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Cyrptocurrency news: Facebook launches Libra

shubham525

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OlivierMo

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Not really, because the return of that advertising will deminish and people will abandon using Fb for advertising if they didn't see value to their spending
I mentioned that to him and it may be true for small businesses but big brands don't really care that much. Big ad budgets to spend
 

Frank H.

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Maybe someone should "Zuck" Zuckerberg and start a new website similar to Facebook with a cryptocurrency. It might take a long time to get 1.7B subscribers though. Also, the idea is solid, however, Facebook consistently violates permission. The undereducated do not seem to care about their financial privacy though. I will definitely follow this story for the next couple of years.
 
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Deleted50669

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Facebook is very late to the party on cryptos. They've effectively transitioned from agile innovators to monolithic laggards.
 
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Andy Black

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Facebook is very late to the party on cryptos. They've effectively transitioned from agile innovators to monolithic laggards.
They might have arrived late(r), but they did so in a steamroller. Isn’t it the pioneers that end up with the arrows in their backs?

Anyway... I’m not a fan of Facebook the business, but man they’ve build some ecosystem.
 

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Facebook, VISA & Mastercard?

No F*cking way.

So we have the powerhouses of VISA & Mastercard, who essentially controls the entire payment industry in modern countries, thus controlling almost all companies in some way, at least the B2C ones. Now combine this with one of the biggest controllers of private people in the west, Facebook, who can essentially wipe your identity online, should the algorithm feel for it.

What do you get when you combine these?

Having dealt with all three of these merciless companies throughout the past years, I am NOT looking forward to this.

Interesting collection of companies there...

It is as if Sears, K-Mart and Blockbuster had a powwow about Amazon 10 years ago. They are trying to bend the market to their will instead of bending to market's will. They are ignoring the entire point of crypto.

Count me out. The point of cryptocurrency is decentralization. We already have centralized currencies.
 
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csalvato

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That is exactly what they said they would do. They will give you fractions of coins for clicking ads and stuff while on the platform. So this means they can charge advertisers 50 cents a click, and payout 5 cents a click, and make mad cash the whole time.

Of course we all have a year to see how this will play out, but I think it will be a game changer for sure


This is a strawman, and a common fallacy.

There's no reason to use crypto over traditional payment processing if you wanted to pay out consumers when they consume ads.

They can literally do this today without any crypto.

This is a huge fallacy in all things crypto. Most people say "oh wow, now they can do XYZ with crypto!" but they could already do XYZ without crypto...but they aren't because of other very valid reasons.

Libra is a disaster waiting to happen. Maybe in 1 year, maybe in 50. The only thing it's good for is raising awareness for Bitcoin.
 
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Damien C

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Facebook's engagement levels are trending down, and rather than innovate they've decided to jump on the trends bandwagon. That's usually the beginning of the end.

All these new payment systems and currencies are unnecessary in my opinion. A disgusting amount of money, time and effort is being wasted right around the world on duplicate projects all to save consumers a fraction of a second at the checkout, and offer them yet another "stable" store of value based on nothing more than sentiment which changes as quick as the wind.

Let's not forget what Facebook did with their Parse database. Thousands of developers around the world foolishly put their trust and faith in Facebook under the false assumption that their backends were safe with a big vendor. The second it no longer suited FB they killed the product off without a care in the world for anyone who had locked themselves into the ecosystem FB put out.

I don't see why Libra would be any different. What happens when shit hits the fan? Zuck comes out, stands at the podium, stares into the camera , "Facebook are deeply sorry we lost your entire life savings. Thank you"
 

Roli

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isnt it a stable coin like USDT?

Yes, that's the idea. Which is why I think they'll use it to monetise content and not as a speculative token.
 

A_Random_Guy

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Facebook's engagement levels are trending down, and rather than innovate they've decided to jump on the trends bandwagon. That's usually the beginning of the end.

All these new payment systems and currencies are unnecessary in my opinion. A disgusting amount of money, time and effort is being wasted right around the world on duplicate projects all to save consumers a fraction of a second at the checkout, and offer them yet another "stable" store of value based on nothing more than sentiment which changes as quick as the wind.

Let's not forget what Facebook did with their Parse database. Thousands of developers around the world foolishly put their trust and faith in Facebook under the false assumption that their backends were safe with a big vendor. The second it no longer suited FB they killed the product off without a care in the world for anyone who had locked themselves into the ecosystem FB put out.

I don't see why Libra would be any different. What happens when shit hits the fan? Zuck comes out, stands at the podium, stares into the camera , "Facebook are deeply sorry we lost your entire life savings. Thank you"

First, they collect our data, then they claim our money, getting a feeling of digital colonization. They expect people to invest their hard earned money on someone who spends more time on the court compared to his wife.
Bitcoin was the hype because everyone wanted to get rich with no hard work. This is neither Bitcoin nor does it provide equal value as real money.
I am sure in the upcoming months, Facebook will offer some "premium" content accessible to those who buy it with Libra.
Libra's purpose is to "empower billions of people," citing 1.7 billion adults without bank accounts who could use the currency
Well, someone has to buy it with real money, and the method of payment involves a Bank.

