I feel there is a conflation here. Facebook is free to apply for a banking license in countries they want to operate as a bank in. Facebook shouldn’t be able to circumvent banking over site and regulations by coming in as a technology company with fancy words. The conflation here is Facebook isn’t being blocked form becoming a licensed bank in Germany - correct me if I’m wrong

But they don’t want to become a bank. They want to build a cryptocurrency. There are already hundreds of cryptocurrencies that operate in France and Germany, and the developers do not have to have banking licenses.

With Libra, Facebook wouldn't just make itself a bank. It would make itself a central bank. A world wide central bank.

Libra = inventing a new fiat currency and then replacing a significant portion of other fiat currencies around the world through a cloak of "we're just here doing the next big thing, also App, p2p payments, online crypto AI blockchain social network Facebook innocent whistling of a song". As a little bonus, they would be selling the Libra nodes (that handle all the payment traffic) to third parties. Initially for 10 million USD per node. That way they can shift the blame of selling payment data to third parties away from Facebook, while still making money by giving third parties the right to do whatever they want with that payment data.

Having a banking license doesn't allow you to replace a countries' fiat currency by some new invented token. The value of Libra in Europe would depend on a promise by an American tech company (led by 1 man). A promise to keep the value of the Libra tied to a predetermined basket of fiat currencies. Assuming that Libra would become popular, this would yield pretty much infinite international political and economical power to Mark Zuckerberg based on the mere perception of the possibility that this promise could be broken by him. This is also why Libra is not comparable to an actual crypto currency like Bitcoin. The value and existence of Bitcoin and the Bitcoin network is not dependent on 1 man and the contracts he has with Bitcoin nodes.

Germany and France aren't stupid. I guess.

Those are my thoughts on what's actually going on.

Even if they don't fall within the traditional banking definition, which I have doubts about, they'd at least play the role of the exchange or broker and as such are subject to, at least, authorization through BaFin in Germany. Random hipsters buying BTC privately and Facebook attempting to erode traditional currencies are two wildly different things.

Are we sure those crypto developers are acting within the law? Genuine question.

The difference is that Facebook has millions to pour into resources, marketing, etc, while those other crypto currency companies do not.

I would be very very wary of a social media giant issuing crypto. Lots of inherit dangers there.

*inherent dangers

Hundreds of cryptocurrencies that aren't being operated by the most powerful social network corporation in the world.

it's such a small distinction I can see how you choose to overlook it ...

I have the same question in my first reaction. But then other than some bank owned one, they are not controlled by anyone. Can you access and exchange libra without Facebook account or banned Facebook account

I'm pretty sure you can. They're building a wallet, but it's not the only one. It's also separate to the rest of Facebook but likely would integrate with it well

For sure, the point is having conection to this cryptocurrencie network and a wallet. And its possible to exchange BTC for FBL also.

> there could be (should be) strong consumer protections preventing the type of corporate behavior you describe

there's not a snowflake's chance in hell that a megacorporation like Facebook is going to provide strong customer protections on a long-term basis, compared to what a EU country can provide its citizens.

how can you even begin to trust something that big, that has been around for such a short time (~2 decades?).

remember 15 years ago when people thought Google was cool and "one of us / the good guys" and way more trustworthy than most things on the Internet?

it's a long time on the Internet, but it's a blip in history when it comes to trust in state regulations and consumer protection.

The point is that not even a German bank would be allowed to do what Facebook plans to do.

Yes.

They can.

In Euros.

Thanks.

p.s.: they are already applying for it, PSD2 regulation allows them to emit cards or be intermediaries for payments.

No foreign fake, unregulated, privately conrolled currencies here in Europe, thank you.

Europe already has great consumer protections. The US doesn't, and probably never will.

Doesn’t that just shift the controls on corporate behavior and consolidate the controls into a political process?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point

which is where you want it, because FB doesn't exactly have a good track record when it comes to customer protection, compared to most EU countries. in fact their track record is both worse and laughably shorter.