Facebook announces plans to launch Libra, a new cryptocurrency, and Calibra, a newly formed Facebook subsidiary to oversee financial services for Libra
The internet has changed nearly every aspect of our lives … Matt Levine / Bloomberg : Facebook Will Make the Money Now — Also cheating on tests and renting Buffett's house. Kari Paul / The Guardian : Libra: Facebook launches cryptocurrency in bid to shake up global finance Yogita Khatri / The Block : The 10 most important things you need to know about Facebook's new cryptocurrency, Libra Matt Stoller / New York Times : Facebook's Undemocratic Currency Siva Vaidhyanathan / The Guardian : Facebook's Libra launch will extend its global domination Bill Chappell / NPR : Facebook Unveils Libra Cryptocurrency, Sets Launch For 2020 David Meyer / Fortune : 4 Reasons to be Skeptical About Facebook's Libra Cryptocurrency Martine Paris / Fast Company : Facebook's cryptocurrency effort is about far more than Facebook Jon Fingas / Engadget : House chairwoman wants Facebook to pause work on its cryptocurrency Scott Rosenberg / Axios : Facebook's bid to make crypto safe for business Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post : The Technology 202: Big Tech's legal shield is increasingly in jeopardy with this Republican bill Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk : Facebook Has Yet to Answer US Lawmakers' Questions About Libra Crypto Christopher Spangler / ALTCOIN MAGAZINE : The Banks Are Cozying Up To Crypto, But Remain Distant Tejas Raut Dessai / The Startup : Why Facebook's Libra could be a runaway success Jared Peters / TalkAndroid.com : Would you trust Facebook to manage your digital wallet? Zaheer Merchant / MediaNama : Summary: Facebook's white paper on Libra cryptocurrency, blockchain, reserve and association Nick Kolakowski / Dice Insights : Facebook Libra Cryptocurrency Offers Possibility to Developers Matthew Willemsen / CryptoGlobe : Facebook Libra Cryptocurrency Unveiled; Yet Another Ban for U.S. Crypto Investors Daniel Phillips / SludgeFeed : Facebook (FB) Announces New Calibra Subsidiary and Libra Cryptocurrency Michael K. Spencer / FutureSin : Facebook's Libra White Paper Revelations Nakirfai Tobor / iAfrikan : Facebook's Libra currency set for 2020 Scott Bicheno / Telecoms.com : US politicians alarmed by Facebook's cryptocurrency masterplan Josh Constine / TechCrunch : The real risk of Facebook's Libra coin is crooked developers Janko Roettgers / Variety : Spotify: Facebook's Libra Cryptocurrency Will Help Subscription Services James Gelinas / Komando.com : What you need to know about Facebook's new digital currency Justin Ho / Marketplace : Facebook's new cryptocurrency prompts regulation concerns Rene Ritchie / iMore : Can you trust Libra, Facebook's crypto plan for world financial domination? Mike Orcutt / MIT Technology Review : Facebook's Libra: Three things we don't know about the digital currency Mathew Katz / Digital Trends : Congress already wants to block rollout of Facebook's cryptocurrency Tweets: Sherrod Brown / @sensherrodbrown : Facebook is already too big and too powerful, and it has used that power to exploit users' data without protecting their privacy. We cannot allow Facebook to run a risky new cryptocurrency out of a Swiss bank account without oversight. https://www.nytimes.com/... Charles Arthur / @charlesarthur : Tfw you realise that the Americans who designed Facebook's cryptocurrency live in a world where contactless payments basically aren't a thing https://twitter.com/... James Foust / @jtfoust : Libra and Taxes: I've seen some questions about this, and I've spent WAY too much time reading the tax code lately, so here's a short thread on the topic.In brief: Libra faces many of the same issues as Bitcoin and other cryptos. David Marcus / @davidmarcus : 1/ Hello, ≋ CZ Binance / @cz_binance : Facebook Libra coin don't need KYC. They have so much more data on the 2 billion people. Not just name, id, address, phone number. They know your family, friends, real-time/historic location, what you like... They know you more than yourself. And now your wallet too. Best AML! Andrew Yang / @andrewyang : The new Facebook-backed cryptocurrency Libra could be a big step for the hundreds of millions of unbanked around the world. It's use of the blockchain makes a lot of sense. Could even curb corruption as a lot of int'l aid money intended for impoverished people never reaches them. @harryslaststand : Facebook needs to be stopped before it subverts our democracies and economies. https://www.theguardian.com/ ... #Libra Jerry Brito / @jerrybrito : THREAD: Here are my thoughts on Libra. It is a permissioned but public blockchain. It's public because the Blockchain will be publicly verifiable and the application layer is open. So it's like a backed