
Facebook called before Senate panel over digital currency project - tareqak
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-crypto-senate/senate-panel-to-examine-facebook-digital-currency-project-idUSKCN1TK2SX
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lazulicurio
I'm writing my representatives about Libra, and I would urge others to do the
same. I think that it's an incredibly bad idea, even if you take Facebook out
of the picture. A supra-national currency controlled by a consortium of
private companies? Hell no, no matter what "safeties" you build into the
governing association.

Privately-issued currencies are a thing, but they tend to be localized, making
Libra qualitatively different. And Libra is in no way comparable to payment
processors, because those companies don't control the underlying value of the
scrip.

The USG is by no means perfect, but I'd rather stick with the Fed than give
the Libra association control over the world's currencies.

Edit: Imagine how incongruous the phrase "consumers can vote with their
wallets" becomes when their wallets are owned by private companies.

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mac01021
I share your concerns, but in a rather vague way. I struggle to describe
concretely any undesirable scenarios likely to follow from the rise of Libra.

I fear this limits my ability to influence legislators it anyone else when it
comes to this issue.

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lazulicurio
From my perspective, the undesirable scenario would be Libra supplanting
Government-issued currencies. As I added in my edit, the idea that companies
are moderated by consumer choice breaks down when the companies control the
means of transaction. Company towns with company currency used to be a thing,
and not a good thing.

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londons_explore
Facebook are fools for announcing the product so early.

If the product was already released and loved my millions of voters, the
government would be far more limited in their ability to shut it down.

They should have done a simultaneous 'announce and launch'.

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neilv
Quoting the article:

> _In May, the leaders of the Senate Banking Committee wrote to Facebook
> seeking information on rumors of its cryptocurrency project, and how it
> would protect consumer information._

Perhaps Facebook rushed an announcement _because of_ the government inquiry.

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londons_explore
Presumably Facebook could just reply with "our engineers are always trying out
new ideas, but until they're announced, no detail is final, and we don't
discuss possible future projects externally"

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pjc50
> we don't discuss possible future projects externally

There's a limit to how much you can "no comment" your way through a
congressional hearing; it would be obvious that this meant that Facebook
_were_ working on such a thing, and would increase the likelihood of it
getting pre-emptively banned.

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ForHackernews
It'd be ironic if this dumb project was the last straw that triggered
regulators finally getting tough with Facebook. Talk about killing the goose
that lays the golden eggs!

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gouh
So basically like Ecoin from Mr.Robot, what could go wrong

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g00s3_caLL_x2
Well for starters, I don't get my free shake now...I get it on my _next_
visit....

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Apocryphon
That was a fast one

