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Technology aside, from a market/marketing perspective, this article puts it in terms of "practical" (they call them stable coins) vs. counter culture. They are also "backed". For lack of better term, its attempt to bring crypto into the mainstream.

https://www.axios.com/facebook-cryptocu ... 8074a.html

Bitcoin is NWA. Libra is The Fresh Prince i.e. monetization by milquetoasting. Making things comfortable for the wedding crowd so to speak. The currency equivalent of tipsy mothers feeling comfortable enough to stay on the dance floor when "Bust A Move"comes on.

From what I've heard on cryptotwitter, it's a stable coin that is backed by a basket of fiat currencies. Hayek had this idea of a private issued basket currency and I think it's interesting from that standpoint, but I'm not interested in using it because I don't see a reason to trust Facebook with my money any more than I trust them with my data.

The primary target demographic is the "unbanked" specifically in India and China.

https://gizmodo.com/all-the-big-questio ... 1835616615

Tyler Cowen asked a bunch of questions....
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginal ... ments.html

and Libra's chief economist responded....
https://twitter.com/ccatalini/status/11 ... 0486811649

If nothing else this probably spells the end of the napster/bittorrent phase of cryptocurrencies.

This will increase thé cost of disagreing with zuckerberg on politics.

"Libra raises serious concerns regarding privacy, money laundering, consumer protection, financial stability," Powell said at a congressional committee Wednesday. "These are concerns that should be thoroughly and publicly addressed."

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/07/11/bit ... ments.html

Looks like the central bankers feel threatened. Facebook might steal their mojo.

Must admit that some of these central bank statements would be ripe for a parody in the The Onion.

"From the archive: New so-called central bank proposes money made of paper. Raises serious concerns of forgery, financial stability, and government manipulation."

Today Blockstack announced that their crypto token offering is the first every to receive SEC qualification.

https://blog.blockstack.org/blockstack- ... qualified/

The technology has the potential to change the internet as we know it.

I have no clue about any of this stuff. But its the internet. So let me state my opinion.

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny ... story.html

The story is about a college being hacked and the ransom being demanded in Bitcoin. If I was a hacker, I would probably do the same. Because I'm thinking the occupation and exposure to the currency go hand in hand.

My thought is that the use of crypto is similar to the dawn of internet banking when it required a transition of the general population to become comfortable with the concept of conducting financial transaction on-line. Now there is a large part of the population who is now banking that never didn't do it on-line. The same evolution will happen with crypto.

I believe crypto has to work itself out of the dark ages into the Renaissance period and it can't be done with Bitcoin because for better or worse, its stigmatized. It's associated with illegal activity and mystery. But after some political sword fighting, kids will be asking their parents for more Libra in order that they can continue to play they on line video games or whatever kids do these days that parents are willing to provide them money with so the parents can get back to posting pictures of their dinner on Facebook.

Koinex, Coinome, Zebpay,.. all Indian cryptocurrency exchanges closed shop by the end of the previous month. It's impossible to trade/hold unless you have transfered them to an international exchange.

We have such a large unbanked population not because we lack financial technology or banking institutions- but because we're living a hand to mouth existence. We have the highest number of zero balance accounts.

Even if Libra gets past the regulatory hurdles- fb's Free basics didn't- it would be difficult finding an audience, especially in the stated target market.

It will most likely come as a mandatory update to whatsapp for business where merchants can accept payments but catch being only through their Libra currency. A step closer towards an all in one app like China's wechat. As, for China try getting whatsapp & co unbanned first before enacting your evil schemes.

"Facebook Libra’s 'virtual currency' will have little standing or dependability.," Trump tweeted. "If Facebook and other companies want to become a bank, they must seek a new Banking Charter and become subject to all Banking Regulations, just like other Banks."

https://news.google.com/articles/CBMiam ... id=US%3Aen



Now Trump is getting in on the crypto bashing. I wonder if we're going to start regulating them.

Now that he was finally convinced Trumpcoin wasn't in the cards.

Jason wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:27 pm

Now that he was finally convinced Trumpcoin wasn't in the cards.

Marketing may have told him that putting his ugly face on a virtual coin is a bad idea, but he still holds out hope to be put on the 20,000 dollar bill.

Cryptocurrencies seem to be splitting into three subcategories:

-Permissionless public blockchains (Bitcoin and such)
-Permissioned corporate blockchains (Libra)
-Government blockchains (cash replacement? see link)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... to-release?

Also, note how Hong Kongers are now using peer-to-peer platforms like those in Venezuela, Turkey and especially Argentina to circumvent currency controls.

https://cointelegraph.com/explained/p2p ... -explained

Bitcoin flirting with $3800. Down 50% on the day.

I guess people aren’t HODLing any longer.

I must confess I had some schadenfreude watching crypto youtubers today, owning mostly stone, wood, gold, and brass.

With the disclaimer that I'm not long term bullish on Bitcoin, it has proven very resilient. If it dropped some more (it's printing $5,100 for me at the moment) I'd be tempted to buy in again. I think it's still got life in it, and will continue its record of dramatic falls and spikes for a while yet. I'd sell out if it went below $3k but I would bet it will still breach $7k if you wait a while.

That said, and again, given I'm not long term confident in it, I'd not bet with a serious percentage of my money, just small change. And I find it actually a bit of a hassle to transact in btc, as a noob to the ecosystem, it's not nearly as frictionless as its advocates make out.

I would definitely be VEEEEERY careful out there.
See this tweetstorm:
https://twitter.com/haralabob/status/12 ... 31842?s=21
FYI Bob Voulgaris is a legendary sports bettor who made tons of money on the NBA by being years ahead in looking at advance metrics (he had his own proprietary model).
He now works for the Mavs and has a crypto trading operation.
He knows his thing.

Seppia, if your twitter dude is right, the exchange actually did WELL. They enacted breakers and let the price rebound. I think anyone who puts their money into BTC is aware that (1) it has no intrinsic value and thus it very well may go to zero and (2) that it is volatile like whoa and swings can be wild. I don't personally trade BTC, but people recommend that it be a small % of your portfolio for a reason.

It was interesting to see how it behaves in a crisis - so far, it seems to have followed the gold playbook which makes sense. To be honest, what worries me about BTC isn't that it can go to zero or even days like today. BTC people like to tell you they're being very rebellious when they use it and that it is outside the mainstream financial system. Sadly, it is not. A government may not be able to prevent me from using BTC to trade with another individual, but they may outlaw banks from interfacing with BTC. This is what China did when it realized that BTC is one of the ways people were getting money out of china, circumventing capital controls. If you can't interface between btc and a currency which you can use as legal tender, the usability of btc, be it as a store of value, medium of exchange, or speculative instrument goes down drastically. Imo this is where most people's btc rude awakening will come from.