stablecoin, but with key differences. https://twitter.com/... Erik Voorhees / @erikvoorhees : 1/ Thoughts on Libra (and my first tweetstorm!): first, zoom out for a second and realize how far this industry has come. The biggest companies in the world are now launching cryptocurrencies. BOOM. Larry Cermak / @lawmaster : 1/ This is a massive announcement and a lot to unpack so let's do it in a concise thread. I wouldn't be surprised if the news is not reported well by non-crypto reporters. https://twitter.com/... Twitch.tv / @daftlimmy : My star sign is not your cryptocurrency. #Libra https://twitter.com/... @fortunemagazine : The new digital currency will roll out first on Messenger and WhatsApp. http://fortune.com/... Jill Carlson / @_jillruth : If Libra is successful out of the gate, will there be incentive to further decentralize it? Jill Carlson / @_jillruth : Just like Libra, these blockchain projects got major press. They raised hundreds of millions. Their success felt written in the stars. But things fall apart. The centre cannot hold. Not where there's regulatory uncertainty, human infighting, & the challenge of consensus-building. Ran NeuNer / @cryptomanran : Unpopular truth (here); The majority of the world prefer a centralized stable coin that they can use on 3 of the most popular apps they use everyday with no fees over a decentralized, scarce , appreciating, digital store of value. Davide ‘Folletto’ Casali / @folletto : Facebook is trying to become a global super-state by adding a judicial system, and a currency. Companies are already micro-countries in a way, Facebook seems on the way of moving from below countries to above countries. Passport next? In the end, everything is just a treaty. https://twitter.com/... JW Mason / @jwmason1 : This from @matt_levine is exactly how I tell my students to think about money. I think I'll add this to my teaching materials. https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/... Brian Fung / @b_fung : “I imagine the widespread adoption of a digital currency on an aggressively centralized and privately surveilled blockchain tied to real-name ID is not really what the bitcoin faithful had in mind when they got into cryptocurrency in the first place.” http://nymag.com/... Jill Carlson / @_jillruth : For anyone who has been following the crypto / blockchain space, a lot of Libra looks pretty familiar. Account Model & Gas Fees of ETH 🤝 Consortium of R3 Dual Asset Model of DAI 💰 Collateralization of Basis 😈 BFT Consensus similar to Cosmos Swiss Foundation like Tezos Martin Köppelmann / @koeppelmann : I will not be one of those voices underestimating Libra. I see it as a big competitor for Ethereum. However, for blockchains like Ripple or EOS that have chosen to trade in decentraliztion for some other benefits I see almost no chance to compete. Max Read / @max_read : one other thing to note about facebook and libra is that the last 10 years have made it incredibly, excessively clear, how much power lies in currency and monetary authority. trump and the left have both noticed this. im sure facebook has too! http://nymag.com/... Michael Arrington / @arrington : The true opinion of most of my investor friends about Facebook Libra is that they hate it. Because they weren't able to invest in it. Tony Romm / @tonyromm : Top GOPer on House Financial Services Cmte, Rep. McHenry, asking for panel to hold hearing on FB's Libra, citing “many open questions as to the scope and scale of the project and how it will conform to our global financial regulatory framework” Spencer Chen / @spencerchen : Don't get why the crypto community shitting on Facebook and Libra. It's probably the mainstream kickstart + broad adoption blockchain needs. You ever see any pure plays get this kind of groundswell? -> https://www.techmeme.com/... Erik Voorhees / @erikvoorhees : 2/ I know, I know, “it's not a cryptocurrency!!!” some will yell. Well, yes and no. Relative to PayPal or to the US dollar, Libra is very much a cryptocurrency. Relative to Bitcoin or ZCash or DAI, Libra is not all that crypto-y. Nick Confessore / @nickconfessore : If there's one thing Facebook knows, it's how to run a stable global system where they totally understand what they've built and are on top of everything. https://twitter.com/... Atul Acharya / @atulacharya : Fascinating meta-tea-leaves reading moment, looking at people's reactions to FB's #Libra: Self segmenting into: - libertarians - crypto lovers +scammers - tech utopians - believers - skeptics - deep skeptics https://www.techmeme.com/... Lewis Cohen / @nycryptolawyer : 1/ There is quite a lot to digest around #LibraCoin. Much of the discussion so far has focused on the technology elements and the legal and regulatory and framework. I am more intrigued by the underlying economics. https://twitter.com/... Susan