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Facebook Businesses The Almighty Buck

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Will Tell Congress That Embattled Libra Crypto Project Will 'Extend America's Financial Leadership' (cnbc.com) 42

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday, telling lawmakers that the Facebook-backed libra cryptocurrency "will extend America's financial leadership as well as our democratic values and oversight around the world." From a report: "While we debate these issues, the rest of the world isn't waiting. China is moving quickly to launch similar ideas in the coming months," Zuckerberg said in his prepared remarks. "Libra will be backed mostly by dollars and I believe it will extend America's financial leadership as well as our democratic values and oversight around the world. If America doesn't innovate, our financial leadership is not guaranteed."

Zuckerberg's testimony comes after a rough few weeks for the Libra Association, which is the group that governs the libra cryptocurrency. The Libra Association saw its membership dwindle down to 21 after the departures of Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, eBay, Stripe, Booking and Mercado Pago. When Facebook announced libra, the social media company said that it planned to launch the digital currency in 2020. Since then, the company has said that it will not launch Libra until it receives regulatory approval. Zuckerberg reiterated that stance in his prepared remarks. "Even though the Libra Association is independent and we don't control it, I want to be clear: Facebook will not be part of launching the Libra payments system anywhere in the world until US regulators approve," Zuckerberg said. In his remarks, Zuckerberg also stressed that the future of the libra cryptocurrency is now in the hands of the Libra Association, not Facebook. "By design, we don't expect to be leading those efforts going forward," Zuckerberg said. "The Libra Association has been created, has a governance structure in place, and will be driving the project from now on."

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Will Tell Congress That Embattled Libra Crypto Project Will 'Extend America's Financial Leadership'

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  • I think the best thing for both the United States of America and the world as a whole would be if Facebook were removed from existence. It's a cancer upon humanity. Instead of setting goals, improving, inventing, and creating we now spend our mental energy on stroking each others' ego.
    • yeah, he gonna get roasted in this.
    • The demand would still be there. Remove Facebook, and a new network would take its place. Or one of the smaller ones would expand to fill the space.

      • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        But it is the way of things. They become entrenched, monopilistically insanely greedy and abusive and quite simply must be crushed out of existence. So a new companies tries to be better and is for a whole and then it too must be crushed out of existence, to start the cycle again and again and again. Why is this so, greed driven stupidity, the original developers take a back seat to the psychopaths recommended by banks to pillage that sector of the economy and so more profits are made until the point of col

    • by Miser ( 36591 )

      I do not have mod points today, so the only thing I can do is say that I wholeheartedly agree with you.

      Never had a Facebook account, never will. I would be interested though in downloading whatever shadow data they have on me, however.

  • Zuckerberg is only interested in extending his own Financial Leadership . . . or better said, Financial Control of his users.

    • by Shag ( 3737 )

      It has the same ring to it as "Make America Great Again."
      Every bit as likely to be true, too.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • The USD is still one of the most respected form of currency in the world. While the dept is a problem, and the problem has been worsen because the GOP wanted a win, and lowered taxes during a period of strong economy. However Debt isn't a bad thing, if we sell US Bonds and use the money towards high value initiatives. like Infrastructure, education, and healthcare. Where we can have the US population expand from previous generation and bring in more income then it is good. Especially when the bond rate i

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • The debt is not a problem. Counting up "debt" is like counting up the shit coming out of a horse and claiming the horse now owes you that much food.

        In other words, "money" is a medium of exchange and "debt" is simply the waste product.

        • Damn, you're fucking dumb. You must be an economist.

          DEBT is OWED to someone. If you have a lot of DEBT, then SOMEONE will eventually demand you pay up or stop lending you further money. If you have a lot of DEBT, then you're LOSING MONEY by paying interest on it.

          DEBT is ALWAYS bad. There is NEVER a scenario when DEBT is good. DEBT may be NECESSARY, but the very idea of a government going into DEBT is absurd. They should just issue more money.

          YES, that causes inflation. But that's far preferable to an

          • I would say you are fucking dumb.

            Most of the debt owed by the US gov and other countries using QE is owed to themselves. So is the Govt. going to call in its own debt?

