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Facebook's New Cryptocurrency, Libra, Gets Big Backers (wsj.com) 127

Facebook has signed up more than a dozen companies including Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Uber to back a new cryptocurrency it plans to unveil next week and launch next year, according to a WSJ report. From the report: The financial and e-commerce companies, venture capitalists and telecommunications firms will invest around $10 million each in a consortium that will govern the digital coin, called Libra [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source], according to people familiar with the matter. The money would be used to fund the creation of the coin, which will be pegged to a basket of government-issued currencies to avoid the wild swings that have dogged other cryptocurrencies, they said. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Facebook was recruiting backers to help start the crypto-based payments system and was seeking to raise as much as around $1 billion for the effort. In the works for more than a year, the secretive project revolves around a digital coin that its users could send to each other and use to make purchases both on Facebook and across the internet. Talks with some of the partners are ongoing, and the group's eventual membership may change, the people added.
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Facebook's New Cryptocurrency, Libra, Gets Big Backers

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  • Be VERY Afraid. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Zorro ( 15797 ) on Friday June 14, 2019 @11:51AM (#58761804)

    Would YOU trust Facebook with your bank account?

    • Would YOU trust Facebook with your bank account?

      Given I barely trust them with my name and E-mail account.... No. Facebook has never known anything other than fictional data about me apart from what I click on. I remember a decade ago warning my friends and family not to share anything more than necessary with FB and their dumb looks back when they said I was crazy.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Will anyone who falls to the right of communism on the political spectrum be allowed to use this technology?

      It seems like anyone who isn't a diehard communist is quickly banned/censored on most other platforms today. Is it the same for this tech?

      • It seems like anyone who isn't a diehard communist is quickly banned/censored on most other platforms today.

        When was the last time you met a communist? These days it's hard to even find an anarchist. It's all become, "Let's make our team win!"

    • Isn't the very notion of proprietary cryptocurrency an oxymoron? Isn't the blockchain concept itself supposed to be anti-proprietary? Just asking...
    • Obviously not if they can me from using my own money just because I said something rude.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    It's a veritable party of big companies trying to steal bitcoin's thunder.

    Because who would possibly want a truly independent coin, when you can have corporate influence?

  • It will be forced (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Of course the key premise here is that Spybook intends to eventually force its users to use the crypto instead of dollars, in hopes that it reaches critical mass where even non-users of Spybook are forced to use it (meaning they effectively "sign up" for Spybook).

    There is no other way to do it (besides forcing it), because it solves no actual problem that dollars haven't already solved.

    • Government shows up with guns if you are even minutely successful at this.
      • by Anonymous Coward

        Yep. If Facebook even gets within 5 light years of replacing the dollar there's a good chance Zuckerberg will be "disappeared" quite swiftly. Nobody fucks with the American bank system but the American government.

        Keep building this FB!!

  • But with their history of spying, I can understand why big money would back them up.

    The rest of us should avoid it like the proverbial plague.

    • The rest of us should avoid it like the proverbial plague.

      Yeah but the transaction fees are lower. And it's more convenient. I know, privacy, but this is money we're talking about.

      • They're going to take away our cash. If they suck enough people in, it will be a trivial effort. Only criminals use cash

        • Yeah I agree but it is beyond my power to stop it. If I had any power in the world, Facebook wouldn't exist.
  • I am investing in this, as well as Tesla and Beyond Meat and Uber. Nothing can possibly go wrong.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Your personal crusade against impossible burgers is duly noted, but you really shouldn't be such a 1-trick asshole about it... it's over. You don't like it. Everyone else does, and you're overruled by the market. Oh well, you lose, they win.

      • Who said anything about Impossible Burgers? I am talking about Beyond Meat. You are confused.

  • by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Friday June 14, 2019 @12:08PM (#58761942) Journal

    "As a borderless currency with no transaction fees when used within the Facebook ecosystem (Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram), the prospective coin is poised to make a considerable impact in developing countries, where the company is looking to primarily market it, according to The Information’s report."

    also

    "A license to operate a node on the network will reportedly cost outside entities $10 million each, and will come with a right to delegate representatives to the foundation and participate in the network’s governance. The network is expected to launch with 100 nodes"

    Not exactly bitcoin.

