Libra or not-so-Libra - that is the question

Let's roll:

First of all, there is no question for me as such, but - this is all rhetorical of course.

Rhetorics, number two:

And finally, number three:
https://steemit.com/…/blockchain-should-be-a-mathematically…

The rhetorics above can be summarized as:

“You do not need blockchain, you need facecoin”.

This is just to show, that all of this has long been prophesied.

Now, let's move onto the “real deal”:
(the information below is taken partially from the Libra WP, and from other, open internet sources, such as articles on the matter and else)

The economy:

• It seems as Libra will have two tokens.
  Seemingly, the first one is tied to some kind of a mythical "currency basket of coins”, the feeds of which will be fed to the chain by a bunch of - “very trusted people”. Whaaaat?
  By the way, it looks like Facebook has already been shown the finger by France and Russia for that idea. The bull-formations have raised the question of banning FB, Libra, and all other mythical creatures, as it will question the sovereignty of their countries:
  https://www.bloomberg.com/…/france-calls-for-central-bank-r…
  https://bitcoinist.com/facebook-libra-ban-govts-not-blockc…/
  Makes sense - they have opened their eyes wide now. But a bit further down the line about this

• Libras tokens will be backed by something from the fiat world? What? Really? I trust tether more on this one - this is really bull…
  What is blockchain doing here then?

• A lot of talk about low fees - what fees. What will they be - It's not clear at all.
  What are NOT low fees? Who has decided that it's bad?

The tech:

• Libra resembles more of an ecosystem than a cryptocurrency.
  By the looks of it, they just dragged all of Ethers downsides along with them (gas, another ((disambiguous)) programming language, cost of data storage, scalability on-chain, etc)

• The PBFT algorithm is rather old, but the heck with it... let's imagine that its an innovation. In any case, no one has yet to cancel 33% attacks

• Validators… you gotta love ‘em!
  Just like the currency basket, those will be approved by "very respected people” indeed - fucking amazing, isn't it?

• Will open source developers ever get their hands dirty with something that isn't censorship resistant. Starting with a capital letter - I doubt it

• Libra does not have a chain of blocks. There isn't one, that's just it.
  The structure of the data in the ledger is a set of signed registries by the members of the network. This means that the validators are reaching a consensus, and it even seems like they are doing so in a normal topological order =)
  The problem is that all those bits and bobs of "sets" aren't really connected. This is not a chain of blocks.
  Here is one of the many quotes implying this from the WP:

“There is no concept of a block of transactions in the ledger history”

• The cost of storage in the network will be fu… far too high in the end.
  Looks like the guys who did this aren't really in the trend of the latest technological fu… progress in the blockchain sphere

• From some of the phrases from the WP, it's not really understood what part of move, and as it is - everything else inside of this - has been circumcised (shabbat shalom to you all) for the end user

• The way James Loop has put it:
  “Considering the fact that the network isn't permissionless, it would be much more efficient and much smarter to use a different mechanism to batch transactions”
  https://medium.com/@lopp/thoughts-on-libra-blockchain-49b8f6c26372

The ideology:

• It kinda loses sense - the blockchain paradigm thingy. When you back up something inside the blockchain by something that isn't really checkable on its own.
  In other words - why would I need a blockchain if I trust papers from the bank? Why would I need maths and code? This is exactly what Libra is going to do

• Not sure if there is even a point writing about the KYC \ AML procedures, I think it's clear as it is.
  From the ideological point of view, there is nothing to add here, really. The point is that the network is not as “open” as it is being described. The fact is that it is closed. Closed from every single side that is

• 5 years to open up everything? Really? Was that even an option?
  Then again, many “clever” crypto projects play on that too. No worries, someone will eat this frog as well )

• To my favorite of them all - Andreas Antonopolous:
  “Any suckerchain (this is the author of this particular article being “ass-clever”) has to be: open, censorship-resistant, neutral, borderless and finally - public. None of those statements are about Libra”

The good:

• A governance and a self-evolving mechanism are promised, something similar to Tezos.
  Not new. Not an innovation. It was, and IS being done already by tens of different blockchain projects. An example of how it's used badly - boscoin

• The promotion videos are on fire. They are super cool. Taking my hat off.
  One can tell straight away, that they were done by a different bunch to those who wrote the WP.
  Bummer… I lost the links - just trust me on this one. They are cool

• The developers' docs are awesome. They are comfortable. Described in a good manner. Everything (well… what is in place) can be sprung open in 3 commands.
  Everything is simple and looks nice. IMO

• There is an option in the structure of all of this to sign off a tx with the history of the whole network. With all the state of the network that is. That's means that if needed, you can synch up very quickly.
  But, is it needed?

• Seems like move will have a clear and simple semantics. But I would rather wait for devs who will play with the code to comment this one further

Sci-fi and conspiracy theories:
Let's roll again…

• Let us start with the fact that I have been saying for a long time that FB (and the whole of GAFAM) will be fighting against the current FIAT structure (I been, I am and I will be).
  I have been saying this for a long while now… some links are provided at the beginning of this article.

• Let's put all the dots above the L in place (ah wait… there aren't any. Oh well, the shoot with em). Libra will be quicker (but then again I feel disappointed after reading the structure of it) then BTC. It will have more users than BTC. It will have a higher market cap then BTC. A lot higher.
  But, if you still measure success in terms of capitalization, then you should be sent to the Soviets or to the 40-s in Germany. They will show you how to measure quantitative success.

• Back to our set of goats (literally).
  The fact is that FB has finally shown its teeth (and those are still deciduous - trust me), and the fact that it will fight banks ant CB - is bleeping obvious (it will be fun to watch, get popcorn in advance). Everything is happening as per plan.
  But I am curious as to how they are planning to do so in countries such as India \ Russia \ China. Oh well… it doesn't really matter, and here is why:

• GAFAM (and I am putting them all in one basket now) has more resources, more money and more brains than any other bull-porations and official bull-formations.
  Where is Deutsche bank and where is Zack-bank? No really? If I were a normal person (and not a crazy hodlnout) I would choose FB. Really.
  The customer support is better? Yep. You don't need to visit the bank. The service is better? Yes, it is. I am sure of it. They know me better. I mean they have all my information already (GAFAM combined defiantly has more info on me.. than me) . No need to bring them any additional papers.

• In any case - the point is, that this particular event (I hope so anyway) will go down in history as something, that has put the begging to the change of paradigms, begging to an end, etc.
  I will not go into economics history right now, or into any history as such, it will take too long. But it is great, that those particular guys will blow up the bubble and will finally help to change the mind of at least 1% of the people who will be using this crap.
  And I'm not even talking about the 5-10% of speculators who will turn their dough to crypto after they find out about its existence.
  What I'm trying to say is:
  Do it Marky boy! Fuc*ing do it!
  Do it like there is no tomorrow.
  Activate “god mode” and kill em all! I'm really happy that they are here and they are helping us to rewrite history form C-D to DC-D =)

• But this will not be a quick battle.
  And to the initial question of “to be or not to be” - personally for me - it's a no, and I do not advise this to anyone else either. But I am an anarchist by nature and that means that everyone must choose his own shit that he would like to step into.

#PeaceOut

PS - give to Urbit its logo back

PPS - the pull request from this guy is amazing https://github.com/libra/libra/pull/83