FB to announce crypto$, allow employees to take it as salary

[Duhon]

Haha what the fuck

Facebook will announce its cryptocurrency later this month, and will allow employees working on the project to take their salary in the form of the new currency, according to a report in The Information.

About a year ago, the company appointed former PayPal executive David Marcus to begin exploring opportunities with blockchain, the technological underpinning for cryptocurrency. Since then, several outlets have reported that the company has been building its own digital currency, which users will be able to store, trade, and exchange for regular currency, in part through Facebook apps including Messenger and WhatsApp. The report adds that Facebook is also planning physical ATM-like machines where users can buy the currency.

Building an easy way for Facebook’s more than 2 billion users to pay for things and exchange money between countries could help the company diversify beyond advertising, which today accounts for nearly all of its revenue. Facebook’s ad model has faced criticism from privacy advocates, lawmakers and the press for the ways it collects and uses detailed information about users.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg highlighted payments as an important area for the company at its conference for developers earlier this year. However, operating chief Sheryl Sandberg and CFO David Wehner have “been skeptical of the initiative internally,” The Information said.

The report says Facebook is soliciting third-party organizations to act as “nodes” to help manage the cryptocurrency, and has discussed charging $10 million for the privilege.

Cryptocurrency nodes contain the computing power necessary to resolve complicated mathematical equations, which are used to validate transactions. They are typically decentralized and spread among thousands of parties, but Facebook is creating a foundation with named partners to help manage its currency, the report says.

A Facebook spokesperson declined to comment.

This is usually the part where I opine and go off on my handsome steer Tangent, but with this I can't do that, as my knowledge of cryptocurrencies extend only as far as that Last Week Tonight episode

So instead of of offering my opinions I have a series of questions:

1) What are cryptocurrencies?
2) Why are cryptocurrencies?
3) I know Americans loathe handling actual physical cash (or at least the well-heeled do), but isn't this sort of extreme?
4) Why would any Facebook employee on their right mind effectively burn their salaries on an unproven tech?
5) If this actually takes off, will the world's currencies be replaced by the one true... um... FaceBit?
6) "FaceBit" is a good name, right? Right?

[Dumb Ideologies]

Will spending habits be shared with companies and every coin be generated with an accompanying passive-aggressive vaguepost and fake news item?

[The Blaatschapen]

1
2
3. Yes
4. To avoid taxes and to potentially cut costs, and also to make it harder for employees to quit. Making them fully dependent on Facebook. Since it is facebook who will control the supply of currency, and thus also will control market rates vs dollar, euro, etc.
5. No. Unless we start living in the world of Jennifer Government. Central banks, and the associated governments like their power on the money supply too much.
6. *facepalms*

[Bluelight-R006]

Facebit is a good name. Salary with cryptocurrency is still better than no salary at all, though. Other than this, no other initial comments.

[-Ocelot-]

Sounds like Mr Robot's E-coin.

Cryptos have the disadvantage of being too volatile and most people use them for speculation only. So far, there has been no crypro mainly used for it's intended purpose (that of a currency). Even Bitcoin is seen by most people as something you buy low sell high, not as something you can trade to acquire goods and services. And when it's used as a currency, it's quite often used in illegal activities. In short, cryptos are a libertarian meme that can't replace any real currency.

Obviously Facebook creating another crypto could have a positive effect on every other coin's price out there but this doesn't mean it will replace cash or credit cards. For one, you'd need enough people using FaceBit, trusting it and actually using it for it's intended purpose on a regular basis. I can't see how this will happen, even in Facebooks pushes for it constantly.

My guess is that FB wants their employees to trade their salaries for FaceBit to exert more control over them and to rob their hard earned money with a speculation tool that is most likely never going to have the same value as the US Dollar. In other words, this is more about unrestrained capitalism eating it's own children (as usual) than a digital currency revolution.

3) I know Americans loathe handling actual physical cash (or at least the well-heeled do), but isn't this sort of extreme?

It is. I bet 99,9% of people out there (including myself) can't handle cryptos properly to actually live off of them. They are extremely volatile speculation tools and you need to know a LOT of things beforehand to understand what is really going on. You also need a computer, something not every single person out there has. Try convincing the average joe to pool his life savings onto a coin that can be lost if the hard drive stops working.

