But I cannot conceal from the reader of this truthful account that as I went to bed at about 3 A.M., I was conscious of a profound sense of relief. At last I had the authority to give directions over the whole scene. I felt as if I were walking with Destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial. Eleven years in the political wilderness had freed me from ordinary party antagonisms. My warnings over the last six years had been so numerous, so detailed, and were now so terribly vindicated, that no one could gainsay me. I could not be reproached either for making the war or with want of preparation for it. I thought I knew a good deal about it all, and I was sure I should not fail. Therefore, although impatient for the morning, I slept soundly and had no need for cheering dreams. Facts are better than dreams.
Andrew laid out the case clearly and very well. He covered the basics of the actions taken by these companies and why Australia is such a good place to bring this case. I added some points about the deplatforming background of the social media Goliaths. If you want to deeply understand what’s really going on with advertisers dictating the moves of the tech Goliaths, you really should listen to this section of the No Agenda Show.
Back when Andrew first told me about this case, I told him to stop saying the case was worth $500Bn, nobody would believe him and he sounded like a Bond villain. As I’ve got deeper into the story I’ve realised that’s probably at the low end of what these companies have done. And when Facebook brazenly launched their Libra cryptocurrency, it became absolutely obvious that having destroyed journalism, and gobbled up global media advertising, these companies are fully intending to take over the world’s money supply.
Unfortunately, and this is something I’ve always struggled with because of the naming convention my friend used, I probably inverted Mundia and Modia in the explanation! Mundia is the real physical world, Modia is the world of interpersonal relationships between people. I don’t really like his terms, which is why I explained them at the beginning! I’m more Mundian than Modian. I suspect that what makes Trump so interesting is his ability to excel in both Modian and Mundian worlds.
Today’s show is all about the Libra crypto currency and eco system announced by Facebook this week. The White Paper on this is, truly, a chilling document.
If you want more information or you want to help fund JPB Liberty’s law suit you can read more here and if you want to directly contribute to the funding, please get in touch with me, Telegram is a good way. If you want to contribute now and especially if you’re on Steem, take a look at the project’s Fundition page.
As we embark on this journey together, we think it is important to share our beliefs to align the community and ecosystem we intend to spark around this initiative:
We believe that many more people should have access to financial services and to cheap capital.
We believe that people have an inherent right to control the fruit of their legal labor.
We believe that global, open, instant, and low-cost movement of money will create immense economic opportunity and more commerce across the world.
We believe that people will increasingly trust decentralized forms of governance.
We believe that a global currency and financial infrastructure should be designed and governed as a public good.
We believe that we all have a responsibility to help advance financial inclusion, support ethical actors, and continuously uphold the integrity of the ecosystem.
Bret Stephens in the New York Times (in a condescending piece as usual making clear to denounce those whose free speech he’s begrudgingly defending) has one bright paragraph:
The deeper problem is the overwhelming concentration of technical, financial and moral power in the hands of people who lack the training, experience, wisdom, trustworthiness, humility and incentives to exercise that power responsibly.
Put simply Facebook and Google are individually and jointly too powerful to be run by those accidentally chosen to be running them. Arguably there isn’t a method of governance known to man which could safely control such power.
There are now a number of very credible reports that Facebook is gearing up to launch its own crypto currency for people to use within Facebook’s walled garden. You’ll be able to “buy” into Facebook’s own currency then send and receive crypto money with friends and, I’m sure, buy goods and services from hungry vendors.
A Wall Street Journal report says Facebook is recruiting dozens of financial firms and online merchants to help launch a cryptocurrency-based payments system with each staking up to US$1B. If the company can convince five partners to join them that would make Facebook’s coin one of the five most valuable coins by market capitalisation instantly based on current valuations.
Facebook has a team of about 50 boffins working on the project which is housed in a secured wing at Facebook HQ according to reports.
All the while, Facebook will take a cut of all transactions: 1% 2% or more. We don’t know their fee structure: they’ll be competing with the entire global credit card and payment processing industry and cracking the legs out from under giants like PayPal and their younger competitors. They’ll enter the field with gigantic scale. And I and many other wrong thinking people are ideologically banned from this field of commerce before it even exists.
But what’s really interesting is only one year ago, Facebook declared almost any business considering using the same technology that underlies their crypto-currency (the “blockchain”) is likely to be a scam business and too dangerous to be allowed to advertise on Facebook. Google imposed an identical ban at roughly the same time.
Here’s the effect those advertising bans had on a crypto based social media site and crypto currency called Steem which is a decentralised Facebook replacement and therefore a direct competitor.
Across all the entire blockchain and crypto industries the damages run to hundreds of billion of dollars!
Just so you understand the difference though, I can send and receive Steem to anyone for FREE. No FEES. Facebook will be charging fees somewhere for sure. That’s a feature of crypto currencies but it’s the one Facebook will exploit to make money from you. They’ve already had years selling your private information and your posts, now they want real cash from you.
Advertising ban effect on the price of Steem: across all the entire blockchain and crypto industries the damages run to hundreds of billions of dollars.
Facebook is too dangerous to exist: it is the culmination of a century of dreams by totalitarian dictator musing on how to better spy on and control their populations. That so many willingly submit their most private thoughts to this monster in return for its “features” is a shame of our civilisation.
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