    • Combines the worst aspects of Visa and Money Orders. you have to pre-pay, it won't work outside a closed network, mechants pay so the consumer is silently paying too, and it's centralized, and creates a alternative money supply disrupting one of the few good things central banks accomplish. And if it folds you lose your flooz.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    I mean, Libra? Come on... it's Spanish/Portuguese for Pound. It's prone for confusion...

    • by _merlin ( 160982 )

      In Australia, Libra is one of the most popular brands of "female sanitary products" (pads and tampons).

  • by e3m4n ( 947977 )

    Didnt india just ban all cryptocurrencies? Seems like that trend is sure to catch on.

  • by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ) on Friday June 14, 2019 @12:16PM (#58762010)

    No anonymity. Purchases easily tied to individuals and tracked for advertising purposes. Lame.

    h/t to Rob.

  • which will be pegged to a basket of government-issued currencies to avoid the wild swings that have dogged other cryptocurrencies

    That sounds kind of sucky to me, a large part of the draw of crypto currencies is that they offer a true alternative to nation-based currency.

    Without the potential for "wild swings" they will also limit investment and speculation to a large extent, I mean right now would you invest in a basket of currencies from nations around the world? I sure wouldn't. A real cryptocurrency wo

    • by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

      Without the potential for "wild swings" they will also limit investment and speculation to a large extent

      Pretty sure that is part of the point-it's not for investment. Its for spending (and since it's Facebook, tracking that spending)

      I mean right now would you invest in a basket of currencies from nations around the world? I sure wouldn't. A real cryptocurrency would be more stable (or at least less controlled by falling currency) in a real world-wide economic crisis, part of the appeal.

      By pegging to multiple currencies it adds a measure stability and mitigates the risk. It's probably a mixture like the dollar, euro, yen, etc that other currencies also tend to be pegged too. If one currency crashes the rest should hold the value somewhat steady. If multiple major currencies around the world crash simultaneously, well, you're probably better off having a cache

      • Pretty sure that is part of the point-it's not for investment. Its for spending (and since it's Facebook, tracking that spending)

        Ok, so what is the reason why I would ever prefer this over actual cash and real banks, if it's just going to act like cash with worse tracking requirements around spending?

        By pegging to multiple currencies it adds a measure stability

        Right up until the next global financial crisis, when all of those multiple currencies tend to act in unison...

        The measure of stability you get is ex

        • by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

          Pretty sure that is part of the point-it's not for investment. Its for spending (and since it's Facebook, tracking that spending)

          Ok, so what is the reason why I would ever prefer this over actual cash and real banks, if it's just going to act like cash with worse tracking requirements around spending?

          Exactly.

    • Without the potential for "wild swings" they will also limit investment and speculation to a large extent, I mean right now would you invest in a basket of currencies from nations around the world? I sure wouldn't.

      The point is that medium time scale business activities strongly prefer more stability than existing cryptocurrencies can offer, where sudden movement up or down can force a contract to be broken. So while speculators may think volatility is fun, the uncertainty is overall much more a cost than an opportunity to people who run real businesses.

      We can speculate that a tie in to existing currencies is less than ideal, but at least the existing currencies as a whole have a track record than can be understood a

    • To use it as an intermediary in transactions of goods.

    • As a cryptocurrentist since 2010, I prefer "wild swinging" to "pegging".
  • The IRS says that crypto is property and you have to calculate and record your gain/loss at the time of every transaction.

    Are these businesses going to do all this work and perform withholding for everyone? Because that's just what I need, Facebook taxes...

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by HiThere ( 15173 )

      Unfortunately, LOTS of people trust Facebook. You may not trust them, and I may not trust them, but there are lots of "dumb fucks" (to quote a relevant authority).

  • It's a fraud. Like Theranos and Tesla, even worse.

  • As I'm sure many others are saying, Facebook doesn't have the best record for upholding society's best interests. Why the hell would people want to essentially turn them into a world bank?
  • Enough of this shit. Zuckerberg needs to be taken down, somehow, and Facebook needs to be broken up, preferably with a sledgehammer and/or high explosives.

Riches: A gift from Heaven signifying, "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." -- John D. Rockefeller, (slander by Ambrose Bierce)

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