[Risottia]

1) What are cryptocurrencies?

A Ponzi scheme.

2) Why are cryptocurrencies?

Swindle idiots, evade taxes.

[Temporarrium]

FaceBit sounds creepy. It's like they'll pay employees with bits of human faces.

Because cryptocurrencies are not regulated, I do not trust them. About a few thousand of them exist. Sure they value anonymity and are difficult to counterfeit, but cryptocurrencies can still be subject to hacking and used for illegal transactions.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cryptocurrency.asp
https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0509 ... 0fcab8353e

[Nazis in Space]

So basically, there are weird people on the internet, people who believe that modern currencies are a (((Rothschild))) scam, and that currencies backed by precious, totally valuable when the apocalypse comes gooooooooooold should be the only thing we ever need for monetary purposes. Also because gold doesn't lose value, unlike fiat currencies.

It totally does, though.

So, because modern currencies aren't backed by gooooooooooooooooooold but rather by the economic and legal power of nationstates, these people - think dwarves, except they really hate people with 'Gold' in their surnames. Maybe because having 'Gold' in your surname reduces the global gold reserves or something, I don't know - decided to make their own currencies. With blackjack! And hookers!

And backed by absolutely nothing whatsoever. Not by nationstates. Not by gold.

If you noticed a kind of logical leap here, don't worry, our dwarves didn't. They swallowed it hook, line and sinker.

And then held on to their shiny collections of bits and bytes that some people were willing to pay money for.

Because their value did (initially) tend to go up.

Why's that?

Well. Cryptocurrencies are designed to be deflationary, unlike those evil, evil fiat currencies. There is a limited supply, and no central bank that can start printing more cryptocoins. Therefore, they don't lose value!

Except that their value fluctuates dramatically, that is.

Which is why people hardly spend them. Why would you spend something that goes up in value? You wait until its value is super-high, and then you-

-exchange it for more conventional money that you use to actually buy stuff, rather than actually using the cryptocoins themselves as currency and buying commodities.

Yeah, that surprised me, too, and yet that's what's done with 99% of cryptocoins.

Now, rest assured, this currency speculation also happens with any other currency. That's not unusual.

What is unusual is that

• this is almost exclusively what cryptocoins are used for
• it's actually really fucking hard to exchange them for conventional currency

Like, you can exchange US Dollars for Euros by the thousands. Millions! Okay, if you try to exchange them by the millions, the branch of your local bank will run out of reserves, so I suggest you do that online, but still.

Try to do that with a crypto exchange place. Oh, you can buy crypto just fine (if for an exorbitant fee considerably exceeding the fees actual banks charge you for exchanging from dollars to Euros). It's that turning that crypto back into dollars is, ah... well, good luck.

Because, you see... the foreign currency reserves that your local bank has?

The Crypto exchanges don't have those, so you're relying on someone else paying you in US Dollars for your cryptocoins. This can take time, and this can fail.

Some exchanges claim to have reserves in conventional currencies, but well, there's a suspicious lack of audits there. As in, flat-out refusing them. And the exchange into conventional currency is precisely as difficult as before.

In short, cryptocoins aren't used as a currency, but as a commodity. Which rather defeats their alleged point, of course. And this isn't an accident, it's specifically designed into the concept.

But the illusion of rising value is super-useful to get people to buy into cryptocoins. And if you're lucky, you'll be able to sell all of yours before the next crash.

[Ifreann]

You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day over and deeper in debt.
St. Peter don't you call me, 'cause I can't go.
I owe my soul to the Facebucks store.

[Ethereal Dichotomy Island]

I'll probably buy some cryptocurrency for $2 and sell it for profit later.

[The Blaatschapen]

So basically, there are weird people on the internet, people who believe that modern currencies are a (((Rothschild))) scam, and that currencies backed by precious, totally valuable when the apocalypse comes gooooooooooold should be the only thing we ever need for monetary purposes. Also because gold doesn't lose value, unlike fiat currencies.

It totally does, though.

