As I previously wrote, Facebook relaxed their crypto ad ban yesterday. A couple of hours ago, though, in an analysis published on The Independent, a rumor about Facebook potentially buying Coinbase surfaced again.
It's not the first time these rumors appear, the first one was in the Economist a while ago.
According to the piece on The Independent:
Experts say that not only could the acquisition boost Facebook’s value and utility, the involvement of the technology giant would add legitimacy to cryptocurrency markets.
"It wouldn't surprise me if Facebook made an attempt to acquire Coinbase," tech entrepreneur Oliver Isaacs told The Independent. "Whether [Coinbase CEO] Brian Armstrong and the team would agree is another question."
Wether or not this rumor is true, I have no way to know.
But I can speculate on the upsides and downsides of such a move.
Upside
- broader adoption (2 billion Facebook users, versus the 10 million current Coinbase user base)
- more liquidity in the markets
Downside
- a big hit for decentralization as an utopian dream (Facebook is an epitome of centralization, IMHO)
- potential market manipulations via fake-news (a thing that Facebook seems to be familiar with)
The trade-off seems to be a bit too much for me, so I'd rather not see this happening.
Thoughts?
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
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I'm kind of sour on Facebook, so I'm not going to have much of an objective opinion here.
Even so, I can see where a Facebook acquisition of Coinbase could more greatly legitimize the cryptocurrency markets for one segment of society—the one which doesn't really care about decentralization (probably doesn't even know what it is) or about privacy (after all, they're doing nothing wrong but posting pictures of their latest adventures for their family and friends).
Those folks, the largely unplugged and thus uninformed will then wonder what crypto is all about and potentially go looking for it.
Those of us who made it to Steemit, at least in part, because of the decentralization and the belief that our data won't be sold to third parties (though I'm not clear what will prevent someone from doing it, or for that matter, any entity coming in and just getting it), aren't going to be happy even with the rumor, let alone the actual acquisition taking place.
So, the question becomes, what do we want more: potential big money, or decentralization with organic, but slow, growth. I wish we could have both, but history isn't very much in favor of that. :)
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What would you even value Coinbase at? If I was Armstrong, its not the current valuation that would interest me, its the future valuation I would price my product on, and what is that value?
If bitcoin goes to $100,000 and I believe it can, then the total market cap is going to be something like 4-5 trillion dollars in my opinion, and if Coinbase has a strangle hold on the entry point into that market place, which in my opinion they do, that is worth way more than current valuations of Coinbase could ever suggest.
I suspect Coinbase would heavily regret accepting any offer of buy out, HEAVILY.
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Guys, this is the time to get organized! Lets throw all our SBD and Steem into it and buy Coinbase. As a big middle finger by the decentralized social network to Facebook and friends! ;)
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Well if you buy and sell on coinbase only... removing funds as you go, it may just be a good thing to boost adoption. But two things of my own come to mind:
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F*** THAT! I don't want to see Facebucks trading on Coinbase.
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I really don't want to see this happen either @dragosroua. Let's hope it's just rumour!
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I refuse to believe :D
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I donot know about others but i personally think it would be disaster to decentralisation. We already have bitmain controlling 42% of hashrate.
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I dont think the world is ready for mass adoption of crypto yet. I rekon this would be a bad thing at the moment
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That would be the end of cyrptocurrency trust.
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No. God no. Sure more people would become familiarized with crypto (Facebook is nothing if not diligent in its marketing efforts), but the downsides, as you mentioned, far outweigh the benefits.
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Coinbase is so valuable! Does Facebook really have so much money to buy them?
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Yup... don't underestimate the power Facebook holds.
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God forbid. I'd have to stop using Coinbase. I hope it's just a rumour.
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they could buy anything just like they did with what's app and Instagram
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Yeah, would definitely rather this not happen. I don't trust Facebook and I think it would be a shame to see the main point of entry/exit from the crypto space being owned by Mark Z.
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Hahaha!! I can't stop laughing... If this was true (PLEASE NOT) then those who hate Coinbase have every word they say proved right instantly!!
Though by how much power Facebook holds, and the how much Coinbase goes in supporting the regulation/legalization of Crypto, I can imagine it happening.
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If the rumor is true it will be a big disaster to crypto currencies because through such media crypto currencies will fall into the hards of the centralize banksters and investors and which will defeat the ideology of decentralization of blockchain and a complete manipulation of the system by Facebook and its goverenment interest and investors
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I really see upside of coinbase being owned by fb. Unless FB has plans to adopt or atleast use their platform to promote crypto........... then this news only worries me.
We need to go mainstream but perhaps not this badly
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Let's hope they are just rumors, and that everything continues as it goes.
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Hope Brian Armstrong does not allow......this acquisition would be bad for crypto.
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People should put their biases aside.
Facebook is a business. They want to make money.
Coinbase is a business. They want to make money.
In what world do you think the people who run Coinbase "have your back" any more than the people who run Facebook?
Would be a good investment for Facebook, but only in the short-term. Once an easier/cheaper way to buy into crypto arrives, Coinbase will lose a lot of market share.
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It will be a huge step by Facebook but who would trust their privacy? :P
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it was a update news! thanks for this information!
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If they do not buy coinbase, it will be another one, because Facebook has this in plans for some time.
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It would be so disastrous, there is no security in the news or in privacy, the prices of the currency would be a show every time a user wants it. I hope only they remain in rumors.
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its helpful to ban this.good one i hope
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I dont see it happening if anything facebook is dying I think they made the chance to try and get advertising dollars back into their system. As far as I know most people are using facebook less and less and newer generations don't even touch it.
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They say that "when the river sounds it is because stones bring" So these rumors must have something true
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I've seen this same rumor floating around Twitter recently as well.
It wouldn't be a surprising acquisition and realistically may be a decent way to create mass awareness. Do I into necessarily in line with my goals or hopes for Bitcoin and resulting industry: no
Would definitely make things interesting though - we'll see...
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100% against! But I have no say in this. I would close my Coinbase account immediately, as I did with my FB account.
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Yeah, I read this news today evening. But no one can trust on Facebook and its privacy.
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Welcome to the world of the crypto @facebook! But I have seen there is already an ID with this username :D
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that would make me hate coinbase even more than now
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Let's see what happened?
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It would definitely be a smart move for Facebook but I think Coinbase can do good on their own, especially after the latest purchases they have done but I bet a good offer from Facebook may be hard to refuse by some of Coinbase investors.
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Ha ha then you will see Zuccoin listed pretty quickly, it will have all the advantages of crypto-currency but without any of the troublesome issues around decentralisation, dis-intermediation and trustless operation.
It will be fast and have zero fees, transfer anywhere there is a Facebook account in seconds and you will be able to also capture your own and all your friends social AND financial data and hand it over to any service that Facebook signs up to 'without reading the terms and conditions', what could go wrong? /s
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I dislike Facebook, and I'm not a customer there, but I don't think it's bad if they take up Coinbase. There will still be enough decentralization ... or at least, I hope so ...
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Good step by facebook. But we can not trust
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Hmm yeah I don’t like it either. It would mainstream it which would be good, but I think
Facebook would do it for power and control and yeah- not a good trade...
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