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Why not we all just... let them launch and see what happens? Libra is nothing more than the latest iteration of a long line of stablecoins a-la Tether, USDC, G

Why not we all just... let them launch and see what happens? Libra is nothing more than the latest iteration of a long line of stablecoins a-la Tether, USDC, GUSD etc. I find the industry and regulatory overreaction puzzling, surely these issues have been explored before? The "But it's Facebook!" argument disingenuous, any one of the popular chat app has, or can replicate this experiment (Wechat, Telegram, Slack, Kakao, Line, Twitch, Discord).

m-i-l 7y ago
Would you be happy to give a bunch of pre-school children some weapons of mass destruction and "let them launch and see what happens"? I admit that we can't be sure what would happen, but personally I can't see how the outcome could possibly be good. Assuming they have to exist at all, weapons of mass destruction are better off in the hands of responsible state actors, rather than a group of people who have absolutely no idea of what they're playing with let alone developed enough emotional maturity for dealing with the consequences of using them.
Barrin92 7y ago
> Why not we all just... let them launch and see what happens? because more often than not when we do that our data happens to end up in the hands of private companies that try to steer public elections. Facebook is a private company and we should not let it attempt to displace the financial system. The same scrunity should be applied to wechat or telegram should they ever attempt to do the same. As it stands wechat has no relevance on the western markets though. Control over financial transactions and the monetary system directly impacts national security. >Libra is nothing more than the latest iteration of a long line of stablecoins a-la Tether, USDC, GUSD etc. the difference is that facebook exercises control over 2.4 billion users, so everything it does, by definition, is in a very different ballpark than a community project.
- CaptainZapp 7y ago
  Wechat's financial entity is heavily controlled by the Peoples Bank of China.
- jdhn 7y ago
  >we should not let it attempt to displace the financial system Why do people think that this will shove our existing financial system aside? The second something comes close to having too much of an impact (stepping on the toes of banks, displacing the dollar, etc), the regulators will crack down on it. What I can see happening is that it becomes an alternative payment method at best.
giancarlostoro 7y ago
Technically KeyBase has a Stellar Lumens wallet embedded already.
rtkwe 7y ago
It's not just Facebook though it's also Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and PayPal (along with a handful of capital companies I don't recognize right off the bat and a couple that are probably large payment providers in their own country I don't recognize, eg Meracdo Pago and PayU). If Bitcoin had come out of the gate with the world's major payment processors already signed on you bet people would have paid way more attention from the start.

m-i-l 7y ago

Would you be happy to give a bunch of pre-school children some weapons of mass destruction and "let them launch and see what happens"? I admit that we can't be sure what would happen, but personally I can't see how the outcome could possibly be good. Assuming they have to exist at all, weapons of mass destruction are better off in the hands of responsible state actors, rather than a group of people who have absolutely no idea of what they're playing with let alone developed enough emotional maturity for dealing with the consequences of using them.

Barrin92 7y ago

> Why not we all just... let them launch and see what happens? because more often than not when we do that our data happens to end up in the hands of private companies that try to steer public elections. Facebook is a private company and we should not let it attempt to displace the financial system. The same scrunity should be applied to wechat or telegram should they ever attempt to do the same. As it stands wechat has no relevance on the western markets though. Control over financial transactions and the monetary system directly impacts national security. >Libra is nothing more than the latest iteration of a long line of stablecoins a-la Tether, USDC, GUSD etc. the difference is that facebook exercises control over 2.4 billion users, so everything it does, by definition, is in a very different ballpark than a community project.

CaptainZapp 7y ago
Wechat's financial entity is heavily controlled by the Peoples Bank of China.
jdhn 7y ago
>we should not let it attempt to displace the financial system Why do people think that this will shove our existing financial system aside? The second something comes close to having too much of an impact (stepping on the toes of banks, displacing the dollar, etc), the regulators will crack down on it. What I can see happening is that it becomes an alternative payment method at best.

giancarlostoro 7y ago

Technically KeyBase has a Stellar Lumens wallet embedded already.

rtkwe 7y ago

It's not just Facebook though it's also Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and PayPal (along with a handful of capital companies I don't recognize right off the bat and a couple that are probably large payment providers in their own country I don't recognize, eg Meracdo Pago and PayU). If Bitcoin had come out of the gate with the world's major payment processors already signed on you bet people would have paid way more attention from the start.