Considering that, WILL IT WORK? YES!
People are lazy. If you can send money really fast by texting in Whatsapp or Facebook, it will be faster than Paytm and PayPal. Since transactions cost very less, most e-commerce companies will prefer Libra over using cards.
It is best to consider it an online wallet where payment is made easily. This is neither decentralized nor worth investing your money.
 
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eekern

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I mentioned that to him and it may be true for small businesses but big brands don't really care that much. Big ad budgets to spend

Sadly, It is actually true. Very unethical if you ask me...

The only report my client get from me is "ad spend used+my salary" and "number of new clients"
then they can add their revenue and see ROAS
 
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ZF Lee

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The only thing it's good for is raising awareness for Bitcoin.
Another incoming peak in Bitcoin prices? Haha.

All these new payment systems and currencies are unnecessary in my opinion. A disgusting amount of money, time and effort is being wasted right around the world on duplicate projects all to save consumers a fraction of a second at the checkout, and offer them yet another "stable" store of value based on nothing more than sentiment which changes as quick as the wind.
That's the killer. The one thing that holds back crypto from becoming a legitimate full-blown currency with all the merits of what money is supposed to be.

Too bad crypto is still valued in fiat money. Even though some companies accept crypto now, for the rest of the world, they are still comfortable with the habit of carrying paper money in their wallets. Can this habit of thousands of years be broken that easily?

Interesting collection of companies there...

It is as if Sears, K-Mart and Blockbuster had a powwow about Amazon 10 years ago. They are trying to bend the market to their will instead of bending to market's will. They are ignoring the entire point of crypto.

Count me out. The point of cryptocurrency is decentralization. We already have centralized currencies.
So....short the crypto while the price is low now (compared to the others like Bitcoin) and prepare popcorn and fireworks? :)
 

kkoasdfawfqwe2

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Interesting collection of companies there...

It is as if Sears, K-Mart and Blockbuster had a powwow about Amazon 10 years ago. They are trying to bend the market to their will instead of bending to market's will. They are ignoring the entire point of crypto.

Count me out. The point of cryptocurrency is decentralization. We already have centralized currencies.

Yes - I don't know what happens when companies gets to a certain position of power and market size, but they seem to be too fed up with themselves to actually figure out what is needed and what is beneficial to the market.

I also never understood how VISA & Mastercard can go so unnoticed about their monopoly on payments. Yes you can get another processor, acquirer or whatever you want but ultimately they set the rules and they control the whole payment system in first world countries.

When I endured a fraud wave for my online project, I talked with a company called ThreatMetrix. They have a case study on Netflix, whom they have/had as a client. Netflix had so many chargebacks that they risked losing their ability to process payments. LOL. I don't know how a company of Netflix' size negotiate with acquirers, but imagine Netflix not being able to charge their customers for even just a few days? Pff

Not to mention a whole lot of other problems with the payment industry, but that is for another day.
 
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PizzaOnTheRoof

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What opportunities do you guys see?
Crypto for Dummies. Because 99.99% of people still don’t understand it.

Maybe someone should "Zuck" Zuckerberg and start a new website similar to Facebook with a cryptocurrency. It might take a long time to get 1.7B subscribers though. Also, the idea is solid, however, Facebook consistently violates permission. The undereducated do not seem to care about their financial privacy though. I will definitely follow this story for the next couple of years.
Every other “me too” social network has flopped. It has to be something completely unique from others.

Facebook is very late to the party on cryptos. They've effectively transitioned from agile innovators to monolithic laggards.
Some of the biggest most successful companies in the world weren’t first either. Facebook included.

The great thing about being late is you can learn from others mistakes, and steal their best ideas.

Yes - I don't know what happens when companies gets to a certain position of power and market size, but they seem to be too fed up with themselves to actually figure out what is needed and what is beneficial to the market.

I also never understood how VISA & Mastercard can go so unnoticed about their monopoly on payments. Yes you can get another processor, acquirer or whatever you want but ultimately they set the rules and they control the whole payment system in first world countries.

When I endured a fraud wave for my online project, I talked with a company called ThreatMetrix. They have a case study on Netflix, whom they have/had as a client. Netflix had so many chargebacks that they risked losing their ability to process payments. LOL. I don't know how a company of Netflix' size negotiate with acquirers, but imagine Netflix not being able to charge their customers for even just a few days? Pff

Not to mention a whole lot of other problems with the payment industry, but that is for another day.
Basically decentralized currencies will turn every human being and business into their own bank, like contractors are to employees.

Netflix won’t be held hostage by processors, because they will be their own processor, collecting a payment from another independent entity (you), with digital cash.
 

Ubu_roi

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This is a strawman, and a common fallacy.

There's no reason to use crypto over traditional payment processing if you wanted to pay out consumers when they consume ads.

They can literally do this today without any crypto.