            The reason why they do it this way is to not have spiraling inflation.

            The reason why the US fights so hard to keep the USD as the reserve currency is that when it isn't doing QE, people are lending it money hand over fist as US treasuries are the safest place to keep your money. As long as there isn't a replacement for the USD as a reserve cur

          • So you are saying my view on the economy is so dumb, that I must be a person who specialized in studying, measuring and forecasting the economy.

            Your views on putting a rocket in orbit is so dumb you must be a rocket scientist.

    • what is debt?

  • We dont need more currencies based on imaginary bullshit. It's bad enough actual money isnt better. Besides...its Facebook. Fuck Facebook.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

        You lowered taxes on the rich.

        Zuckerberg (or any of the other modern one-hit wonders) is insanely rich and powerful because he got lucky, once. He also did a fair amount of screwing over.

        It's in the interest of a capitalist society to arrange taxes so that getting rich requires skill (i.e. repeated, consistent good performance). As a side effect, you'd have to be more careful who you screw because economic interactions wouldn't be a one-shot prisoner's dilemma.

        • Zuckerberg (or any of the other modern one-hit wonders) is insanely rich and powerful because he got lucky, once. He also did a fair amount of screwing over.

          Zuck is a pawn used by the spooks. Look up Project LifeLog. Look at the date it shut down. Look at the date FB was started.

    • All currencies are based on imaginary bullshit. So long as enough people believe the currency is good, it's good.

      • actually, what made government issued currency valuable in the first place is you need it to pay taxes... so everyone needs at least a little of it even if they want to barter day by day.

  • by Pyramid ( 57001 ) on Tuesday October 22, 2019 @02:15PM (#59336280)

    ...would trust anything Zuckerbot says at this point. Oh, crap, he's going to talking to congress.

    • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      ...would trust anything Zuckerbot says at this point. Oh, crap, he's going to talking to congress.

      Only if Zuck actually said some magic words, like "taxation" and "terrorist tracking" and such. Especially the former - if collecting taxes isn't part of the system, expect extreme resistance. If on the other hand taxes are collected every transaction, well, instant approval.

  • by sinij ( 911942 ) on Tuesday October 22, 2019 @02:36PM (#59336350)
    I, for one, would like to be the first to apply for Facebook citizenship so I can benefit from free exchange of Libra currency, be protected by FB military, be subject to FB laws and regulations, and benefit from benevolent leadership of Supreme Leader Mark Zuckerberg.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Libra is all part of their plan to become bigger than Governments. They'll need their own currency in order to operate across national borders.
    Enhance US Financial Leadership... B0ll0cks.
    Zuck wants to rule the world pure and simple.

  • The US financial system is, at best, on the level of a 2nd world country and even there most have a better one.

  • What is so innovative about numbers in a computer? We already have numbers in computers. This whole thing must be some sort of scam designed by Mark Zuckerberg to permit him (and his bestest favouritest bum buddies) to steal other people's money otherwise it makes no logical sense whatsoever.

    Then again, who claimed that these people (and especially Mark Zuckerberg) have any sense to begin with?

  • "the future of the libra cryptocurrency is now in the hands of the Libra Association, not Facebook" Umm, given how quickly everyone else is leaving the Libra Association , Facebook may be the only invested party... So I call BS on Zuckerberg.
  • I'm offended that this vapor-currency uses an 'a' instead of an 'e.' Libra == weight measurement. Libre == free.

  • You cannot issue a currency. The US government will point literal guns at you in a 3 AM raid and cart you off to a dark hole.

    If you create a traditional payment processing network, allowing all regulation and "oversight", then you've done nothing but become another payment processor, and Zuck Bucks will be completely pointless.

    The beauty of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin is that they are not centrally managed or controlled. No individual entity can fuck them up without out-hashing the rest of the network.

  • E-Coin will help Evil Corp, er, I mean E-Corp become a leader in tracking online financial transactions.
  • by techdolphin ( 1263510 ) on Tuesday October 22, 2019 @06:15PM (#59337224)
    Right, because Facebook always does what is best for the country and people.

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