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Re: New facebook cryptocurrency truck system

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Steve555 <Steve555@reallybogus.nodomain.nowhere.invalid> wrote:
> Today sees the launch of facebook's new cryptocurrency system.  According to the
> report in the guardian, people who work for the consortium of corporations 
> behind it are eventually expected to be paid in this cryptocurrency, 
> the Libra; see https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jun/18/
> what-is-libra-facebook-new-cryptocurrency
> 
> People have short memories.  One of the worst abuses during the industrial
> revolution in Britain was the truck system.  A truck system was where an
> employer would pay his employees in his own tokens, which could only be spent
> at shops owned by the employer.  This led to many abuses and eventually 
> large-scale social unrest with bloody riots that led to the passing of laws 
> in the british parliament to outlaw such truck systems; they remain illegal 
> to this day.  There is a folk memory of those times in the expression 
> "I'll have no truck with that", meaning you want nothing to do with something.
> For an introduction see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truck_wages and
> http://www.mining-memorabilia.co.uk/Tokens.htm#Truck%20Tokens .
> 
> So, how is the facebook cryptocurrency different from a truck system?

A fair concern, especially in 3rd world countries. It comes down to
how easy it will be to convert the Libra money into local currency.
If there end up being Libra ATMs everywhere, then it would be less of
a worry.

But it isn't until you get to the end of this:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jun/18/what-is-libra-facebook-new-cryptocurrency
article that you see one of the main (though perhaps unsurprising)
catches. They will be charging a fee on each transaction.

In theory, PayPal already solved most problems associated with
international payments, however the trouble is that they are
centralised and charge fees all over the place (and if you read
the full terms and conditions, you'll see how complicated the
fee structure really is). Now Facebook are discussing a new system
that is again centralised (only the Libra Association can validate
transactions, according to that article), and again charges fees for
transactions. So no surprise that PayPal are working with them (along
with the credit card companies), it's just an evolution of their
existing model.

The exciting thing about Bitcoin was that, compared to PayPal, it was
a true currency rather than a service. You could choose how it was
processed and what fees were involved, if any (in theory). Now
Facebook have something that can apparantly be defined as a currency,
but still has the major disadvantages of PayPal.

It also looks like people doing online transactions may eventually be
forced into using it, given that the existing service providers are
all on its side.

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New facebook cryptocurrency truck system Steve555 <Steve555@reallybogus.nodomain.nowhere.invalid> - 2019-06-18 16:10 +0000
  Re: New facebook cryptocurrency truck system Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2019-06-18 18:30 +0000
    Re: New facebook cryptocurrency truck system Steve555 <Steve555@reallybogus.nodomain.nowhere.invalid> - 2019-06-18 18:40 +0000
    Re: New facebook cryptocurrency truck system Steve555 <Steve555@reallybogus.nodomain.nowhere.invalid> - 2019-06-18 18:45 +0000
    Re: New facebook cryptocurrency truck system RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2019-06-18 20:36 -0400
      Re: New facebook cryptocurrency truck system Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2019-06-19 09:10 +0000
  Re: New facebook cryptocurrency truck system not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2019-06-18 23:18 +0000
    Re: New facebook cryptocurrency truck system Steve555 <Steve555@reallybogus.nodomain.nowhere.invalid> - 2019-06-19 08:51 +0000
    Re: New facebook cryptocurrency truck system Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2019-06-19 09:10 +0000
      Re: New facebook cryptocurrency truck system Steve555 <Steve555@reallybogus.nodomain.nowhere.invalid> - 2019-06-19 09:33 +0000
        Re: New facebook cryptocurrency truck system Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2019-06-19 09:50 +0000
      Re: New facebook cryptocurrency truck system not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2019-06-19 23:56 +0000
        Re: New facebook cryptocurrency truck system Kees Nuyt <k.nuyt@nospam.demon.nl> - 2019-06-23 17:15 +0200
          Re: New facebook cryptocurrency truck system Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2019-06-23 20:49 +0100

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