This is a huge fallacy in all things crypto. Most people say "oh wow, now they can do XYZ with crypto!" but they could already do XYZ without crypto...but they aren't because of other very valid reasons.

Libra is a disaster waiting to happen. Maybe in 1 year, maybe in 50. The only thing it's good for is raising awareness for Bitcoin.

I think there is also another point here: what we call money can be (and is) created from nothing. Traditionally this has been done by governments, today mainly by banks.

We all understand that the true value of money is freedom: if companies like Facebook (or Amazon or Google) can also create money, they can acquire a power on our freedom that we fail to completely understand: I think this may really be dangerous in the long run (and yes, on this Mr Robot gave a glimpse).

Of course this is just my thought, and I've been wrong many times ;-)
 

OlivierMo

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All cryptocurrency forums I checked have discussions on the topic. I should say, most people are not going to use Libra as they are sure it is a bubble. I'm also suspicious about it. But it has to be mentioned that a lot of people are still skeptic about Bitcoin, and another part makes money on it.
you bring up a good point. From a balance sheet perspective, it's brilliant. Facebook could use that to claim some serious assets on the balance sheet. I'm not an expert but doesn't that count as an asset if it is worth cash? And is the asset value based on some value in the future? Nice way to do some accounting manipulation.
 
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AFMKelvin

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Interesting, just had a quick scan of the whitepaper. As usual with these things, there is no talk on how they will distribute the blockchain.

Essentially you have to create block rewards, otherwise why the hell am I going to burn electricity 24/7 just to distribute your blockchain?

Still though, worth keeping an eye on.

(Edit: I wrote this before I read your other post you pretty much said what I was trying to say.

From what I read (haven't read the whitepaper) this coin is not a true "cryptocurrency." The coin is completely controlled by Facebook. They only gave the coins to be mined to their trusted partners. The people in general can't mine, stake or get rewards from the coin. You can only use it as a token through Facebook.

Yes, it still runs on the blockchain. Yes, it secured by cryptography. But it's no decentralized.
 
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wordwarrior

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Yes, Facebook is a massive corporation with too much control and should not be issuing currency, but here's another perspective:

Anybody not living and working in the U.S. (and perhaps the E.U.) has their livelihood held hostage by their country's central bank and its manipulation of its currency in favour of their exporters and to the detriment of all their other citizens. In economic circles, this is called "beggar thy neighbour" and it's an insidious policy vehicle to compensate for economic inefficiencies and lack of competitiveness.

Workers in these countries have seen their standards of living compromised arbitrarily not only by said policies but also by the whims of the currency markets.

Personally, I'm nostalgic for the days when the Canadian dollar was trading at par with the U.S. dollar and Canadians were made aware of the contemptible extent they're being ripped by their retailers and supply management regime. I'm working hard, minding my own business, and suddenly in the middle of the 2010s my purchasing power gets a massive haircut. Screw that!

I'm looking forward to the death of national currencies to be replaced by a non-Facebook cryptocurrency.
 

AFMKelvin

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Me: Post greenfrog.jpg

Facebook: You have violated the terms of use of facebook. We have banned your account for hate speech. We will review your case and notified you once we have finished the investigation. At this time access to Libra will also be revoked until further noticed. You can contact our support team if you think this was a mistake.

Me: Contacts Supports team: I have 1 million libras worth $100,000 I want to withdraw.

Facebook: Replies 8 months later. You account is still under investigation. At this time we cannot guarantee a time frame of when your Libras will be available.

Me: Starves
 
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DC Welds

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A currency built on blockchain tech needs to be decentralized, immutable and private so you can remove trust from the transaction. I don't trust Facebook. It seems like a "CTRL + C, CTRL + V" approach and a little too late. We'll see...
 

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Ben Thompson of Stratechery had some good articles on this, worth checking out
 

Roli

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I'm looking forward to the death of national currencies to be replaced by a non-Facebook cryptocurrency.

This will happen once a functioning derivatives market is set up around crypto, allowing major players to enter the market. The problem at the moment is that there is no protection for retailers from volatility in the same ways there are in fiat currency.

For instance, if Nike sell a pair of trainers in Korea for $100 worth of Korean currency, then at some point they want to change it back to dollars and have it sit in their American banks.

So in order to protect themselves from a currency fluctuation they enter into a derivatives market via a merchant bank. Because let's say the Kr devalues by just one cent, that could have serious implications on their profits as they probably sell millions (if not billions) of dollars worth of Nike in S. Korea.

Unfortunately, no such market exists (yet) for crypto, so Nike don't want to sell a pair of trainers for $100 worth of Bitcoin, because tomorrow it could be $78 or $110, either way they're not interested in speculation, so they won't sell in BTC until they know they're protected.
 
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aachaltomar

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I don't know whether to be happy or worried. Will this be another means for facebook to collect user data and now information about user's finances? Despite this alarming question believe that Libra will be big in coming years once Facebook starts promoting it aggressively with their billions of users.
 

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