<story><title>Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut</title><url>https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/06/facebook-libra-launch/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>alehul</author><text>Across very cooperative borders in wealthy Europe, sure.&lt;p&gt;Do you think it&amp;#x27;s as easy for those in India, China, or Kenya, for instance?</text></item><item><author>CaptainZapp</author><text>&lt;i&gt;Have you transferred money across borders to an individual lately?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Actually yes.&lt;p&gt;From Switzerland to my brother in Belgium. It was transferred on the same business day at no expense to him or me. Look up SEPA[1] for details.&lt;p&gt;Just because the American banking system is the complete shits this does not necessarily apply to the rest of the world.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Single_Euro_Payments_Area&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Single_Euro_Payments_Area&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>A2017U1</author><text>Have you transferred money across borders to an individual lately?
As much as I want to criticize this FB is probably in an excellent position to navigate the kyc minefields.</text></item><item><author>wz1000</author><text>Can anyone explain what the point of a pegged cryptocurrency is? Since you are dependent on the issuing entity to honour the stated peg, why not just have your balance be an entry in a regular database maintained by that entity? What exactly does the blockchain gain you here?&lt;p&gt;One thing it does _not_ get you is censorship resistance. If the central authority wants to take away coins from a wallet, all it needs to do is to simply state that it will not honour the peg for coins originating from that wallet. This can be tracked by FIFO, dilution or any other stated accounting principle, and renders the balance in that wallet worthless.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>A2017U1</author><text>Entirely this, many in the West have no idea how difficult crossborder banking actually is for the vast majority of human beings on Earth.</text></comment>
<story><title>Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut</title><url>https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/06/facebook-libra-launch/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>alehul</author><text>Across very cooperative borders in wealthy Europe, sure.&lt;p&gt;Do you think it&amp;#x27;s as easy for those in India, China, or Kenya, for instance?</text></item><item><author>CaptainZapp</author><text>&lt;i&gt;Have you transferred money across borders to an individual lately?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Actually yes.&lt;p&gt;From Switzerland to my brother in Belgium. It was transferred on the same business day at no expense to him or me. Look up SEPA[1] for details.&lt;p&gt;Just because the American banking system is the complete shits this does not necessarily apply to the rest of the world.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Single_Euro_Payments_Area&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Single_Euro_Payments_Area&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>A2017U1</author><text>Have you transferred money across borders to an individual lately?
As much as I want to criticize this FB is probably in an excellent position to navigate the kyc minefields.</text></item><item><author>wz1000</author><text>Can anyone explain what the point of a pegged cryptocurrency is? Since you are dependent on the issuing entity to honour the stated peg, why not just have your balance be an entry in a regular database maintained by that entity? What exactly does the blockchain gain you here?&lt;p&gt;One thing it does _not_ get you is censorship resistance. If the central authority wants to take away coins from a wallet, all it needs to do is to simply state that it will not honour the peg for coins originating from that wallet. This can be tracked by FIFO, dilution or any other stated accounting principle, and renders the balance in that wallet worthless.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>callmeal</author><text>&amp;gt;Do you think it&amp;#x27;s as easy for those in India, China, or Kenya, for instance?&lt;p&gt;Actually yes. Take a look at xoom.com and it&amp;#x27;s competitors for example (flat rate money transfers at a fraction of swift fees). Only issue is getting money &lt;i&gt;out&lt;/i&gt; of those countries. But that is a political and national issue.</text></comment>