There's a bunch of problems in current banking system, and unfriendly user interfaces, obscure rules with many gotchas and transaction times are some of them. However, to think that I will trust Facebook more with my money than I trust my bank is, on the current stage, I think plain insane.<p>Also, does using Facebook currency for paying your bills means if you get in trouble with Facebook (which anybody now could by posting a wrong joke, having wrong political ideas or upsetting wrong people) you can not pay them anymore? Would Facebook control the transaction processing (i.e. via Messenger or otherwise)? If yes, then definitely not with a ten foot pole.
Alright, this is just a prepaid access system built on top of <i>crypto</i>. I strongly believe the need for a prepaid access system to lower transaction fees for moving money digitally, but the companies backing this are some of the most vile. This consortium are never going to do anything in the users' interest. If they're making bank on interest from deposits, that's never going to flow back.<p>As well, all these companies (sellers of prepaid access) are going to need to be registered as Money Service Businesses (MSB) in the US. That puts them under all the AML/KYC laws. So we don't even get our libertarian wet dream of money without the red tape. We'll see what their privacy protections look like.<p>I want this technology to exist. I would rather pay 5 cents per news article I read than being prompted for a 10 dollar per month subscription. However, I want this to fail miserably due an extreme lack of faith in the companies behind it. All these companies will fight for regulation that cements their position and prevents others from entering the market.
Hey, anyone remember the last time companies printed their own money? Man, the return of company scrip. I don't see at all how this can turn out bad.
All of these cryptocurrency experiments eventually point out the reason centralized banks were invented in the first place. Usually through major thefts and loss of assets.