Facebook Is Already The First (And Probably The Biggest, Ever) Borderless, Ungovernable Country
Most of the time, I'm happy when my predictions turn out to be true.
But sometimes I'm not.
This article will be about one of those times I don't like that I was actually right. But let's take things one at a time.
A year ago I wrote that the "Facebook coin" is not a question of "if", but a question of "when and how" (the beauty of blockchain is that you can actually prove that you wrote something at a certain point in the past, just as you can prove you sent some money to somebody, it's all a transaction). In the same post, I outlined as one of the possibilities, the creation of a centralized token:
a centralized token (basically, a glorified loyalty points system) pertinent only inside the Facebook ecosystem
That's exactly what Libra is, folks. It's a centralized token, pertinent only inside the Facebook ecosystem. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's see where and when I wrote about Facebook becoming a country. Oh, well, right here, just 4 months ago, in a post where I was speculating about a country:
[..] which is not formed around common culture , politics or ideology, but around predictable social activity. A country with no visible (or publicly elected) government. A country led by only one person. The biggest country ever.
How would you become citizen of this country? Having a Facebook account will not suffice. That account is like a mere passport, a visa to trespass, not to be given rights. You get your "citizenship" rights by acquiring the Libra token (or the country "share"). Yes, in the whitepaper is not called the "country share", but it's really that, and you're gonna see in a minute why.
The last piece of the puzzle comes from the Libra whitepaper, which tells us how Libra tokens are created:
In short, on both the investor and user side, there is only one way to create more Libra — by purchasing more Libra for fiat and growing the reserve.
The Libra token value is backed by a "reserve". Which, in case you didn't understand, it's created by you, the one who buys the token.
Brilliant. Just brilliant.
Let me translate what's going on here:
- you buy some immaterial stuff (really, something that doesn't exist in physical form), but with fiat money, which, allegedly, is backed by physical value (long discussion here, I may revisit sometimes)
- because of the fiat value you transferred from your own wallet, the Libra token gets some value, which is backed by the reserve, or your own fiat money
- you remain with the immaterial stuff, whereas "The Libra Foundation" remains with the assets
There is a famous Romanian band, called Parazitii (The Parasites), who has a brilliant song, called "If I would be President for one day". The most important part of the lyrics is this one:
If I'd be President for one day, I'd pawn all of you and you won't even realize that
("Dac-aș fi, pentru-o zi, președinte / V-aș amaneta pă toți și nu v-ați prinde")
That's exactly what Libra does: it sucks all the value you already generated, and puts it into a token which is not controlled by you, and you don't even realize how toxic the whole situation is. Because this is not anonymous, it's not decentralized, it's not amendable, modifiable, governable: it's a centralized shit controlled, ultimately, by a single person.
Facebook is already the biggest country in the world, because a lot of people (a few hundreds of millions, at least, if not the entire userbase of 2 billion) will buy this token, increasing its perceived value. A country which will spawn over borders, political systems, financial crevasses and generations. It's a fluid, strange being, yet is more alive than half of the entire population of humanoids.
We do live interesting times.
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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Yet another reason why Facebook is too dangerous to exist!
It must be destroyed and the mechanism to do it is already at hand.
The Crypto Class Action can bankrupt Facebook and perhaps block this evil Libra coin.
Join the fight at https://www.jpbliberty.com/
Almost every time I find some interesting new content from a name I've not noticed before I find you've beaten me to it! For some reason I don't see all your comments, really must try to do that.
Well this will be interesting. 😬 What interesting times we live in for sure. You are a great writer! It's good of you to share your ideas.
The value of fiat currency is backed by coercion. You are forced to pay your taxes and fines as well as have you your bookkeeping done with it as the unit of account. If you want the state to collect your debts on your behalf, you have to accept fiat as payment. There is nothing physical except men with guns to back up fiat.
What Libra does is make fiat easier to move. That’s all.
Posted using Partiko iOS
I think I remember this old fb post. Interesting to get your point of view. For me it's just about them wanting to control remittance and keep money in their own ecosystem, as you say, giving them fiat or assets. Interesting times indeed. Not sure it's a coin anyone will really speculate with. The whole cartel of investors in it worry me more
Posted using Partiko Android
That’s an excellent description of a scam, @dragosroua. I will have to write a post about it in Serbian.
and many countries are now coming up to stop that hahah interesting times for facebook too
it is not good even investor are unable to control Libra??
Libra is not a token, in the sense of crypto / blockchain, is a use of the blockchain technology to suck more money out of people wallets. At least this is how it looks now. At last to me.
Well put!
it seems that it is not good for investor.