Thread by @MikeIsaac

1. im a libra

2. forget that this is a cryptocurrency— Facebook wants to replace banks

nytimes.com/2019/06/18/tec…

something touch on in piece but i think is key:

as Facebook is moving (slooooowly) away from advertising based-monetization in *public* posts, and towards "private" sharing, creating a financial system is a way to monetize the wealth of non-visible activity on platform

many, many people in Silicon Valley like to say that private messaging has never been successfully monetized in its history

this is a way to eventually monetize WhatsApp and Messenger, two enormous networks owned by facebook but that currently mostly function as cost centers

this essentially boils down to a two-sided network issue, the problem all nascent platforms face:

consumers wont use a currency if it isn’t widely accepted (or in this case if they dont trust FB) and merchants wont accept a currency if theres no reason for them to

each company involved w/ Libra Association will cough up a minimum of $10 million. with a goal of 100 partners by 2020, thats a billion bucks

all of that money will go to incentives for merchants/consumers

(it was erroneously reported last week that funding would back the coin)

so, like any platform, its just a matter of uptake

i think Facebook doesn’t care as much about developed markets — where it has the worst reputation — and can go after the huge swaths of the developing world home to:

1. Low ad ARPU users and 2. primarily cash based societies

this also might be a problem.....