Also, the composition of large miners changes over time and can adjust organically, unlike membership in the Facebook coin cabal.
The Federal Reserve is a consortium of banks and tends to make decisions that are good for banks, so if you're worried about corporatism, it's already here.
The alternative would be a repeal of legal tender laws. This would allow consumers & businesses to transact in the currency of their choice.
Look I’m not saying you can’t criticize the existence of the fed, but calling them a “government enforced monopoly” is inane. They are a _part_ of the government.
There is a long history of private policing in the United States.
The Federal Reserve Bank is not owned by the government. It is considered a public private partnership.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_police_in_the_United_S... https://mises.org/wire/private-policing-isnt-fantasy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gresham%27s_law
Why the hell would the governments of the world give up their power over currency? It is a huge power they hold that they do not want to lose.
Have you ever heard the term "legal tender"? You are legally required to accept USD as payment in America, and every country has a similar law. The government can literally force you (with guns if need be!!) to use their currency. Is that better than what FB is doing?
Sometimes I think people get so wrapped up in dystopian fear mongering they don't analyze the current situation.
Accepting a currency doesn't force a customer to use it.
Only accepting a certain currency does force a customer to use it, which is the case 99.99% of the time.
In any case, the US isn't the only country in the world with a monetary policy that could get trampled over.
And before you say “lightning network” do realize that LN doesn’t exist and even if it did your solution is to avoid using bitcoin. Setting aside you still have to make transactions on the bitcoin blockchain before you can even play ball with LN.
Bitcoin/cryptocurrency is a giant scam marketed toward libertarians and certain STEM types. Why Facebook decided to hitch its horse to a giant scam is beyond me.
The whole point of using LN is to use Bitcoin as a settlement layer. You make one initial transaction to open a channel and that's it. In the future users will onboard directly into LN channels anyway. On chain scaling is still important. Ethereum 2.0 will likely do over 10,000 tx/sec. Don't know about Bitcoin.
Also loads of websites where you can use it.
And corporates basically own and run the internet and it seems to be doing pretty well.
Heh, I think you fundamentally misunderstand how central banks work.
1. The US Mint creates the supply of currency in the US, which is literally governed by the government.[0]
2. It's literally governed by presidentially appointed officials.
3. The Fed manages the banking system, which is a trusted system that utilizes fiat currency as a medium of exchange. Their focus is much more aligned to economic prosperity and policy formulation then it is about how the "currency is managed" (the two are obviously interrelated).
> And corporates basically own and run the internet and it seems to be doing pretty well.
There's a big difference between "it basically does" and "it is".
EDIT: [0] - My bad, the BEP creates currency which is overseen by the Treasury, which is in fact a government entity.
This is wrong in a couple of ways. The mint creates coins, not dollar bills. Those are federal reserve notes. But who literally mints the money doesn't matter - the Fed has always had control over the money supply. That's the power that matters.
> 2. It's literally governed by presidentially appointed officials.
This is also true of the supreme Court. This doesn't change the fact that the Fed can operate independently of the government. As an analog, how often do you worry about what your hiring manager things of you? Once you have the job, they don't have any power over you.
You wouldn't say that is it "literally governed". Just like the Supreme Court the Federal Reserve has appointed positions but has in the modern era been independent. It isn't like it is a department such as Homeland Security.
And the central bank model applies in most countries not just the US.
And have life-long appointments.
> You wouldn't say that is it "literally governed".
Your conflating two ideas. I would actually say that the Supreme Court is a government entity. You said:
> independent of the government
It literally depends on the US government in order to function. Calling it independent by any stretch of the definition is disingenuous.
> And the central bank model applies in most countries not just the US.
You missed the point. Libra is offering a coin on a global scale. To compare this to one central bank is like comparing apples to oranges.
Honestly, I really don't understand your overall point. You genuinely think the Fed just sits on some island while it regulates US economic policy without any influence or dependence on anything but itself? Think about that for a second.
Congress long-since assigned that responsibility--with the exception of coinage--to the Federal Reserve. Note that our currency no longer says "United States Dollar" on it, only "Federal Reserve Note."
At least with a government backed currency we get a choice on who runs the government. Even though that power is constantly being eroded.
The companies that run Libra however have 0 obligation to users of Libra but only to maximise profits for their shareholders. This is their plan:
* Dedicate a lot of resources to spread the adoption of Libra
* Change the language of what Libra is.
* Extract as much value as they possibly can from Libra users.
The proof is simple, If FB and all of those companies dedicated resources to development and adoption of Bitcoin itself then it would be able to reach the goals of Libra and be more decentralised than Libra.
David Marcus and the entire Facebook Libra team make me sick to my stomach.