Thread by @aleksigrym

1/ Reading through Libra materials. First reaction: looks like just another altcoin. The language in the whitepaper is embarrassingly familiar and overused. It seems blind to the fact that no one wants to use crypto for payments. Launching yet another coin doesn't change that.

2/ "Now is the time to create a new kind of digital currency built on the foundation of blockchain technology"

You mean like Bitcoin?

3/ "Securing your financial assets on your mobile device should be simple and intuitive"

You mean like M-Pesa?

4/ "the internet of money"

You mean like Ripple?

5/ "It is backed by a reserve of assets designed to give it intrinsic value"

You mean like Tether?

6/ Libra is offering nothing new. Nothing. Even if I was a crypto fanatic, I would be disappointed. What interests me now is Facebook's role.

7/ "Facebook teams played a key role in the creation of the Libra Association"

That's what I thought, some team within the company, not FB as a whole. This is not aligned with corporate strategy. Libra is not what a FB shareholder wants to see.

8/ "As one member among many, Facebook’s role in governance of the association will be equal to that of its peers"

I expect Facebook will try to disassociate itself from Libra asap.

9/ "Mass-market usage of existing blockchains and cryptocurrencies has been hindered by their volatility and lack of scalability"

Usage of crypto has been driven only by speculative trading. Libra is an embarrassing attempt to revive the payment case for crypto. It will flop.

10/ A couple of additional interesting points from the whitepaper:

11/ Reserves will be collected both from "investors" and "users". All reserves will be invested in search for modest yield. Yields will be returned to "investors" but not to "users". Sounds like the early "investors" were given the promise of future seigniorage.

12/ Libras will be "fully backed" by reserves and "linked" (not pegged) to a basket of fiat currencies. However, Libras are "purchased", i.e. Libras are not claims of any kind, nor can users redeem their money back, so it's unclear what "fully backed" actually means.

13/ There are no specifics on the supply schedule of Libras. Inflation is managed by informing users they need not worry, nothing more. "Users do not need to worry about the association introducing inflation into the system or debasing the currency."

14/ The most contentious aspect of Libra is the mix of language to create a perception of asset safety. There is talk about "custodians" and a "reserve", but in reality Libra holders are *purchasing* coins which they can only get rid of on the open market with no market makers.

15/ To make a long story short, this is just another ICO of yet another attempted stablecoin. There is nothing here that we haven't already seen a thousand times.