News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra by bko on Saturday September 14, 2019 @03:27PM (#20973142)
> You're assuming those people are not forced, tricked or otherwise persuaded by a company worth hundreds of billions of dollars, to use Libra

Anybody who creates a product tries to persuade people to use their product. You can be a cynic and just attribute ill intent of basically everything but it's not really productive

Facebook doesn't control Libra. They have a non-controlling stake in the Libra Foundation, a non-profit.

Re:France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra by JAlexoid on Saturday September 14, 2019 @03:47PM (#20973254)
Facebook has the power of market to force you to use Libra. Just like Apple had the power to introduce NFC payment terminals in US.

That's fundamentally anti free market.

Re:France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra by erikpukinskis on Sunday September 15, 2019 @12:32PM (#20977995)
It’s interesting because I agree with you and those are good examples, but there seems to be a contradiction here.

What you’re advocating for is a market with very clear boundaries, where everyone has equal access to the market but no one is allowed to do the things outside the market.

So it’s a “free market” in that no one has special powers. But it doesn’t make my American “freedom hairs” tingle because there’s a ton of stuff the government is telling you not to do.

I won’t make any argument as to which kind of freedom is more important in this case. But I do want to suggest that the more stuff you put in the “not allowed because the market can’t be administered fairly” bucket, the more of your GDP you cede to criminal organizations.

Because once it’s illegal, that’s just a big monopoly you handed to organized crime. And yes, organized crime does exist in Europe, and does control money supply.

So you have to be careful, there’s a devil’s bargain in both directions.

Re:France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra by K0SM0S on Sunday September 15, 2019 @11:54AM (#20977769)
Minor technical remarks:

1. Since when is a currency a "product"? Did I miss a macroeconomics memo? — This statement is antithetic to the structure of modern economies, or to Facebook's claims about Libra for that matter.

2. As for cynicism, if you look at Facebook's history and mindset, their decisions and policy... I feel like "cynicism" qualifies as an appropriate response. — for reference: an inclination to believe that people are motivated purely by self-interest; skepticism.