Is Facebook Becoming a Central Bank? 232
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by
Soulskill
from the while-everyone-was-worrying-about-bitcoin dept.
from the while-everyone-was-worrying-about-bitcoin dept.
wasimkadak sends this quote from an article at Forbes:
"Facebook's 27-year-old founder, Mark Zuckerberg, isn't usually mentioned in the same breath as Ben Bernanke, the 58-year-old head of the Federal Reserve. But Facebook's early adventures in the money-creating business are going well enough that the central-bank comparison gets tempting. ... Initially, the Credits-based economy was confined to the virtual world’s trifles. Credits could be spent to buy imaginary gold bars for aficionados of Mafia Wars, or bouquets of virtual flowers for birthday postings on friends’ Facebook accounts. This new form of digital money was cute but essentially useless for mainstream activities. Lately Credits have become more intriguing. Warner Brothers this summer offered movie-goers a chance to watch Harry Potter and The Dark Knight for 30 Credits apiece. Miramax and Paramount countered with film-viewing offers, too. In a provocative post this week on Inside Facebook, guest blogger Peter Vogel argues that Credits in the next few years will become more of a true currency. Facebook's 800 million worldwide users represent a lot of buying power. He figures Credits could evolve into commercial mainstays for digital movies and music."
Bits are almost free (Score:2, Interesting)
Interesting point that the main cost of music or movie is the "first copy"... duplication costs very little in the digital world. Seems like the movie industry are offering sequels to drive up interest in future movies.
Re:No. No, no, no, no, no, no. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This guy is flogging his own product (Score:5, Interesting)
Agreed. I purchased web hosting for a year (out of the US), and a domain name. I'm considering a Parisienne firm for some minor website artwork. The number of businesses / services that accept BitCoins are growing.
The only people shouting Pyramid Scheme as those who are butt-hurt from trying to 'get in' at the wrong time; many of those people were more invested in turning a magical short-term profit by reselling their coins to 'suckas' who would buy in later. Surprise, surprise, the same kind of mentality seen with the flipping of homes on the real estate market, and just like with that market, it backfires -> absolutely no understanding of market fundamentals or finance, but the people involved think they've found a path to Easy Street. Probably bought in at $14 / coin, and sold out at $3 / coin, only to watch the market rebound, as of late, back to $7 / coin. Guys, if you want to turn a major profit, do two things -> 1.) read up on some finance / economics (the heavy stuff that you special order online, not the stuff B&N stocks in the "Investing" aisle), and 2.) long-term investing (not everyone is cut out to be a day trader, and long term tends to be quite profitable).
One of the larger things harming BitCoin is the constant f*ckups the various exchanges and online wallet sites keep experiencing. Mt. Gox kept screwing the market with their repeatedly hacked accounts (ah yes, PHP, the epitome of secure languages), followed by Dwolla and their API nonsense (has anyone seen my head? it appears located inside my rectum), and that one online BitCoin wallet service whose owners took everyone's wallet and cashed out (why yes, everyone, why doesn't you store your unencrypted wallet with me for a while? wink wink). In all seriousness, I myself am surprised that BitCoin is still around -> it's based on a sound design, but the growing pains it has experienced from every goober who has come along since have been synonymous with a 90 lbs geek trying out for the high-school football team.
Re:Cash out early (Score:5, Interesting)
Facebook credits are like the old Soviet-block currencies. If you were an American visiting the USSR, you could exchange your dollars for rubles when you arrived. But there was no way to exchange them back. And rubles were worthless outside the USSR.
Re:Look I'm sure they'll only create a few extra (Score:5, Interesting)
It is relatively easy to spot debt bubbles. I predict here that higher education is next.