’m not interested.
Interesting! Hmmm...we all think a one world currency that would be required to buy, sell, or trade would look like something from the world bank oligarchs.
Cryptocurrency through social media. First they roll it out, then they require it to be used as the only currency FB, Insta accept.
Who can’t conduct business on these sites? Those they perceive to be “haters.”
Life gets spookier every day as many of us can see the persecution of Christians and a good, moral people coming under fire.
Once again, Facebook will take something that is good, the ability to exchange goods and services, and twist it to make the clueless individual the product. Why anybody gets on Facebook these days confounds me.
It’s not currency. Countries issue currency. It’s a fancy electronic money exchange system.
Ask how FB and these companies are going to make a profit from it!
As already stated, FB is now screening for non-PC thoughts and suppressing anyone who doesn’t conform to the modern set of officially recognized dogmas. If you join this system, they will have control of some of your money. Short step from that to taking your money if you don’t conform.
Teary-eyed lip-biting good-show-of-remorse zuckerberg will have no control of anything of mine.
And you must conform to their views on homofascism, islamification, globalism, climate change, socialized medicine, opposition to BRexit, etc etc.
Take the Mark.
Revelations coming fast!
Fixed it for you.
Further, they are trying to get into "banking" which means they know that their social platform is doomed.
bttt
“They could/will lock my money up for being a hater.”
I know little about cryptocurrencies. Must there be a central place where a cryptocurrency is managed? I thought a benefit of cryptocurrency is that your transactions are untraceable. That would mean the cryptocurrency system wouldn’t know who anyone was and thus couldn’t lock out anyone.
I’m not sure of any of these thoughts.
Why would I give my financial information to Zuckerberg. If I wanted to put my trust into a crypto currency there are better, and less expensive ones out there.
The interesting piece is the involvement of Visa and Mastercard.
I wonder if they will charge facebook their normal rate to “convert” dollars to facebook coin?
I wonder if Visa and MC will be treating the purchase of these “coins” as cash purchases—and a higher fee?
Facebook probably will get the same rate as Amazon, but will be able to “keep” the residual dollars on their books (If something costs $2.95, Facebook will retain that portion of the coin value on their books until it is used—gaining interest income for free.)
I wonder if there will be a market in converting these coins to other currency? If so, this could be a laundering scheme...I haven’t figured that out yet, but it would be easy to convert the coin to an alt coin and send it flying out of the country.
If it is not convertible, then its not going to be THAT successful. While bitcoin has languished over the past year or so, there are still a lot of people will a lot of bitcoin that is worth a lot of money. They would be a target of converting their digital money into something more useful for day to day purchases. If Zuck-coin is not convertible then it is like using money from some country you never heard of.
Finally, Zuck would be creating “money” out of the blue if he controls the blockchain. I am not sure how the Fed is going to feel about that.
There are a lot of things about this that scream “wait.”
Friend of mine got his $1M wallet wiped out, FBI says we can’t do nothing...do not leave your wallets connected to the internet.
That is precisely where digital currencies are heading. If your social score is a little damaged, you might have to spend a minute at the register waiting for your transaction to be approved while the cashier and people in line behind you glare at you. More damage to your social score might result in longer waits for approval and limits on what you may purchase. Even more damage might result in no purchases allowed.
To address your questions here are some basic answers:
In Bitcoin there is no central management “place.” The entire system polices the transactions so there has to be “consensus” to approve a transaction.
Transactions are anything but untraceable. Its called an open ledger system. ALL transactions are available for anyone to see. Your “wallet” has an address. If you sold me a product I would “send” bitcoins to your wallet. When all of the “approvals” are completed, the coins would show up in your wallet. My wallet and yours would be connected. It is private in the sense that no one “knows” what your wallet is. This is controlled by private keys. As long as you keep your keys private, no one would know your business. (It is possible to change your “address” on every transaction which can make it difficult to track stuff.)
This is how “blockchain” works. Bitcoin, and a lot of cryptos, are limited in the number of total units in existence. One of the “positives” for crypto is a government cannot make more of it. My guess is Facebook is going to be a “stable coin” which means there will be a 1:1 relationship with every dollar invested. Then they would have to “destroy” that coin when the dollars flow out of the system in terms of withdrawls or payments. This process has lead to some shady stuff in the crypto world.
Also, in terms of safety, if you have a “wallet” in your hand, it is like cash. The “thefts” and “breaches” of cryptos usually happen on exchanges—where you do not control your stuff. If you buy a crypto and move it off the exchange to your personal wallet it is as safe as any cash you have—but it in your pocket or in a safe. No one is going to get it until you hand out your private keys.
If your friend at $1m and he did not have it off line and in a secure place...he was ignoring the first rule of investing in stuff—if its not in your hand, it doesn’t belong to you.
I think this is where VISA and MC come in. The transaction approval time has been one of the issues with Crypto. Moving large sums of money from one place to another is good in crypto—you can do it faster, cheaper, and more securely than you can with a bank.
For small retail transactions, I am sure your ledger is going to be checked by the credit card companies and they will cover the risk of double spending (trying to spend the same coin twice while the first one awaits approval.)
The fact that they are including a lot of traditional banking companies in their environment would make me skeptical of calling this a true crypto—I mean, if you have a credit card...why use crypto. And if you cannot access a credit card, how are you going to get the money transferred to facebook? Are we going back to Western Union transfers? This is how it worked in early Bitcoin days.
So Facebook can create currency, but others are subject to arrest and wealth confiscation if we attempt to create our own currency?
“Attempts to undermine the legitimate currency of this country are simply a unique form of domestic terrorism,” U.S. Attorney Tompkins said in announcing the verdict. “While these forms of anti-government activities do not involve violence, they are every bit as insidious and represent a clear and present danger to the economic stability of this country,” she added. “We are determined to meet these threats through infiltration, disruption, and dismantling of organizations which seek to challenge the legitimacy of our democratic form of government.”
I remember those silver dollars, those were excepted at lot of local business in the upstate of SC.
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