That’s a blockchain thing. They can fork, but they aren’t going to do that if I lose $150 in Libra. If they can single reverse transactions, there’s really no point to it being a blockchain.
If it’s refundable then they are just paying for the crime itself out of their own pockets. They will still need a human layer to verify theft has occurred and it isn’t a fraudulent claim of theft where just I stole from myself.
They don't need to form the blockchain to reverse a transaction. Since they control redemption and minting, they can simply refuse to redeem from the "losing" party and mint new units to compensate the "winning" party.
>They will still need a human layer to verify theft has occurred and it isn’t a fraudulent claim of theft where just I stole from myself
Or have something similar to credit cards where you're forced into arbitration.
What are Facebook redeeming? I don't think I'll need Facebook to transact with someone else for goods and services with stolen Libra. Goods can then be exchanged for USD and the theft is complete.
They can mint, and that's not a direct debit from Facebook's wallet, but it would devalue the currency ever so slightly.
But that raises the question of 'How much needs to be stolen before I activate the minting process?' If they mint for low theft values, then I can find a way to steal from myself and that's probably a decent amount of passive income. If they only mint for high theft values, then that only helps rich people who suffer the least from theft (unless they cram all of their life savings into it).
All of this depends on how Facebook works with law enforcement to manage the criminal parts of Libra. Working closely with them means we move closer to a corporate state. Working loosely with them means Libra is more vulnerable.
>What are Facebook redeeming? I don't think I'll need Facebook to transact with someone else for goods and services with stolen Libra. Goods can then be exchanged for USD and the theft is complete.
Right, they would also have to block the funds from being moved, which shouldn't be difficult since they control all the validating nodes.
>They can mint, and that's not a direct debit from Facebook's wallet, but it would devalue the currency ever so slightly.
If the funds are frozen, those funds are effectively out of circulation (similar to cash being destroyed or cryptocurrency wallets being lost), so that would cancel out any devaluing effects.
If they block funds, that'll essentially blacklist the address from doing transactions, so it might be possible to launder it through legitimate services (otherwise Facebook blocks an entire exchange's wallet from moving Libra, thus making that exchange halt and catch fire).
What you'd need is a service that allows you to convert from Libra to an item/currency and then back to Libra, ideally with the ability to trade the intermediate item between users.
This heads off into the unexplored territory. I don't think anyone knows how they're going to handle legit services that launder Libra on the side.
If it’s refundable then they are just paying for the crime itself out of their own pockets. They will still need a human layer to verify theft has occurred and it isn’t a fraudulent claim of theft where just I stole from myself.