They plan to “market it aggressively in developing nations”. Western companies extracting rent from the global south: this is colonialism by another name.
Did the people who live in those countries ask Mark Zuckerberg et al to come replace their national currencies with one which allows Mark et al to control how they’re allowed to use their money?
If so then maybe this would be an ok argument, but this is a massive change to people’s lives that’s being forced upon them without the slightest consultation, and which will almost certainly be used to control and surveil them for Facebook’s benefit.
> but this is a massive change to people’s lives that’s being forced upon them without the slightest consultation
I can't tell if this is satire. Who's forcing them to do anything? What even is your point here: people shouldn't do things in other countries? Who's even talking about replacing their national currency?
Or, to put how ridiculous that is another way:
> Did the people who live in those countries ask Brian Acton et al to come and replace their national post with one which allows Brian et all to control who they're allowed to message?
Oh, these anonymous sources which are proven to be highly reliable like... never?
> replace national currencies
They can have a strategy but that does not mean they are able to execute on it. Plus, by the time they get to a point where they endanger a local currency they would probably get a national ban in such countries. I mean what would you expect anything else?
It is not about solving country wide problems, rather helping individuals have a currency they can trust to store value. If your life savings go to the drain because of inflation or other factors that is a highly desirable option to have. Also, most countries with currency issues usually accept the dollar for commerce whenever they can, if not forbidden, since it is a lot more reliable than their local option.
Sure, but again, no cryptocurrency can do that. The last thing people in Venezuela need is a payment method that takes 20 minutes to process, caps at 7 tx/s, and can't handle a refund or chargeback. What they really need is a basic monetary policy.
If the actual, genuine goal is to solve the problem of lack of viable currency in these nations, then the best solution is to solve the cause, not the symptom. Right now your goal is trying to find a nail for a hammer that doesn't have any, and you're trying to shoehorn vaporware onto a symptom when that's not what the people really need.
It would only be exploitive if it didn't come about as a result of consumers freely choosing in the market. Since that's not the case, the criticism is unfounded.