So, because modern currencies aren't backed by gooooooooooooooooooold but rather by the economic and legal power of nationstates, these people - think dwarves, except they really hate people with 'Gold' in their surnames. Maybe because having 'Gold' in your surname reduces the global gold reserves or something, I don't know - decided to make their own currencies. With blackjack! And hookers!

And backed by absolutely nothing whatsoever. Not by nationstates. Not by gold.

If you noticed a kind of logical leap here, don't worry, our dwarves didn't. They swallowed it hook, line and sinker.

And then held on to their shiny collections of bits and bytes that some people were willing to pay money for.

Because their value did (initially) tend to go up.

Why's that?

Well. Cryptocurrencies are designed to be deflationary, unlike those evil, evil fiat currencies. There is a limited supply, and no central bank that can start printing more cryptocoins. Therefore, they don't lose value!

Except that their value fluctuates dramatically, that is.

Which is why people hardly spend them. Why would you spend something that goes up in value? You wait until its value is super-high, and then you-

-exchange it for more conventional money that you use to actually buy stuff, rather than actually using the cryptocoins themselves as currency and buying commodities.

Yeah, that surprised me, too, and yet that's what's done with 99% of cryptocoins.

Now, rest assured, this currency speculation also happens with any other currency. That's not unusual.

What is unusual is that

• this is almost exclusively what cryptocoins are used for
• it's actually really fucking hard to exchange them for conventional currency

Like, you can exchange US Dollars for Euros by the thousands. Millions! Okay, if you try to exchange them by the millions, the branch of your local bank will run out of reserves, so I suggest you do that online, but still.

Try to do that with a crypto exchange place. Oh, you can buy crypto just fine (if for an exorbitant fee considerably exceeding the fees actual banks charge you for exchanging from dollars to Euros). It's that turning that crypto back into dollars is, ah... well, good luck.

Because, you see... the foreign currency reserves that your local bank has?

The Crypto exchanges don't have those, so you're relying on someone else paying you in US Dollars for your cryptocoins. This can take time, and this can fail.

Some exchanges claim to have reserves in conventional currencies, but well, there's a suspicious lack of audits there. As in, flat-out refusing them. And the exchange into conventional currency is precisely as difficult as before.

In short, cryptocoins aren't used as a currency, but as a commodity. Which rather defeats their alleged point, of course. And this isn't an accident, it's specifically designed into the concept.

But the illusion of rising value is super-useful to get people to buy into cryptocoins. And if you're lucky, you'll be able to sell all of yours before the next crash.

It's why I try to use Van Gogh paintings as currency nowadays.

They rise in value, limited supply, hard to counterfeit. Though slightly uncomfortable in my wallet.

But getting my first one is hard. I asked if I can just buy the corner of one, but the curator threw me out of the museum

[Novus America]

Tech bro logic.
Banks and gubmints are teh ebul, so why not trust some Russian hacker dude living in his mother’s basement running a crypto “exchange” instead?
Yes the exchanges can be fraudulent or fail and take all your “money”.
Sure real banks can but see they are actually regulated unlike some shady dude on the internet so less like to actually do so.

This logic only works if you are buying cocaine, because shady as he may be, unlike your bank, Boris from the Siberian basement gives zero shits what you do is legal, so long as he gets his cut.

Crypto currencies are shit currencies.
1) Currencies should be relatively stable (having to change your prices every three minutes is hard, and you might sell something for far less than it is worth because you are not exactly sure what value you are getting in return, it would suck if you had no idea what the price of milk was at your grocery store because it would wildly change ten times between when you left your house and when you got to the store).
2) Currencies should be widely accepted (when you go to the store to buy milk you bring your national currency for example, it would suck if every grocery store used different currencies at different times. Unless you live in Venezuela all stores in your country (and maybe even some other countries) will sell you stuff for your one national currency)
3) Currencies should be easy to exchange. (When you buy your milk you want to just be able to hand over a piece of “paper” (really a very thin cloth), swipe a card, or touch your phone it bam it is done. It would totally suck if you had to run a timed absurdly complex virtual obstacle course every time you bought something).

But crypto currencies are all that suck.