Fowler / @susanthesquark : we can't keep live-streamed shootings off our video platform, but here's a global currency! Kevin Weil / @kevinweil : So excited to share what I've been working on for the last year! It's been the most challenging, interesting, and inspiring thing I've ever been a part of. Today is not a launch, but an announcement, and an invitation for the community to participate. Robert McMillan / @bobmcmillan : FT"s take on Facebook's Libra coin: A “brazen attempt to override national monetary sovereignty by creating a global-scale Federal Reserve equivalent... veiled by the cunning use of buzzwords like blockchain, DLT, decentralisation and cryptocurrency.” https://ftalphaville.ft.com/ ... Kurt Wagner / @kurtwagner8 : Facebook finally pulled back the curtain on its crypto plans, and now officially wants to creat a new global currency called Libra. It's also building new digital wallets into WhatsApp and Messenger so you can make payments. Here are the details: https://www.bloomberg.com/... David Barnard / @drbarnard : Facebook has built themselves quite a henhouse, and assembled a nice group of foxes to help them watch over it. I genuinely hope they can pull it off, but it's going to take a lot to earn my trust. https://twitter.com/... Mahendra Palsule / @scepticgeek : 5% of my Twitter feed: Facebook's Libra is a super ambitious project that will help bring crypto to the mainstream and bring tremendous benefits and financial freedom to users around the globe. 15%: Let's wait and see. 80%: Facebook and money? #kthxbai https://twitter.com/... Ernie Smith / @shortformernie : New from the company that recklessly gambled with your privacy: An attempt to recklessly gamble with your money. https://www.nytimes.com/... Daniel Munro / @dk_munro : Facebook Board Meeting: “We're one of the least trusted, most scandal-plagued companies in the world. What should our next move be?” “Launch our own currency.” https://twitter.com/... Reshma Saujani / @reshmasaujani : With Facebook (among other tech giants like eBay, Spotify) entering the financial world with #Libra, improving diversity in tech is no longer a want but a necessity. The people who aren't represented in these rooms will be harmed in the long term. We need our girls and minorities https://twitter.com/... A West / @ayyy_west : Gonna lose your whole bank account when FB has another “minor security breach” https://twitter.com/... @semil : .@nickgrossman on Libra, if it works, could lead to “self-sovereign digital identities (private keys) that are the underpinnings of user-controlled privacy and control of data."(key paragraphs screenshot)https://avc.com/... https://twitter.com/... Alex Howard / @digiphile : Libra is a new cryptocurrency managed by an independent foundation:https://www.theverge.com/ ...Calibra will be a new @Facebook digital wallet that will enable payments & money transfers - like China's WeChat. As @sivavaid notes, pay attention to that angle: https://www.theguardian.com/ ... Alex Hern / @alexhern : I don't understand how Libra can claim to target the unbanked while offering absolutely no clarity as to how people will get on the system in the first place @semil : Most crypto projects & startups build tech & applications, and then tried (or are trying to) build a network around it. Libra (& TON) by contrast are currencies developed by large incumbents who already have a massive network built. It will be fascinating to see what unfolds. Ryan Avent / @ryanavent : Facebook's Libra seems like a sixteen kinds of disaster waiting to happen, but I have to say I am looking forward to watching Zuck try to defend a currency peg against speculative attack. Nilay Patel / @reckless : Clearly the best way for Facebook to help poor people without access to banks is to place executives in Switzerland with money from Visa and Mastercard https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/... Mike Dudas / @mdudas : “We believe Libra has the potential to be the catalyst that brings the entire cryptocurrency and cryptoasset market into the mainstream.” ~ @nickgrossman on @usv's participation https://www.usv.com/... https://twitter.com/... Josh Elman / @joshelman : Libra is one of the most impressive big company initiatives I've seen in a while. Bold. Forward thinking. Open source. Commitment of distribution across billions. Will see if they can get over the trust line and become truly open Anil Dash / @anildash : Well, they've certainly earned our trust enough to be worth betting the stability of global financial systems on their judgment. https://www.nytimes.com/... CZ Binance / @cz_binance : Binance Research Report - First Look: Libra - An in-depth review of Facebook's long-anticipated entry into cryptocurrency https://info.binance.com/... See also Mediagazer