Asked On Quora : What do you think about Facebook's new cryptocurrency, Libra?

in privacy •  5 years ago 

Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook will launch its very own digital currency, Libra with 2020. The Libra white paper illustrating the basic highlights of the new project by the definition,

“A stable currency built on a secure and stable open-source blockchain, backed by a reserve of real assets, and governed by an independent association."

Stable Currency : Libra varies from other known cryptocurrencies. It is intended to be "stable" i.e. the value of Libra will be kept constant, each unit of Libra is backed by real assets, representing different monetary standards. That is not normal for different digital currencies, which are frequently picked up or down in an incentive after some time. Basically, this implies that Libra is only intended to be a method for exchange, instead of a speculative design and used will be to empower safe and ease global exchange of funds. Funds will commonly be sent through mobile phones that a huge number of people use today. A safe and basic framework based around Libra, with low exchange costs, could be a real boon for some individuals around the globe.

Open-source Blockchain : Libra is controlled by an independent, Libra Association which is situated in Switzerland. Facebook is only one individual from the Libra Association Council. Other big names that have officially joined incorporate organizations like Mastercard, PayPal, PayU, Stripe and Visa, online administration organizations like Booking, eBay, Farfetch, Lyft, Spotify and Uber. Not at all like Bitcoin and different digital forms of money, Libra is a permissioned blockchain for now, where just approved nodes can take part in. Exchanges are pseudonymous, not anonymous and are possibly helpless against government requests for insights regarding who sent assets to whom and when. There are claims to move to a completely decentralized, permissionless system, despite the fact that this brings up issues about scalability for the Libra framework.

There is another component of the Libra digital currency that Facebook controls: Calibra

"Today we’re sharing plans for Calibra, a newly formed Facebook subsidiary whose goal is to provide financial services that will let people access and participate in the Libra network. The first product Calibra will introduce is a digital wallet for Libra, a new global currency powered by blockchain technology. The wallet will be available in Messenger, WhatsApp and as a standalone app – and we expect to launch in 2020"

Note that the Libra digital wallet will be integrated in to Messenger and WhatsApp. This will enable funds to be sent easily to family and companions. Calibra is the beginning of Facebook's anticipated move into e-commerce based business. When it has been built up that fundamental framework for these sort of budgetary exchanges and the user base develops, organizations will begin to give clients a chance to use Libra to pay for products, along the lines of PayPal.

I am A Privacy Guy so ofcourse, the question comes: what about all the data information this produces?

Facebook states: "Calibra users' record data and monetary information won't be utilized to improve promotion focusing on the Facebook group of items".

Calibra white paper states "Calibra will use Facebook, Inc. data to comply with the law, secure customers’ accounts, mitigate risk, and prevent criminal activity. Beyond these cases, if a Calibra product feature can be personalized or improved with data from Facebook, we will first obtain customers’ consent to share the relevant data with Calibra. For example, people may choose to import their Facebook friend list into Calibra to make sending money easier. This import will not be automatic – we will obtain in-product customer consent."

We know that according to GDPR, when an irritating pop up approaching a client on a website, many people simply click on "yes" without trying to find out what precisely they are consenting to. When any user buys something by means of Libra on the Facebook site or on any other website, continously Facebook is tracking them, at that point the organization definitely knows precisely which items users are taking a look at or they have bought. It could then add this data to its centralized database.

One of the key point made inside the white paper is around decentralization. Decentralization is the core of the cryptocurrrencies: it imply that no national banks, no government and no centralized administration can control the money flow. Libra then is the perfect inverse of this core concept. The Libra Association claims it will move from this centralized/permissioned model to ‘decentralisation’ in the next five years, a claim which can not verified.

Calibra will use the client information to improve the Calibra user experience. This is the whole package from various perspectives, the interflow of social and financial related data to make always definite and detailed profiles. This isn't the privacy we are searching for.

Still I didn't compare this Libra to features of other cryptocurrencies, (actually why should i compare ? Is it really a cryptocurrency?). If you want me to write, just make a question and mention me there.

Link To Answer : https://www.quora.com/What-do-you-think-about-Facebooks-new-cryptocurrency-Libra-1/answer/Rajesh-Prajapati-71?ch=3&share=68acdc24&srid=hd6HO

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