Yes the US dollar is not perfectly stable and tends to lose value at a very slow and steady rate.
But that beats wild inflationary and deflationary cycles.
And yes the US has a central banking system. Which is Jewy and ebul and whatever but actually has complex policies and mechanisms in place to help ensure all three criteria are met.
Boris from the Siberian basement does not.

[The Great Swedish Empire]

FB announces FaceBit 2: Electric Boogaloo!

[Novus America]

You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day over and deeper in debt.
St. Peter don't you call me, 'cause I can't go.
I owe my soul to the Facebucks store.

Now when you work at Facebook not only do they expect you to practically live at work but will now also pay you in company script!
Yeah!
See this is so much better than the old West Virginia company towns cause they have bean bag chairs!

Yet the hipsters will keep begging to work there.

[Ifreann]

You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day over and deeper in debt.
St. Peter don't you call me, 'cause I can't go.
I owe my soul to the Facebucks store.

Now when you work at Facebook not only do the expect you to practically live at work but will now also pay you in company script!
Yeah!
See this is so much better than the old West Virginia company towns cause they have been bag chairs!

Yet the hipsters will keeping begging to work there.

I think the hipster prestige of working for Facebook has worn off at this point.

[Vassenor]

So basically Facebook is going to start paying its employees in monopoly money just to avoid having to cut into profits.

[Novus America]

Now when you work at Facebook not only do the expect you to practically live at work but will now also pay you in company script!
Yeah!
See this is so much better than the old West Virginia company towns cause they have been bag chairs!

Yet the hipsters will keeping begging to work there.

I think the hipster prestige of working for Facebook has worn off at this point.

Well I guess there are always even less ethical places like Uber that now have more hipster cool.

[Juristonia]

Well I guess there are always even less ethical places like Uber that now have more hipster cool.

Uber's not cool anymore either.
Get with the times, gramps.

Facebit is a good name. Salary with cryptocurrency is still better than no salary at all, though. Other than this, no other initial comments.

No. No, it's not, really.
And even if it was, no money or fake money are not the only options someone should get.

[Free Arabian Nation]

All in favour of abolishing facebook for shitty company practices say I

[Novus America]

Well I guess there are always even less ethical places like Uber that now have more hipster cool.

Uber's not cool anymore either.
Get with the times, gramps.

Facebit is a good name. Salary with cryptocurrency is still better than no salary at all, though. Other than this, no other initial comments.

No. No, it's not, really.
And even if it was, no money or fake money are not the only options someone should get.

Damn, I cannot keep up with the hipster cool race to the bottom.
It is less stable than a crypto currency.

[Grinning Dragon]

All in favour of abolishing facebook for shitty company practices say I

Hell just abolish it for just being shitty and dumb in general.
As to the bit coin bullshit. Hell naw, cash or check please.

[Ifreann]

So basically Facebook is going to start paying its employees in monopoly money just to avoid having to cut into profits.

Company scrip, but with blockchain!

---

I think the hipster prestige of working for Facebook has worn off at this point.

Well I guess there are always even less ethical places like Uber that now have more hipster cool.

Cool kids hate tech companies now. It turns out they're evil. Who could have guessed.

[Novus America]

So basically Facebook is going to start paying its employees in monopoly money just to avoid having to cut into profits.

Company scrip, but with blockchain!

---

Well I guess there are always even less ethical places like Uber that now have more hipster cool.

Cool kids hate tech companies now. It turns out they're evil. Who could have guessed.

Yet still sip coffee at Starbucks while posting on Instagram
It has not hurt the profits cause slacktivists still buy their shit.

[Juristonia]

Yet still sip coffee at Starbucks while posting on Instagram
It has not hurt the profits cause slacktivists still buy their shit.

noethicalconsumptionundercapitalism.gif

[Ifreann]

Company scrip, but with blockchain!

---

Cool kids hate tech companies now. It turns out they're evil. Who could have guessed.

Yet still sip coffee at Starbucks while posting on Instagram
It has not hurt the profits cause slacktivists still buy their shit.

Well Facebook benefited from Metcalfe's Law and Uber is basically a scam.