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This is a well-reasoned reply, but the reason anti-Libra sentiment is high is not a huge mystery. You even alluded to the reason in your final paragraph. It's p

This is a well-reasoned reply, but the reason anti-Libra sentiment is high is not a huge mystery. You even alluded to the reason in your final paragraph. It's people who are suspicious of Facebook management's ulterior motives, that is to say conspiracy-type thinking. The RFID technology that is widely deployed today was reaching wider adoption in the early 2000s and the AM radio conspiracy hosts I used to listen to for fun were spinning wild yarns about how RFID would be going underneath everyone's skin soon and everyone would be rounded up and put into camps. I think there's a subterranean truth hidden in the ravings of madmen. It is a frightening prospect to empower further the people at the top who make the most impactful decisions in our society. RFID and Libra both make the global economy more efficient and that puts more power in the hands of our financial overlords. Now, it is also the case that financial overlords spend more time worried about themselves and their families than they do trying to control individual people's lives and make them worse. So conspiracy theorists are wrong about the ultimate outcome of new technology, but I think their fears would be well served by distributing power as widely as practically possible. The principle of sharing power to put people's minds at ease is what you referred to in your second bullet point.

carlosdp 7y ago
I agree with you on the reasoning, and I absolutely believe that is why Facebook is doing it this way. They know people would never trust a currency soley backed by them to start, so they solved that problem from the get go. Now it's just a PR problem of everyone believing they are in full control, when they actually aren't.
- dannyr 7y ago
  FWIW, Facebook for years also said that they care about our privacy. Now, in court, they argue that there's no expectation of privacy on Facebook. They are just now telling you what you want to hear but that's probat not what they will do.
  - carlosdp 7y ago
    I don't disagree with you, Facebook should be trusted with a grain of salt when it comes to privacy right now. This isn't relevant to the Libra discussion, because of the way Libra is designed. You don't have to trust Facebook to trust Libra. They built it this way because they know we don't trust them right now.
- flensortow 7y ago
  Unless you can provide actual legal documents as opposed to whitepapers, your argument is unconvincing. Nobody trusts anything Facebook says, which given their past actions is completely reasonable.
  - carlosdp 7y ago
    You can ask Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Spotify, Paypal, Uber, or any of the other founding members if they feel like their lawyers seem convinced they each have a legal vote equal to Facebook's. Do you really believe that each of these orgs, many traditional with whole legal departments, would sign on to a public association with this potential without crossing their i's and dotting their t's? Don't trust Facebook, trust that the 27 other companies (and their lawyers) don't trust Facebook.
    - flensortow 7y ago
      I trust that they would be willing to cede control of several aspects to Facebook for the sake of being involved and having some cut of the profit for fear of missing out. Unless all the contracts are public you have no idea what kind of backroom deals they have with different organizations. It may sound paranoid but that’s the level of trust many people feel Facebook deserves at this point in time.
crispyporkbites 7y ago
Actually in China they do track people and then round them up by forcing them to install apps on their phones (https://www.ibtimes.com/china-forces-muslims-install-anti-terrorist-surveillance-app-phones-2570495 https://www.ibtimes.com/china-forces-muslims-install-anti-te...) which is not that far from putting an RFID chip under their skin. If RFID chips were cheaper than install a phone app I’m sure they’d do that instead.
- jay_kyburz 7y ago
  What do they do if you don't have a phone? Serious question.

carlosdp 7y ago

I agree with you on the reasoning, and I absolutely believe that is why Facebook is doing it this way. They know people would never trust a currency soley backed by them to start, so they solved that problem from the get go. Now it's just a PR problem of everyone believing they are in full control, when they actually aren't.

dannyr 7y ago
FWIW, Facebook for years also said that they care about our privacy. Now, in court, they argue that there's no expectation of privacy on Facebook. They are just now telling you what you want to hear but that's probat not what they will do.
- carlosdp 7y ago
  I don't disagree with you, Facebook should be trusted with a grain of salt when it comes to privacy right now. This isn't relevant to the Libra discussion, because of the way Libra is designed. You don't have to trust Facebook to trust Libra. They built it this way because they know we don't trust them right now.
flensortow 7y ago
Unless you can provide actual legal documents as opposed to whitepapers, your argument is unconvincing. Nobody trusts anything Facebook says, which given their past actions is completely reasonable.
- carlosdp 7y ago
  You can ask Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Spotify, Paypal, Uber, or any of the other founding members if they feel like their lawyers seem convinced they each have a legal vote equal to Facebook's. Do you really believe that each of these orgs, many traditional with whole legal departments, would sign on to a public association with this potential without crossing their i's and dotting their t's? Don't trust Facebook, trust that the 27 other companies (and their lawyers) don't trust Facebook.
  - flensortow 7y ago
    I trust that they would be willing to cede control of several aspects to Facebook for the sake of being involved and having some cut of the profit for fear of missing out. Unless all the contracts are public you have no idea what kind of backroom deals they have with different organizations. It may sound paranoid but that’s the level of trust many people feel Facebook deserves at this point in time.

crispyporkbites 7y ago

Actually in China they do track people and then round them up by forcing them to install apps on their phones (https://www.ibtimes.com/china-forces-muslims-install-anti-terrorist-surveillance-app-phones-2570495 https://www.ibtimes.com/china-forces-muslims-install-anti-te...) which is not that far from putting an RFID chip under their skin. If RFID chips were cheaper than install a phone app I’m sure they’d do that instead.

jay_kyburz 7y ago
What do they do if you don't have a phone? Serious question.