Slashdot Mirror
Facebook Is Developing a Cryptocurrency for WhatsApp Transfers, Report Says (bloomberg.com)
Facebook is working on making a cryptocurrency that will let users transfer money on its WhatsApp messaging app, focusing first on the remittances market in India, Bloomberg reports. From the report: The company is developing a stablecoin -- a type of digital currency pegged to the U.S. dollar -- to minimize volatility, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal plans. Facebook is far from releasing the coin, because it's still working on the strategy, including a plan for custody assets, or regular currencies that would be held to protect the value of the stablecoin, the people said.
The point of crypto currency is to act as a distributed ledger without the need for a central authority. If you are using what's app to transmit a message then it is being 2-way authenticated by facebook and passing through facebook and even logged by facebook. Adding a transaction record would be nothing. SO facebook could just make it a check on the bank of facebook and be done with it. Or if being a bank is a problem then just call it "flooz" or "beans" or send a share of a T-bill mutual fund.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Are they serious? After everything they've done?
Below is a list of things I would trust sooner than I would trust Facebook to be anywhere near anything as sensitive as a financial transaction:
-Tap water from Flint
-A rattlesnake with a "pet me" sign
-free drinks from Bill Cosby
-gas station sushi
-emails from Nigerian Princes
-A bigfoot sighting