Skip to main content

Why Libra?

When Facebucks were first announced, the FT Lex column asksed why, if Facebook launched a “cryptocurrency” (let’s not get into whether it is a cryptocurrency or not again), "why would anyone want to use it?”. The column says that since purchases can be done "safely and easily with credit cards in stable, government-backed currencies” there is no market for a Zuckbuck. This is wrong, for three main reasons.

First, not all of Facebook’s two billion plus users have credit cards or bank accounts, and even if they do, it’s a pfaff tohave to come out of Facebook, log in to some web site somewhere and type in card details etc. Especially when you personal information is none of the business of the person you are buying from.

Second, a credit card works if you are paying a shop but it’s not that much use if you are paying a person, or you’re one of a group of kids trying reconcile and settle money for a party or something.

There are many reasons why Libra won’t work -

We’ll have to wait and see what it finally looks like when we get to the launch a year or so from now, but

So what is the business model? The FT notes that almost two-thirds of WeChat revenue comes from payments and less than a third is from advertising, which is Facebook’s business now. Clearly that data that flows from the payments business could be used to make the advertising business more effective.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

new survey results from USA Technologies (USAT) suggest. The payments technology company, which enables electronic payments for self-service machines, compared consumer spending activity at 35 of its vending machines in urban areas with a high concentration of iPhone users between week one and week four of the installation of new digital signage promoting Apple Pay. Consumers made more contactless purchases: The vending machine providers saw an average contactless transaction revenue increase of 89%, implying that consumers are making more mobile payments. This was likely driven by the clear advertisement of Apple Pay. Total transactions increased: Consumers made more purchases overall. This was probably driven by an uptick in mobile payments, given the major increase in contactless transaction revenue. And the vending machines may have attracted many first-time users who were drawn in by the digital advertising of Apple Pay. Boosting awareness is key to unlocking pent-up demand amon...
Post a Comment
Read more

David | LinkedIn

Alex Todd rather kindly called this a “most lucid explanation of digital identity management” I would highly recommend this presentation to anyone interested in understanding prospective blockchain based identity architectures From David | LinkedIn This is very kind, but as I said in the link, this is thinking out loud and far from a fully-developed solution. We’re working on parts of this for different clients and I can see that there is something there - a genuinely new way of solving some old problems - but it’s early days.
Post a Comment
Read more

Crystal clear: Creating hyper-transparent property markets - JLL Real Views

xxx The issue of transparency is going to play a major role in the allocation of an avalanche of global commercial investment into real estate over the next decade. With total sums at stake predicted to rise from US$700 billion to over $1 trillion a year by the mid 2020s, according to JLL, countries and cities which meet investor demands on transparency will be best placed to attract these capital flows. From Crystal clear: Creating hyper-transparent property markets - JLL Real Views xxx
Post a Comment
Read more