Why Governments are scared of Libra and virtual currencies

Why has Facebooks plan to launch its currency Libra in 2020 and is being condemned  by the governments across the board? (See what they are saying https://australianinnovation.blogspot.com/2019/09/what-governments-are-saying-about-libra.html) 

He/She/It  who controls communication, the virtual world and the economy (the money)- controls the world. 

Does the USA Government feels  that if they don’t have control of the airwaves, currency and communication in virtual space, it will marginalise their power?

When a company controls the economy and knows more about every citizen than their government does, government will sooner or later want access and control over that information.

This may lead to breaking up the company and the Government(s) taking control of the business.

It’s can be likened to a punter “beating the bank” at a casino. He/She/It  will be kicked out. It’s sort of like “right of admission reserved” 

Bill Davidow talks about the power of virtual space, currency and what the threat to physical governments are. 

“The Big IT companies are companies but they are also the ruling governments in virtual space. 

Virtual space is as real as physical space.  They are autocratic regimes.  In virtual space, they will do the equivalent of what autocratic regimes do in physical space.  

Now one solution to the problem is to tell the governments of virtual space to act nicely and respect the rights of others.  That would work about as well as asking Vladimir Putin to act nicely and respect the rights of Ukrainians.  

The governments in virtual space are a very real threat to the governments in physical space.  

The real threat of the Libra in my opinion has nothing to do with many laundering.  

The real threat is that a well designed virtual currency will be better than the dollar or Euro.  

If that happens the USA could lose its power to issue debt in its own currency. US citizens might prefer the Libra to the dollar just as citizens of third world countries prefer Bitcoin to local currency. If that happened the government would be out of the dollar business”

So what is Libra ? https://australianinnovation.blogspot.com/2019/09/what-is-difference-between-libra-and.html

What is the difference between libra and bitcoin

https://www.finance-watch.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Libra-Paper_Finance-Watch_EN.pdf

Most people’s understanding of “crypto-currencies” is based on the original concept of the Bitcoin4: “a decentralised, peer-to-peer virtual currency, based on open-source code where ledgers comprising the inventory of coins, and their transaction history (the blockchain), are distributed to thousands of independent nodes which are, in turn, reconciled, automatically, continuously and without human interference, by a mathematics-based reconciliation (consensus) mechanism.”

Libra is not a crypto-currency like Bitcoin: its coin is not created through a mathematical computation process (“mining”) but through the exchange of official (fiat) currency against a digital payment token created by a number of authorised servers, which are operated by the Libra Association. It is not a peer- to-peer system and not, strictly speaking, a distributed system either: Libra uses a closed (‘permissioned’) blockchain where its ledgers are held only on Libra Association’s authorised servers. 

(Those that control the servers - control the money)

Consider instead a gift token, issued by your favourite shop, which can be redeemed only where it has been issued.

What Governments are saying about Libra - the Facebook currency

The US regulators and politicians have expressed serious concerns close on the mid-2019 Libra announcement of Libra - the Facebook currency.

Maxine Waters, Chairperson of the United States House Committee on Financial Services Committee asked Facebook to halt the development and launch of Libra, citing a list of recent scandals and that "the cryptocurrency market currently lacks a clear regulatory framework". 

The U.S. House Committee on Financial Services Democrats sent a letter to Facebook asking the company to stop development of Libra, citing concerns of privacy, national security, trading, and monetary policy. 

Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, testified before Congress on 10 July that the Fed had "serious concerns" as to how Libra would deal with "money laundering, consumer protection and financial stability.”  

Among the many international voices of condemnation, Bank of England’s governor Mark Carney, says something I find wise, that there is a need to keep an "open mind" about new technology for money transfers, but "anything that works in this world will become instantly systemic and will have to be subject to the highest standards of regulation."

[26]  Finance Watch puts it bluntly: "If created, Facebook’s Libra is predestined to become the next (and possibly the most difficult to regulate) too-big-to-fail financial institution. Imagine a global private entity managing a volume of assets potentially larger than many systemic banks combined, providing financial services to billions of people through a single click. The implications of creating such an institution are probably beyond any supervisory controls, and no one can tell in which world such “innovation” would take us.”

Will the governments effectively takeover the running of Facebook?

Will Facebook effectively become the new government?

Is the virtual world as real as the real world? 

If government takes control and breaks organisations up - is the free economy as we know it at risk? 

Jack Ma and Elon Musk - life, education , jobs, the future and AI

Just listened to a great pod with Jack Ma and Elon Musk talking AI 

life, Education , Jobs And the future of the planet 

Will /can machines control man?

Is it relevant that machines can solve algorithms faster than man ?

Are Humans merely just a biological bootloader for Intelligence or is AI just a toy and an aid that will be about helping humans being happier and healthier. 

Jack Ma 

• “The power of the human is that  we have a heart with feelings and  that we make mistakes and learn from them 
• Humans need to understand each other - be healthy - help earth to be better 
• Focus on picking up garbage from ocean - ai can help 
• Live healthier vs longer - disease caused by behaviour 
• Have dreams values and vision - Technology with dreams - Its dreams behind the technology that will change the world 
• Improve earth - focus on being happy, have  family - we need to trust human beings and young people
• It’s great that we make mistakes and learn from mistakes - it’s great to die 

Elon Musk 

“We are already a cyborg - we can’t do without our phones - if we don’t have our phone - it’s like losing a limb.

The rate of advancement on technology is insane !! 

