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Facebook called before Senate panel over digital currency project
- Apocryphon 7y agoThat was a fast one
- londons_explore 7y agoFacebook are fools for announcing the product so early. If the product was already released and loved my millions of voters, the government would be far more limited in their ability to shut it down. They should have done a simultaneous 'announce and launch'.
- neilv 7y agoQuoting the article: > In May, the leaders of the Senate Banking Committee wrote to Facebook seeking information on rumors of its cryptocurrency project, and how it would protect consumer information. Perhaps Facebook rushed an announcement because of the government inquiry.
- londons_explore 7y agoPresumably Facebook could just reply with "our engineers are always trying out new ideas, but until they're announced, no detail is final, and we don't discuss possible future projects externally"
- pjc50 7y ago> we don't discuss possible future projects externally There's a limit to how much you can "no comment" your way through a congressional hearing; it would be obvious that this meant that Facebook were working on such a thing, and would increase the likelihood of it getting pre-emptively banned.
- quaa55 7y agoyou are implying there is a reason to love facebook coin? LOL!
- lazulicurio 7y agoI'm writing my representatives about Libra, and I would urge others to do the same. I think that it's an incredibly bad idea, even if you take Facebook out of the picture. A supra-national currency controlled by a consortium of private companies? Hell no, no matter what "safeties" you build into the governing association. Privately-issued currencies are a thing, but they tend to be localized, making Libra qualitatively different. And Libra is in no way comparable to payment processors, because those companies don't control the underlying value of the scrip. The USG is by no means perfect, but I'd rather stick with the Fed than give the Libra association control over the world's currencies. Edit: Imagine how incongruous the phrase "consumers can vote with their wallets" becomes when their wallets are owned by private companies.
- woah 7y agoWhat laws are they breaking?
- xtalh 7y agoPeople are just mad that it's Facebook doing this and probably succeeding where Bitcoin failed.
- lazulicurio 7y agoJust because it's not illegal doesn't mean it's not bad for society. Hence writing to Congress, whose job it is to make laws and regulations.
- mac01021 7y agoI share your concerns, but in a rather vague way. I struggle to describe concretely any undesirable scenarios likely to follow from the rise of Libra. I fear this limits my ability to influence legislators it anyone else when it comes to this issue.
- lazulicurio 7y agoFrom my perspective, the undesirable scenario would be Libra supplanting Government-issued currencies. As I added in my edit, the idea that companies are moderated by consumer choice breaks down when the companies control the means of transaction. Company towns with company currency used to be a thing, and not a good thing.
- ForHackernews 7y agoIt'd be ironic if this dumb project was the last straw that triggered regulators finally getting tough with Facebook. Talk about killing the goose that lays the golden eggs!
- gouh 7y agoSo basically like Ecoin from Mr.Robot, what could go wrong
- g00s3_caLL_x2 7y agoWell for starters, I don't get my free shake now...I get it on my next visit....