Looks like Facebook have launched a new cryptocurrency called Libra.
What do people think?
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It’ll be interesting to see how this develops. I’m not really into the whole cryptocurrency thing, but I’m glad to see that this doesn’t depend on mining with the resultant enormous energy cost and environmental impact.
I’d wager that the average consumer isn’t going to understand or care about this but if anyone can make it happen it’s probably Facebook.
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A whole new scam opportunity,
Telegram is supposed to be bringing out their own crypto soon also
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Looks like Uber and visa are also involved.
Also what protections will there be for scams?
Looks like you top-up your wallet and then send to people, you won’t be covered by chargeback or section 75.
What I like about it:
A. Not owned by one company - there’s a non-profit in-charge of the development of the coin/chain and the reserve. This non-profit has currently 28 members (shooting for 100 at launch) the each have 1 vote regarding any change.
B. Super scalable, so can support world-wide adoption (which is the goal)
C. No PoW (no need as it’s permissioned), so pretty good for the environment.
(Full disclosure, I work at facebook, just not on Libra).
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Pow?
What’s going to happen when regulators start , because it will be used for crime, terror funding.
I can easily see it being banned by some major countries, due to lack of AML checks etc.
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Proof of Work. The energy intensive part of Bitcoin.
Calibra (which is the Libra wallet that a Facebook subsidiary is developing) is going to perform KYC checks. So government ID.
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Facebook, enough said — I can’t wait for the day I finally request for my data to be deleted.
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I can’t fathom why someone would trust Facebook with their money of all things.
I don’t even trust them as a social network.
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Another way for fb to suck up more data.
You’d be a fool to use this.
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Isn’t cryptocurrency just a huge Ponzi scheme?
It works because you convince others to invest in the idea of it and tell them they can make a killing but at some point in the future some poor bugger is gonna be left holding all the coins with no one willing to “trade” for them (person at bottom of the pyramid).
Also, if I forget my bank password then a customer support call sorts that out, forget my crypto-wallet password and “goodbye life savings”.
And if someone breaks the sha256 encryption, sure crypto can move to a new algorithm, but what happens to all the coins using the old encryption?
At the end of the day I prefer to trade my sheep for your pig, if I offer you my sheep and in return you offer me a series of binary numbers encrypted to sha256 stored in a block chain distributed across a number of global servers … I’m gonna struggle to cook that for my Sunday roast.
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To be fair, Facebook seem to be backing this with a reserve of some sort, but I’m not exactly sure how that works.
I 100% agree with the privacy concerns expressed. Why should we trust our wealth and our financial data a company currently facing a ÂŁ4 billion fine from the FTC?
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I wouldn’t use this. Facebook will know what I’ve been spending and where and bombard me with adverts at every opportunity 
I’m excited - I really hope that Monzo jumps on board and we’ll be able to use it inside the app.
It’s fully backed by a basket of currencies - so the value will stay stable over time. Read more here.
No, not inherently. I’m very cynical about cryptocurrencies but that’s because of the ecosystem, not the technology itself. Although the majority of cryptocurrencies are at best shady and at worst outright frauds, it’s possible for a cryptocurrency to be a trustworthy product.
Libra is not designed as an investment and is unlikely to be used as one: as such it does not share much with distributed cryptocurrencies at all – including the usability issue: Libra is unlikely to share the same “lose your key, lose your money” problems Bitcoin etc. have.
Although Libra is a cryptocurrency, you can think of that as an implementation detail, in reality it’s a group of companies coming together to issue their own currency in the same way a government produces fiat: this is (for all intents and purposes) “Facebook Dollars” not “Facebook Bitcoin”.
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Not sure I get the point of a cryptocurrency if it is to be backed up by real currency and is all in the open
Why not just create a worldwide electronic currency and ditch the blockchain bit?
Traditionally, it is as a safe “intermediate” currency that can be easily traded with unlinked cryptos.
The reason being that it’s often not very easy to move between your bank and a crypto exchange - look at Monzo!
https://www.cryptocompare.com/coins/guides/what-is-usdt-and-how-to-use-it/
How that works with Libra, I’m not sure. Maybe it will be much easier to exchange into local fiat? Probably liquidity is the main goal
I just personally see cryptocurrency having their place (if there is such a thing) where there are two people who do not know one another, may not want to do so, and likely do not trust each other
Why would I pay Amazon in Facebook Dollars instead of Pounds when I basically trust them to deliver?
A bit like the remaining places that are cash only, I get a bit suspicious about anyone wanting to pay with cryptocurrency
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And don’t want anyone else to know about it or have the support of a bank, fraud protection etc…
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I think many people in this thread have their views about crypto and blockchain set by bitcoin. But not everything is bitcoin. (Though if you want bitcoin - because “real” companies do take bitcoin for payment - feel free to use my referral to get £7 extra.)
Coinbase have a great series of educational videos that will really open your eyes as to why these technologies are useful. You can even earn over $60 for watching them.
I haven’t read the details on Libra, but watch the videos above on Stellar Lumens and/or DAI to get the point.