Gaming and real world will be indistinguishable .

We’ve only been around 7,000 years - it’s a blip in the life of the universe . “

Interplanetary Investment 

Jack Ma

Why are we so curious about Mars ? Let’s rather focus on making life a better place on Earth . 

Elon 

We need to explore other planets ....and invest in actions to increase state of consciousness - Something might happen to earth  - via an external force or internal force - where earth 🌍 will be impaired 

We need to explore what else is beyond earth - light of consciousness

Jack Ma 

rather focus on the Future of Earth or the next 100 years - How can we make 7b people better off 

We only have 100 years - how can we enjoy better.

 We need to understand ourselves better

Jobs

• In every cultural period - average age 31
• Industrial  revolution  -70 years 
• Ai  - 120 years 

Humans living longer - good or bad ? 

Jack Ma - why do we need jobs that can be done by machines? 

People have been worried in every revolution 

Industrial revolution  - jobs created jobs

Why should we need jobs? 

People should only need to work 3days per week - 4 hours a day - 

Electricity gave us more time - we can do more things 

Ai - people will enable us to do even more 

We need Jobs to make people happier - experience life. 

Elon say to figure out neurolink situation or we will be left behind - we don’t have much time to solve neurolink 

Education 

Jack ma on education 

Education systems  and the way we teach has been for industrial period - machines smarter

Human Beings are wiser than machines  - need to change our education system 

Computers are smarter - machines can calculate better tbe same way as cars can travel faster 

Education should be more  creative more constructive - we should focus more on teaching  kids in art, seeing dancing and being able to learn how to learn .

We should have confidence to try - failure is ok - mistakes hb make - that makes us learn 

Best resources on earth is the human brain - Humans have heart - it’s the heart where humans come from 

Machines are toys and tools for human beings to control 

Elon Musk on education 

believes we are just an evolvement of a better machine.  - We have evolved - but we are not last step on evolution 

We need to Learn as much as possible to predict or make the future - 

Education needs to be about predicting the future  with less error . We need to create and predict - close loop on being less wrong 

Education and Neurolink - will be like the matrix - just upload skill

Current Education is slow - lectures and lessons are the worsed - there needs to be a better way. 

If we are able to accurately to Predict future - we can then  adjust?

Birth rates and sustainability of the planet 

Both agree that there will be a Population collapse vs explosion 

Humans only have a 20 year boot sequence 

Humans will solve environmental sustainability 

Do neurolink or neurolace - age will not matter - you will be able to restore your state 

To increase human life you need Biological change - fruit fly - it will still have finite life 

Need to change DNA - is that ok ? 

Stop DNA clock - should we work on this - 

It’s good to eventually do 

Old physicist don’t change their  mind they just   die .

The future of travel that’s boring?

The 9 rules of innovation

Collaboration is the new competitive advantage 

Startups , Innovators and Technology Companies are under attack by the ATO and AusIndustry

I usually write and post about positive things and growth ..... this reticle is different - as I believe something needs to be done - soon.

The positive news - is that we have an innovation minister in Karen Andrews that seems to be listening and is looking to make a change.

The Bad News

Australia has slipped from 16th to 18th place, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF) - And is getting worse !

The top 7 places in the global digital competitiveness rankings are dominated by Singapore, China, northern Europe and the US. These countries lead the way in embedding and leveraging digital technologies. Critically, they are characterised by business and governments that embraces new digital technologies and innovations. 

Innovators , Startups and Technology companies start off as high risk ventures - going out on a limb to build new products, services and businesses . 

These businesses in Australia have recently been under attack and at risk for claiming R and D tax Concessions .

The rigid re-interpretation and tightening of the laws regarding the eligibility of software claims - has resulted in a clawback of $200 million in the 2018 financial year from companies that had made claims under the R&D Tax Incentive (RDTI) , and has effectively put all software developement and innovation at risk - resulting in a reduction in R&D support going where it is best deployed, at the cutting edge of Australian technology.

This is putting the survival of many SME and Startup companies focussed on Research and Development and innovation at risk - which will, in my view, is not in the best interests of the future of Australia.

AirTree Ventures co-founder Daniel Petre (former Innovation and Science Australia board member ) has call government’s treatment of tech companies “appalling”.

Small business ombudsman Kate Carnell has launched an investigation into this after receiving complaints from small business about unfair treatment by the ATO and AusIndustry in relation to R&D tax incentive claims.

“Of particular concern are audits going back several years, which have resulted in the ATO demanding businesses repay the R&D Tax Incentive, often with a severe penalty applied,” Ms Carnell said.

“Unfortunately some of these businesses have been told to pay back the tax benefit years after the R&D has been completed. This is well after they received the refund from the ATO and reinvested that money back into the business,” she said.

“Most of these businesses were genuine in their belief they were undertaking R&D and that their claims were totally justified.”

The Good News 

Industry Minister Karen Andrews has engaged with industry through a series of stakeholder roundtables since the election where the administration of the R&D tax incentive has been raised as an issue, particularly among startups.

I look forward to reporting a positive outcome for our Innovators , Startups and Technology Companies. 

Here’s hoping that we can once again bring Australia to the forefront of Global Innovation - and encourage innovators to take risk, innovate , and do research and development - with the blessing and support of Government 

If you are innovating or are interested in being a part of our innovation community , join us at our bbg innovation forum 

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/bsi-innovation-forum-powered-by-bbg-tickets-50474711220