Why Face Coin Might Be the Birth of a Cultural Dystopia (And How to Avoid It).
The world of crypto seems to have stopped on its rails to talk about the upcoming Face Coin.
What started with a controversial Ad ban (Facebook banning ICO and cryptocurrency-related content advertising ‘to protect investors’) quickly transitioned into full-scale development of a digital money system –allegedly — within Whatsapp.
These advances put us crypto and blockchain enthusiasts in a crossroads we’ve never experienced: With the ‘end-all-be-all’ mass adoption showing on our doorstep… is it time to step back and take a good, hard look at the current state of affairs, or welcome it? In reality, Face Coin seems too much like an up-and-coming dystopia… and here’s why.
Orwellian Tones
George Orwell’s 1984 is commonly forced as a reference whenever the government surveillance topic arises. In the novel, a futuristic society is repressed and scared into fitting the mould, while being constantly monitored by entities such as the ‘Big Brother’ and the ‘Thought Police’.
Facebook, however, seems to have found a method to make the (so many times) misquoted novel into an outright future prediction. Were they to succeed in the creation of their currency, by 2020 Facebook would own:
- A stable, centralised, private currency issued and regulated by them.
- Artificial Intelligence programs that include facial recognition, translation, machine-listening, and more.
- Control of two of the biggest user-generated image and video platforms, Facebook and Instagram, with user bases in the billions.
- Access to private conversations through Whatsapp and Messenger, from which they collect data.
- Control over one of the world’s most influential advertising platforms.
- Control over public conversations through their terms of advertising and user policies.
- Access to countless data, including (but not limited to) GPS, user preferences, interactions, search results, etc.
- And now, a private economy to be launched in a billion-user controlled environment, which leads to…
It WILL be adopted by the masses
Launching on Whatsapp almost guarantees that Face Coin will succeed.
Through their experience on growing as a leading product and being one of the biggest tech companies in History, Facebook has proved time and time again that they’re not one to shy from a challenge. And, indeed, Face Coin can be a great product: Integrating cross-border digital money into messaging apps can be a paradigm-changer and result in immediate adoption. More so when immediately presented as an opportunity to do business, remit money, and do quick transactions to more than a billion people.
Having a private company issue money on a large scale can, however, also result in the company controlling more resources and gaining a power that can rival independent States in a full-on, Facebook-style, for-profit fashion. A scary perspective for those who believe cryptocurrency should be about decentralisation.
Short the Monopolies!
Whether you root for decentralisation or not, those with more experience in the crypto field will have to lead the upcoming masses.
It would be wrong for us –or anyone — to call for a boycott on Face Coin arguing that the currency issuers already hold too much power, and we are not trying to assume this place. As members of the crypto community and blockchain enthusiasts, we believe in the importance of claiming financial systems in the name of their users, which can only be achieved by avoiding monopolies and incentivising participation.
We urge all users, present and future, to encourage forward thinking when it comes to cryptocurrency. Also, to understand that not all future currencies will be equal, or as “simple” as fiat, and that that is a good thing.
Crypto has given us the power to create currencies purely for speculation, tokenisation, privacy, support decentralization, secure assets, and many more use cases. These differences help keep the crypto game competitive, and should not be ignored in the emergence of a “convenient” tool. At the end of the day, the alternative can be too ugly to bear it.
We’re getting closer and closer to the official launch of our wallet, diamDEXX! We’re very excited to be issuing DiamCoin (DIAM), the first currency to be 100% backed by real, physical diamonds, one of the best-performing assets in the world. Also, we’ll be launching our official Airdrop pretty soon, so stay tuned at our social media for more updates!
To learn more and follow our project, go to:
Website: https://www.hello-diamonds.com/blockchain-solutions/
Telegram: https://t.me/HelloDiamcoin
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hello_diamonds
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hellodiamonds/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hellodiamondsblockchain/
BitcoinTalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5108758
Join the discussion on our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/534848783684156/
