Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra
I do not think Zuckerberg’s ultimate goal is running a stable coin, although he could live with that arrangement and benefit from it for as long as necessary. I think the main reason Facebook has structured the coin with fiat backing is to make it seem less threatening to the current monetary establishment and world governments. It’s a way of saying Facebook isn’t trying to compete with the current status quo, but rather make the status quo run more smoothly and efficiently. Then, once it has a foot in the door and gains traction amongst its massive user base, all Facebook has to do is wait until the current assortment of global governments and their respective central banks fail.<p>At that stage it can remove the fiat currency backing (who will want it anyway), and let FacebookCoin free float. With the credibility of global governments and central banks in the toilet by then, Facebook and its corporate oligarch partners will be in a prime position to take over a sizable chunk of worldwide payments using their own currency. In other words, this appears to be a long-term scheme by elements of corporate oligarchy to position themselves as an unelected and unaccountable future sovereign power.<p>All that said, I want to be clear about something. Just because the above represents a plausible scenario doesn’t mean it’ll work out that way. If enough people recognize the dangers of this scheme, it could very well be stopped in its tracks.<p>In this regard, I want to highlight one of the biggest threats posed by a financial system run by a corporate oligarchy. For one thing, there’s the ever-present issue of censorship. I understand why many in the “crypto” world are fine with FacebookCoin since they see it as a threat to state power and control, but this is myopic in my view. Let’s not forget who is silencing the voices of Americans online in 2019. It’s not the state, but rather Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc. If we allow these companies to gain control of payments, you can be sure the same sort of unaccountable blacklisting will follow in the world of transactions.<p>Also, similar to what many of the tech giants have done with speech, Facebook could easily team up with governments or government linked deep-state type entities to stop transactions or freeze the accounts of “problematic” citizens. It would be a very convenient way to get around the rule of law in a place like the U.S., and would represent a perfect symbiotic relationship of tyranny between what could at that point be a vestigial state apparatus and empowered tech giant oligarchs.<p>Ultimately, what’s going on here gets at the crux of everything I’m trying to discuss at Liberty Blitzkrieg. Namely, that the old world is dying and the most important thing that’ll occur over any of our lifetimes is the sort of world we create, or allow to be created, in its wake.<p>The launching of FacebookCoin represents one segment of corporate oligarchy throwing its hat in the ring, and a very dangerous one at that given the already existing dominance of tech giants in the communications realm. From my perspective, communications and money are two aspects of human existence so fundamental to liberty they should remain as free and uninhibited as possible. To trust these things to a collection of billionaires and their corporations would represent the pinnacle of short-sightedness and insanity.