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What does this have to do with Libra? I bet most Americans are in favor of stopping Libra; aka Facebook's private currency. Central banking is a huge part of i

What does this have to do with Libra? I bet most Americans are in favor of stopping Libra; aka Facebook's private currency. Central banking is a huge part of international economic policy and stability. There's a reason private money was outlawed in the 1900s.

caruana 7y ago
> There's a reason private money was outlawed in the 1900s. And the reason is probably a bit more nuanced than this sentence projects. Furthermore, reasoning in the 1900s should not be used to justify government monopoly on money in 2019.
- Vervious 7y ago
  Fair. I guess the 2008 financial crisis is an elephant in the room, for instance, revealing flaws in our current economic approach. But that is a very different conversation, I think, for a very different audience. Sometimes, being in the cryptocurrency industry, it feels like a shouting match between people who have never studied economics or distributed systems or cryptography.
vageli 7y ago
> What does this have to do with Libra? I bet most Americans are in favor of stopping Libra; aka Facebook's private currency. > Central banking is a huge part of international economic policy and stability. There's a reason private money was outlawed in the 1900s. Private currencies seem to be legal so long as they aren't viewed by the government to be a method of avoiding taxes. Can you point me to some more information about this? Everything I've read seems to point to private currencies being legal in the United States at least (aside, I am aware of the liberty dollar case in the US. The government's angle was that it too closely resembled US currency iirc).
- Vervious 7y ago
  Yes, you are right that they are legal, I misremembered. Good catch. The spirit of my comment shouldn't change though, if I instead refer to the establishment of a U.S. dollar. That being said, the fact that you have to pay rent with legal tender in states like CA goes a long way in regulating private currencies.

caruana 7y ago

> There's a reason private money was outlawed in the 1900s. And the reason is probably a bit more nuanced than this sentence projects. Furthermore, reasoning in the 1900s should not be used to justify government monopoly on money in 2019.

Vervious 7y ago
Fair. I guess the 2008 financial crisis is an elephant in the room, for instance, revealing flaws in our current economic approach. But that is a very different conversation, I think, for a very different audience. Sometimes, being in the cryptocurrency industry, it feels like a shouting match between people who have never studied economics or distributed systems or cryptography.

vageli 7y ago

> What does this have to do with Libra? I bet most Americans are in favor of stopping Libra; aka Facebook's private currency. > Central banking is a huge part of international economic policy and stability. There's a reason private money was outlawed in the 1900s. Private currencies seem to be legal so long as they aren't viewed by the government to be a method of avoiding taxes. Can you point me to some more information about this? Everything I've read seems to point to private currencies being legal in the United States at least (aside, I am aware of the liberty dollar case in the US. The government's angle was that it too closely resembled US currency iirc).

Vervious 7y ago
Yes, you are right that they are legal, I misremembered. Good catch. The spirit of my comment shouldn't change though, if I instead refer to the establishment of a U.S. dollar. That being said, the fact that you have to pay rent with legal tender in states like CA goes a long way in regulating private currencies.