This might be the most graceful article I've read from my crypto-news pool. To be fair, I would say the bar is set pretty low regarding quality of writing in the cryptosphere.
It just happens to be about Facebook and project Libra. There is a lot to unpack here but it makes a lot of great points.
Given how slowly Washington lawmakers have taken to devise a coherent, informed view of cryptocurrency...
LOL, apparently they don't even know how ad revenue works.
How on Earth could they possibly understand crypto?
... the Chair of the House Financial Services Committee’s rapid leap to action last week over Facebook’s ambitious Libra project was remarkably fast.
AKA central banking is terrified of the idea of Libra.
When there’s someone in charge, an interested party – a policymaker, a banker, a regulator, a shareholder – can lean on them to make changes.
Which is why Libra is going to incorporate decentralized tactics to protect itself.
Let’s be clear: Libra’s designers have thought deeply about how to protect their project from Facebook itself, both in a real sense and that of public perception. In its commitment to decentralization, the team has put the code under an open-source license, handed the network’s governance authority to a separate Swiss-based foundation, brought in 27 external partners to work alongside Facebook as independent, permissioned nodes in the network, and verbally committed to transition to a permissionless model over time. There is a structure and roadmap in place for Libra to grow and survive regardless of its genesis as a Facebook project.
Now imagine 100 "Mangers" (corporations) get together and create their own "decentralized" "blockchain". That's what Libra is. This is why when people like us look at Libra we see a centralized pile of shit. However, from a corporate point-of-view, it will be quite decentralized.
The elephant in the room is that a drumbeat of recent news has revealed Facebook’s corporate culture to be profoundly toxic. The company’s model of surveillance capitalism has turned users into pawns in a global game of data manipulation, cultivated echo chambers of narrow-mindedness, done irreparable harm to the worthy cause of journalism, and deeply undermined our democracy.
This is very much the crux of the issue concerning public perception around the Libra project. No one trusts Facebook anymore. Therefore, if Facebook makes a cryptocurrency, all of that distrust is wrongfully projected onto team Libra.
Libra is potentially the first shot fired in a shadow war to control currency. The tech companies (and friends) are all banding together to completely disrupt central banking. Facebook literally can't do it alone. They are going to have to step back and hide behind the shield of decentralized power structures in order to progress forward.
All of a sudden, regulators won't be faced with just trying to control Zuckerberg (which is clearly what they want because that would be easy). They are going to be faced with trying to control an amalgam of a hundred incredibly powerful corporations all on team Libra. It's my opinion that regulators do not stand a chance in hell of stopping themselves from getting full on steamrolled by this association.
We should support Libra, not Facebook
Notwithstanding all the above, I actually want Libra to succeed. (Note: I also want Facebook to die. That’s not a contradiction; those two outcomes can and should be separate. In fact, it’s the nub of the issue.)
And let’s face it, bitcoin has dismally failed to live up to its advocates’ promises of a financial inclusion solution. Bitcoin’s and other cryptocurrencies’ impact on the $800 billion global remittances market is puny.
Sure, uptake could rise if the off-chain Lightning Network lives up to its promise to enable larger-scale transaction-processing, if stablecoin projects resolve bitcoin’s volatility problem, and if new encryption solutions can improve both security and user experience with crypto wallets. But these solutions will take time. We need to act now.
The subtext of both Waters’ statements and those of European lawmakers was that this private exchange system can’t be allowed to replace national currencies. Thats’ not what Libra intends, but the perception that it is undermining nation states’ sovereignty over money could stoke fears and lead to a ban on Libra. And if that happens, it sets an ugly precedent for or all other competing ideas, whether it’s USDC, GUSD, PAX or DAI or something else.
The bottom line: the Libra team has its work cut out, and we all have a lot riding on it. The project’s representatives must face the reality that, for now at least, the buck still stops with Zuck, and that regulators will use that against them.
And here's where the opinion of the author and myself diverge. I don't really think it will be possible to ban Libra, and I also think it will completely disrupt fiat currency (eventually). This Goliath project has way way too much money and power behind it to be stopped.
The Government:
Whoa whoa whoa there Facebook.
Would you halt development so we can talk about this?
Libra:
lol. no.
This entire situation seems somewhat laughable to me. Regulators are showing a very weak hand by asking for more time like that. Of course Libra wouldn't stop development. Why would they? They'll either have a product that will go to market or they won't. Why would they ever slow down development? In what universe is that the correct action to perform? Regulators make themselves appear extremely weak and afraid just by asking the question.
When it really comes down to it, governments are the slowest organizations to react and evolve accordingly on the planet, second only to religion. Get ready for the fireworks as the corporate world outmaneuvers these central banking regulators at every turn.
OMG guys, where is Amazon on this list?
Why doesn't Amazon want to be a part of Libra?
Isn't it obvious?
https://steemit.com/capitalism/@edicted/amazon-s-new-cryptocurrency
https://steemit.com/news/@edicted/amazon-and-cisco-file-blockchain-patents
https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@edicted/amazon-buys-cryptocurrency-domains
I've been predicting this for over a year and a half now. Amazon is working on their own cryptocurrency in COMPLETE secrecy. One day they are just going to be like:
Hey guys! Look what we made.
And dump a fully functioning crypto into the market that no one saw coming. If we're being honest, then the likelihood of this project being superior to Libra is quite high. Amazon knows what they are doing.
Not only that, the community that Amazon is targeting is way more profitable than Libra's. Amazon already has a built in customer base of users who are already constantly buying things from Amazon.com. Libra's goals are much less focused. Combine that with the fact that the general population currently trusts Amazon a lot more than Facebook.
In fact, they are probably high-fiving each other right now because they get to capitalize on Libra spending all that money and manpower to manipulate the law such that it will almost certainly be in Amazon's favor.
Unless of course you get ahead of the game.
Win the Race to the Bottom by starting at the bottom and supporting an actual decentralized project before this all goes down.
The overwhelming consensus out there is a misconception that Libra is Facebook and will be 100% controlled by Zuckerberg. This is completely inaccurate. Libra is positioning itself under the control of practically the entire corporate world in a "decentralized" manner.
A game of smoke and mirrors is about to begin. Zuckerberg is going to run point and make regulators think that he is the person to talk to and apply pressure to. Once they think they have him right where they want him he will retreat back into the ranks of all the sponsors of Libra.
Oh sorry, I don't control that. Facebook only created the open source code that allows that to happen. It's actually Visa that's using that functionality. Go talk to them.
Oh right... that feature. Actually Uber is the company using that one. We have no control over it.
Sorry, that's Ebay's thing, go talk to them about it.
And so on and so on and so on.
Regulators will NEVER be able to keep up, especially considering how much money is going to be thrown at lobbyists into manipulating the very foundation of the law.
By the time the dust settles regulators will be so flabbergasted they won't even know which direction is up.
