Name: Insights: Financial Pros Weigh In on Facebook's Libra
Uploaded: 2020-02-25
Duration: 3 min 13 s
Description: What exactly is the social network trying to do with a digital currency?

 JEFF ROBERTS: Facebook Libra, we've had people on stage can't come. And I'm sure you guys have some opinions. Let's go into it. Is it going to work? Chairman, you want to start? JEREMY ALLAIRE: Sure. I think you have to kind of break it down into a couple of pieces. So one is-- as a kind of third-generation blockchain, how does it compare to other third-generation blockchains, like the next versions of Ethereum, or new platforms like Cosmos, or Algorand? There's a lot of competition in that space. I think, broadly, the crypto ecosystem is interested in permission-less platforms that allow anyone in the world to participate, any developer to participate, to build things. And so there's a real question I think of whether a model like this can really encourage that level of open collaboration. So I think that's one question. And I think the overview that has been published by the Libra Association is aspirational with respect to that. But it's also very clear that this is going to be pretty tightly managed, pretty tightly controlled, pretty tightly scoped. And I'm not convinced in the short term that that's going to be attractive to developers. AMBER BALDET: I think in order to figure out if it is going to be successful, we would really need to understand what the ultimate goal was. And it's not entirely clear to me whether they're attempting to compete in the cashless payments space or in the public cryptocurrency space, which are really two very different things. I think something that is relatively assured if we look at the-- their other pushes to provide say subsidized internet access in emerging economies that if you were to tie that to something like a payment rail that you get all that kind of primary payments data, married to a social graph, that's very powerful. And so we shouldn't forget about the underlying data play there. JEREMY ALLAIRE: If you look at what Tencent has done in China with 700 million, 800 million people, they've revolutionized the way the economic interaction happens. You can imagine what that looks like on a global scale. I think the other, though, is a deeper issue. And this gets to Zuck's recent speech about privacy, which is this issue with centralization on the internet that internet companies-- certain internet companies are perceived to have too much power that they aggregate too much customer data. And there's this desire to shift more to a decentralized architecture. And I actually think this is a little bit like Bill Gates in 1995 saying, "we're going all-in on the open internet and betting on the open roads--" if you remember the essay from Bill Gates. And I think that this is a little bit of Zuck doing the same thing saying, we're betting on decentralization. If you read the Libra paper closely, you'll see it's aspirational to build identity protocol layers for self-sovereign identity, for the ability for individuals to control their own data. And you can imagine how that could interact with messaging platforms, financial platforms, other things. That's much more aspirational, I think. Payments is an initial use case. But the much more decentralized private way to exchange information is ultimately, I think, the end goal. 

Insights: Financial Pros Weigh In on Facebook's Libra

Uncategorized

What are they trying to do with a digital currency?

Financial Pros Weigh In on Facebook's Libra

What exactly is the social network trying to do with a digital currency?

Facebook liberal. We've had people on stage, can't calm. And I'm sure you guys have some opinions. Let's go into it isn't gonna work. Jeremy will start. Sure. You know, I think you have to kind of break it down in a couple of pieces. One is, you know, as a kind of third generation Blockchain. How does it compare to other third generation Blockchain Like the next versions of the theory Amore new platforms like Cosmos or Hallorann? There's a lot of competition in that space. I think broadly, the crypt of ecosystem is interested in permission. The platforms that allow anyone in the world participate any developer to participate, to build things. So there's a real question I think, of whether a model like this can really encourage that level of of open collaboration. So I think that's 11 question. And I think the the overview that has been published by the Labor Association is aspirational with respect to that, but also very clear that this is gonna be pretty tightly managed, pretty tightly controlled, pretty tightly scope. Um, and you know, I'm not convinced in the short term that that's gonna be attractive to developers. I think in order to figure out if it is going to be successful, we would really need to understand what the ultimate goal was. And it's not entirely clear to me whether they're attempting to compete in the cashless payment space or in the public Cryptocurrency space, which are really two very different things. I think something that is relatively assured if we look at the other pushes to provide state subsidized Internet access in emerging economies, that if you were to tie that to something like a payment rail that you get all that kind of primary payment data married to a social graph that's very powerful and so we didn't forget about the underlying data play there. If you look at what 10 cent has done in China with 700,000,800 million people, they've revolutionised the way the economic interaction happens. You can imagine what that looks like on a global scale. I think the other there is a deeper issue and this gets to recent speech about privacy, which is yeah, this this issue with centralization on the Internet that Internet companies, certain Internet companies, were perceived to have too much power that they have the aggregate too much customer data and their desire to shift Maur to a decentralized architecture. And I actually think this is a little bit like Bill Gates in 1995 saying We're going all in on the open Internet and, you know, betting on the open road. If you remember the essay from Bill Gates, and I think that this is a little bit of Doc doing the same thing they were betting on decentralization. If you read the lever of paper closely, you'll see it's aspirational to build identity protocol layers for self sovereign identity, for the ability for individuals control to control their own data. Um, and you can imagine how that could interact with messaging platforms, financial platforms, other things that's much more aspirational. I think payments is an initial use case, but the much more decentralized, private way to exchange information is ultimately, I think the angle