Fred’s Views - Issue 3
Fred's views
Issue 3
Facebook made a big splash last week with the announcement of its own currency, called Libra. It's based on blockchain, governed by an association with two dozen partners (including Visa, Mastercard, Uber etc.) in which Facebook only has one vote, and backed by a basket of currencies to prevent volatility. The stated objectives are to facilitate payments, especially cross-border payments, and cater to the "unbanked", which certainly taps into the "zeitgeist." Entirely coincidental, I'm sure.
A lot of ink has already flown on the subject, most of it of the breathless "Facebook will destroy banking" variety, but plenty of negative takes as well. Regulators, especially in Europe, have already indicated that Libra is in for some serious scrutiny, dashing Facebook's hopes that it will be lightly regulated.
That they were thinking they could get away with a lightly regulated means of cross-border payments in 2019 seems to indicate a measure of naivety in the top management levels, which doesn't bode well for the other aspects of this venture. In the end, adoption of this will be linked to the level of trust the public has in Facebook, and arguably, they start with a significant deficit there. More to come on this over the next few weeks as we try to work through the implications.
Libra was not the only item that put Facebook in the news last week, The Verge carried another weighty piece on its content moderation process. Apart from the descriptions of things people try to post on Facebook, there is nothing particularly revelatory or shocking here, but it reinforces two things: 1) The design of Facebook (and other engagement-based, infinite scrolling news timelines) turns out to be deeply flawed, and it is by now obviously a hazard to public health, either directly (especially if you're a content moderator) or indirectly (democracy, elections etc.) Regulatory response is inevitable, and Big Tobacco may be a more suitable analogy here than monopolies that require antitrust remedies. 2) The description of the working environment at Facebook's contractor, with its built-in hypocrisy towards employees despite all the "corporate culture" incantations to the contrary, is an apt description of many workplaces today, sadly.
Short dispatches
Google on the other hand announced it's planning to invest 1bn USD to build housing around San Francisco. This reminds me of factory owners in the 19th century, who also built housing for their workers. This announcement was also met with a lot of skepticism, so all in all a good week for the tech companies making our world a better place...
The Spanish football league's smartphone app was furtively eavesdropping on its users in bars, to catch illegal broadcasting of its matches. What could possibly have gone wrong?
Robotic Process Automation vendor Blue Prism acquires AI startup Thoughtonomy to expand its RPA platform with more AI, which, judging by my experience with RPA, is sorely needed. These platforms are little more than a macro-recording tool for the time being...
Money quote in this article: "MoneyGram’s rival Western Union ended a trial experiment with XRapid, saying the XRP transfer service had not produced any significant savings." Ripple Takes $50 Million Stake in MoneyGram in Push to Deploy XRP
And lastly, Pinboard developer and activist Maciej Ceglowski wrote an excellent analysis and call to arms on privacy in the age of omnipresent surveillance. “The New Wild…"