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Libra seems like the worst of all worlds. Zero anonymity like a credit card, the untrustworthiness of Facebook, and with the paltry transaction throughput of a

Libra seems like the worst of all worlds. Zero anonymity like a credit card, the untrustworthiness of Facebook, and with the paltry transaction throughput of a cyptocurrency. I saw the greatest minds of my generation destroyed by being tasked with making financial Rube Goldberg machines.

nemild 7y ago
But also, the distribution muscle of Facebook.
tylersmith 7y ago
The Libra consensus model utilizes permissioned coordinators acting within a legal framework which will certainly allow their transaction throughput to be many orders of magnitude over a traditional cryptocurrency.
ShorsHammer 7y ago
Can you sign me up for anonymous credit card? Surely that must be worth it's weight in gold. My current credit card provider can see the exact item purchases I made from the supermarket then sell it off to third parties while I need to ask for and keep a paper receipt to do so.
- mantas 7y ago
  He probably meant that merchant would see your FB profile and all the associated data. Meanwhile when you pay with a credit card, merchant has access to very little data.
- rienbdj 7y ago
  Apple Pay enables anonymous spending iirc
  - ShorsHammer 7y ago
    Find that incredibly hard to believe. I can pay money to an Iranian charity?
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
- keypusher 7y ago
  You can pay cash for a prepaid Visa debit card. There are also various cryptocurrency backed cards which offer varying levels of anonymity.
anonymous5133 7y ago
1. unrealistic to expect libra to have zero anonymity given current regulations around know your customer/anti-money laundering rules. 2. Libra is actually operated by the libra association. Facebook only has a minority voting share in that association. 3. Transaction throughput of libra is 1,000 transactions per second compared to bitcoin's 7 transactions per second. In comparison visa does about 1,400 transactions per second currently. In theory, it would be possible to increase the transactions per second of libra if it gains widespread use.
- mullingitover 7y ago
  So for (1), not appealing for anyone currently interested in the one killer app for cryptocurrencies. For (2), I look at it this way: A swimming pool can be 99% pure water, but if it's 1% poop I don't want to dip my feet in it. As for (3), Visa can do something like 250k transactions per second. The blockchain aspect of this system unnecessarily hobbles it, and it seems like really the blockchain aspect just tacks on a techy buzzword that offers no compelling features that a purely centralized database can't do better.
  - gingabriska 7y ago
    >For (2), I look at it this way: A swimming pool can be 99% pure water, but if it's 1% poop I don't want to dip my feet in it. Not sure how much you swim but 7.14*10^-6% of every swimming pool is per, atleast.
- r3bl 7y ago
  Ain't gonna touch on your 1st and last points because I don't know enough about that. Regarding your second point, of course they're gonna abstract it. There's no way in hell people would trust it if it were labeled as Facebook Libra. The only way for it to get any momentum is by people being tricked into thinking it's some sort of an independent entity that happens to be supported by Facebook and others. I don't buy it, and neither should anyone else. Even if they make just 5% of the profit that Libra generates... somehow, that's still 5% more than Facebook would receive otherwise. It ain't even released yet, and I already know that I'll go out of my way to avoid ever touching it. I assume most of HN readers will do the same.
krick 7y ago
And I can already see it becoming popular.

nemild 7y ago

But also, the distribution muscle of Facebook.

tylersmith 7y ago

The Libra consensus model utilizes permissioned coordinators acting within a legal framework which will certainly allow their transaction throughput to be many orders of magnitude over a traditional cryptocurrency.

ShorsHammer 7y ago

Can you sign me up for anonymous credit card? Surely that must be worth it's weight in gold. My current credit card provider can see the exact item purchases I made from the supermarket then sell it off to third parties while I need to ask for and keep a paper receipt to do so.

mantas 7y ago
He probably meant that merchant would see your FB profile and all the associated data. Meanwhile when you pay with a credit card, merchant has access to very little data.
rienbdj 7y ago
Apple Pay enables anonymous spending iirc
- ShorsHammer 7y ago
  Find that incredibly hard to believe. I can pay money to an Iranian charity?
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
keypusher 7y ago
You can pay cash for a prepaid Visa debit card. There are also various cryptocurrency backed cards which offer varying levels of anonymity.

anonymous5133 7y ago

1. unrealistic to expect libra to have zero anonymity given current regulations around know your customer/anti-money laundering rules. 2. Libra is actually operated by the libra association. Facebook only has a minority voting share in that association. 3. Transaction throughput of libra is 1,000 transactions per second compared to bitcoin's 7 transactions per second. In comparison visa does about 1,400 transactions per second currently. In theory, it would be possible to increase the transactions per second of libra if it gains widespread use.

mullingitover 7y ago
So for (1), not appealing for anyone currently interested in the one killer app for cryptocurrencies. For (2), I look at it this way: A swimming pool can be 99% pure water, but if it's 1% poop I don't want to dip my feet in it. As for (3), Visa can do something like 250k transactions per second. The blockchain aspect of this system unnecessarily hobbles it, and it seems like really the blockchain aspect just tacks on a techy buzzword that offers no compelling features that a purely centralized database can't do better.
- gingabriska 7y ago
  >For (2), I look at it this way: A swimming pool can be 99% pure water, but if it's 1% poop I don't want to dip my feet in it. Not sure how much you swim but 7.14*10^-6% of every swimming pool is per, atleast.
r3bl 7y ago
Ain't gonna touch on your 1st and last points because I don't know enough about that. Regarding your second point, of course they're gonna abstract it. There's no way in hell people would trust it if it were labeled as Facebook Libra. The only way for it to get any momentum is by people being tricked into thinking it's some sort of an independent entity that happens to be supported by Facebook and others. I don't buy it, and neither should anyone else. Even if they make just 5% of the profit that Libra generates... somehow, that's still 5% more than Facebook would receive otherwise. It ain't even released yet, and I already know that I'll go out of my way to avoid ever touching it. I assume most of HN readers will do the same.

krick 7y ago

And I can already see it becoming popular.