from Hacker News

Facebook Cryptocurrency Plan Faces Opposition in France

by velcro on 6/18/19, 12:58 PM with 132 comments

• by orbifold on 6/18/19, 5:42 PM

  There is basically no way that a self respecting first world country will allow this to happen. The national federal reserves in Europe are still responsible for international settlements, that gives a tremendous amount of power and oversight, they won’t allow a third party to take that away from them.

  Facebook may be able to buy off US regulators, but they won’t be able to convince the EU.

• by kumarvvr on 6/19/19, 2:34 AM

  Facebook has already wreaked havoc with it's power, it has shown how deceptive it is, it has resisted regulation, it's chief executives have refused to testify to governments.

  Now them having a cryptocurrency is alarming. Why does it really need to do this? There is nothing anonymous about facebook. Whatever transaction is done, will be linked to your account.

  This is dangerous.

  Whether they start or not is irrelevant, as informed users, we must spread word in our circle to avoid such cryptocurrency like the plague.

  It will no longer be sufficient to try to prevent FB from going ahead with this plan, because they will, if not now, after a few months or years from now. The only thing that will prevent this from wreaking havoc in the world is to spread awareness of how bad this is and how much more power it will give to FB.

• by Despegar on 6/18/19, 4:43 PM

  Haven't read any of the news about how this currency is supposed to work, but if it lets anyone bypass the SWIFT system then the US should probably ban it too. Being able to sanction anyone is a powerful tool to give up to Facebook of all companies.

• by tootahe45 on 6/19/19, 9:10 AM

  >Parity with this basket of currencies will be reached via a redemption mechanism similar to other stablecoins such as Tether

  So.. no reliable way to actually get your monopoly money into USD? at least they don't falsely claim to have the USD sitting in a bank, that's a start i guess.

• by lowdose on 6/18/19, 8:39 PM

  Is Facebook establishing a new layer of network effects by implemention of this plan?

• by atarian on 6/18/19, 9:06 PM

  Facebook is going to great lengths to stress how little they own, but I think the point is moot; even this article is calling it a Facebook token.

• by tareqak on 6/18/19, 10:42 PM

  Not just France: https://apnews.com/d9f3a3ef897e4db2a637b6c5e59a3d54 (Lawmaker wants Facebook to suspend currency plan).

• by cwperkins on 6/19/19, 12:49 AM

  Its quite telling that the promo video only shows people from countries with a substantial unbanked population. I do think that getting these people banked is safer and more secure for them (mitigates risk of being robbed) and enables a more vibrant economy (more lending because of deposits), but why should Facebook be the entity behind this?

  I am a cautiously optimistic person, but this is giving me the jeepers. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it doesn't feel right.

• by js4ever on 6/18/19, 7:47 PM

  What France really want is to tax it (even before it exist)

• by m3kw9 on 6/18/19, 11:03 PM

  It just seems to be FB is trying to pull a fast one and it already knows everyone saw it coming before it even moved.

• by Entwickler on 6/19/19, 11:35 AM

  I would say it's meeting some opposition in the USA as well, starting with the chair of the House Financial Services Committee. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/18/rep-maxine-waters-facebook-s...

• by gexla on 6/19/19, 2:18 AM

  > When people are asked why they remain on the fringe of the existing financial system, those who remain “unbanked” point to not having sufficient funds, high and unpredictable fees, banks being too far away, and lacking the necessary documentation.

  Unfortunately the reality of being "unbanked" is that government regulations will still put up a barrier. KYC laws require "necessary documentation" which these big providers won't be able to get past. Local options may still be better in these cases.

  For example, people who were born stateless may not be able to easily acquire KYC documentation. They may not have documentation of being born. Being locked out of ID options puts a limitation on getting past KYC.

  In the Philippines, there are mobile options where you can deal with small amounts of money without having to verify your identity. These options are run by the major telco's here.

• by tasssko on 6/19/19, 7:34 AM

  This is all a game. Bitcoin and other coins are currently available for use by anyone. Their value is decided on network effects or supply/ demand. It's not regulated and can facilitate global transactions (I.e if you have patience and time). For some people it's working well. What we will probably discover is as long as Bitcoin is difficult to use and targets people with niche requirements the government will look the other away. As soon as someone wants to make this easier well things change. Libra was a very convincing sell to me. The challenge with bitcoin is the volatility potential. Libra might convince more people to think of Bitcoin more.

• by chris_wot on 6/19/19, 1:26 AM

  I cannot understand why you would want to use Facebook's "currency". I'd just use what we currently have.

• by aurelienb on 6/19/19, 11:40 AM

  The future is already there. It's just not evenly distributed. So Shadowrun/Cyberpunk 2020-2077.

  They only lack of the extra-territoriality for their offices :)

• by colechristensen on 6/19/19, 1:08 AM

  >

• by stlava on 6/18/19, 9:45 PM

  That didn't take long...

• by ei8htyfi5e on 6/19/19, 12:25 AM

  I put this in another thread but I've been shouting it far and wide today.

  I've lived in China and seen how this plays out. Facebook's new Libra Blockchain will be a centralized bank but way more dangerous.

  It will allow for a worldwide social credit system. If Facebook decides to remove you for wrong speak or wrong think, your money and many services will be inaccessible.

  Further, they have no mandate like the central bank does to increase employment. Their mandate is to make money for corporations. This will lead to global social unrest.

  This will put some third-world countries in complete control by Facebook. I mean, whoever runs the currency, is the country. But in this case, it will be completely controlled, as it's also many of those countries main source of communication. Therefore, if Facebook's Libra is a countries main currency and social network, that country will be owned by Facebook.

  Finally, the regulations on crypto and blockchain are still new. This is in Facebook's advantage as they can start lobbying to have these laws in their favor. They can argue for less transparency, as they are a bank, and this fits with their new privacy marketing message.

  This is extremely subversive and Europe is already rightly pushing back. America will be next. On one hand, I love seeing the existing financial system panic when new technology comes out. On the other hand, under no circumstances will I accept a world where Facebook started the one world currency.

• by _bxg1 on 6/18/19, 6:11 PM

  Adding further support to my view that in today's world, (mainland) Europe is civilization's last hope.

• by negamax on 6/18/19, 9:53 PM

  When I first heard about FB's crypto plans, I got excited and concluded that it will be a success because of FB's user base. Now that I know better. Libra is set for failure. People will reject it indeed

• by dash2 on 6/18/19, 7:59 PM

  "Faces opposition in France" is the new https://www.reddit.com/r/RussiaDenies/

• by ilaksh on 6/18/19, 6:33 PM

  They are going to get the regulators in their pocket and play ball with them. They will filter all transactions requested and provide a convenient place for governments to go for information or control.

  Its a way for companies to capitalize on the cryptocurrency hype, without, ultimately, acting like a real cryptocurrency. Its going to be a giant bank that has government law enforcement and intelligence agencies as its clients and patrons.

  This is sponsored by Visa and others. They are co-opting "cryptocurrency" for their own purposes. The goal is for this to become mainstream before real cryptocurrencies and take over before they can really get going for mainstream payments.

  I filed a bug report. https://github.com/libra/libra/issues/41