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Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
Facebook is planning to launch its own cryptocurrency in early 2020, allowing users to make digital payments in a dozen countries.
The currency, dubbed GlobalCoin, would enable Facebook's 2.4 billion monthly users to change dollars and other international currencies into its digital coins. The coins could then be used to buy things on the internet and in shops and other outlets, or to transfer money without needing a bank account.
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and chief executive of Facebook, last month met the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, to discuss the plans, according to the BBC.
Cryptocurrency without the pseudonymity? I think it'll work fine if they make it as easy to use as PayPal - and their blockchain processes transactions quickly, even without billions of records on it. Maybe we'll even finally get real microtransactions.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Mykl on Wednesday May 29 2019, @05:28AM (3 children)
I wonder about this. Not at the fact that Facebook wants to own your financial transactions as well as everything else in your life - that's to be expected. I wonder whether Facebook users will trust Facebook enough to handle their money.
The tide is turning against FB and Zuckerberg, and their repeated failures to act responsibly with their users' data continues to damage their image. If they had launched a currency a few years ago, I think it would have had a good chance. Right now though, I'm not sure that people are ready to hand over the last key to their lives.
(Score: 1) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 29 2019, @06:43AM
Yeah, I think facebook will profit handsomely from this, because for every person against them currently there are is at least 1/2 a rube to be parted from their money. And that is still a lot of money on the table to fleece out of rubes.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by zocalo on Wednesday May 29 2019, @08:21AM
Of course, there are a lot of rubes out there, and I'm sure enough of them use FB to make this very much worth them doing, but I also think they've missed the boat a little. If this had come out before Cambridge Analytica when all the other cashless payment schemes were less established they'd have *really* cleaned up, but where things are now I think a lot more of their users are a least going to have some doubts rather than just diving in head first. They've also got to convince other merchants - especially the likes of Amazon, Apple, Google - to accept their coins, many of whom are working on similar lock-in schemes, are highly protective of their data, and might not be willing to share.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 3, Funny) by sjames on Wednesday May 29 2019, @05:25PM
As soon as I saw the headline, I thought "In Zuck we Trust". Then I hurt myself laughing.