WEBVTT - What happened to Facebook's digital currency? 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:12.479 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:15.440 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:20.320 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:23.520 tech are you? So? The day that this episode goes 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:26.720 out here in the United States is Labor Day. That's 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:30.320 a holiday, which means our office is closed. But I've 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:33.480 brought you a couple of reruns recently and I didn't 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:36.519 want to do that again, so I thought, why not 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:41.560 talk about, you know, some tech projects that never quite coalesced. 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:44.680 And I'm still going to do that, but you know, 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:47.640 I've done it a couple times before. I've talked about vaporware. 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:51.760 Vaporware refers to a project that at some point is 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:56.000 announced but it fails to manifest. That doesn't mean that 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:59.840 all projects that are called vaporware will always be vapor 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:03.560 where sometimes they do emerge, not always for the better. 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:06.360 For a very long time, I think sort of the 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:10.199 poster child of vaporware for many years was a video game, 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:14.520 and it was titled Duke Nukem Forever. This was considered 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:17.800 vaporware for more than a decade. The company behind it, 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:23.280 three D Realms, formerly known as Apagee Software announced Duke 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:26.800 Nukem Forever way back in nineteen ninety seven. It would 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:30.560 not emerge from development hell for more than a decade. 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:34.080 It did finally come out in twenty eleven to much 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:37.560 critical disdain. But for this episode, I'm actually going to 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:41.679 talk about a single tech project that got the acts, 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:45.880 it did not ever emerge from development, and to talk 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:48.920 about why that is. And in future episodes I am 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:52.480 going to talk about other tech projects that did not 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:56.480 quite make it to market. There's one from Atari in 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:59.640 particular I want to talk about because it was one 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:02.760 of those projects that sounded really interesting, but the closer 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:06.360 you looked at the more you realized, huh, this this 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:09.280 doesn't seem to be quite the same thing that was 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:13.560 marketed to me. But we'll save that for another episode instead. 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:17.880 In this one, I want to talk about a cryptocurrency 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:23.160 that ultimately was called dm but formerly was called Libra. 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:26.520 Now to do this, let's quickly have a refresher on 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:30.760 what cryptocurrency is. Specifically, we're talking about a digital currency 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:35.239 and it relies on encryption methodologies in order to track 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:41.040 and process transactions and payments. So this system has to 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:46.160 one be able to ensure that the currency is linked 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:50.800 to specific accounts belonging to specific people or entities. Otherwise, 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:53.960 if you can't establish that, then you can't be sure 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:58.359 that any transaction is legitimate. So it has to be 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:01.960 able to verify that any given account actually possesses the 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:06.000 funds needed for a transaction. That's first and foremost. Secondly, 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:07.960 the system has to be able to verify that a 0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:11.040 transaction actually takes place. That is, it has to be 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.440 able to register that funds have changed hands from one 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:17.160 account to another. It has to be able to ensure 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:21.400 that no copies of that currency used in the transaction 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:24.800 have been created. Otherwise you could spend the same digital 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:28.560 dollar or whatever multiple times, the whole system would collapse 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:31.120 in short order. Of Essentially, there'd be no protection against 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:35.040 digital counterfeiting, and obviously that's a huge concern, right, Like 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:39.120 digital files are different from physical goods. We've talked about 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:42.280 this numerous times, particularly in the world of piracy. Like 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:44.520 it's one thing if you were to go to like 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:48.800 a big box store and shoplift a DVD, like you've 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:52.600 clearly stolen a copy of that thing, and it's a 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:55.320 copy that the store could have sold and now they're 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:58.720 at a loss. They have one fewer unit in their 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:02.920 inventory because you stole it. It's different if it's a file. 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:05.640 If you make a copy of a file, well, the 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:10.840 original file still exists, it hasn't been deleted, it doesn't disappear, 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:16.000 and maybe you wouldn't have purchased this digital file otherwise, 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:19.599 So there's no loss in sales because all you did 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:23.279 was make a copy. So like there are fundamental differences 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:25.840 between digital goods and physical goods, well, the same thing 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:29.160 is true of digital currency and physical currency. Right, Like 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:34.000 you can't easily duplicate a dollar bill, you could try 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:36.640 to counterfeit one, but it's hard to do. It's hard 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:39.640 to do well, at least, I guess technically it's easy 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:42.160 to do if you're doing a really crappy job. But 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:44.560 you're you're probably gonna get found out if you do that, 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:46.920 So you got to figure out ways to make that 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:52.040 difficult or preferably impossible to do on the digital scale, 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:57.200 or else the whole system doesn't work. So digital currencies 0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:01.080 are tricky. The blockchain has been and sort of the 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:05.680 foundation for many digital currencies ever since it was introduced 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:09.040 in a white paper for Bitcoin way back in the day. 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:12.400 And I'm not going to go into full detail about 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:16.040 what the blockchain is, but just know that the blockchain, 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:19.480 the design of the blockchain was meant to solve some 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:22.880 of these issues, to be able to serve as a 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:27.279 record of transactions and a means of verifying transactions, and 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:30.840 to make sure that nobody is trying to, you know, 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:35.599 get a little creative and be able to exploit the 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:40.160 system by hacking it or whatever. Now, some digital currencies 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:44.960 are inherently volatile, which means their value can change wildly 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:47.880 in a relatively short amount of time. It's great to 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:52.400 talk about that because when I started working on this episode, 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:56.680 bitcoin's value was at sixty thousand dollars about six three 0:05:56.720 --> 0:06:00.839 hundred and seventy bucks right around that area. Days before 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:04.400 I started working on the episode, it was trading at 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:08.360 more than sixty four thousand dollars per bitcoin. So a 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:12.080 single bitcoin's value changed by around four grand in just 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:15.960 five days, which is wild. Today, as I record this, 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:19.080 the value is below sixty thousand dollars, so it's changed 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:21.960 even more now. A little less than a year ago, 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:26.479 bitcoin was valued at around twenty five thousand dollars per bitcoin, 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:29.400 so the value has doubled in less than a year, 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:31.400 but then in the course of a week it is 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:36.280 dropped by five thousand dollars. That's crazy volatility, and it 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:39.920 makes it really hard to use the currency as an 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:44.240 actual currency because the value of the currency changes so 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:48.320 dramatically and so quickly, even though you're talking about fractions 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:52.799 of a bitcoin per transaction, unless you're moving massive amounts 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:56.159 of wealth around, it could mean that what looks like 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:58.640 a bargain one day could turn out to be a 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:01.000 case where you're dramatically over paid for something just a 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:04.200 couple of days later. Right if it turns out the 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:07.440 nickel you used to buy a candy bar the following 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:11.520 day could have bought you a Chevy that you're gonna think, Wow, 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:13.760 that was the most expensive candy bar I've ever bought. 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:17.000 And it's not really that I guess that the value 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:19.200 has changed over the course of those days, but it 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:21.200 does mean that if you had held onto that nickel, 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:23.080 you could have bought a lot of candy bars just 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:26.240 a couple of days later. This is one of the 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.680 big reasons why I'm not a fan of bitcoin. Just one. 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:34.679 There are periods where bitcoin's value is a little more stable, 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:38.560 but it's always somewhat volatile. However, there is an alternative 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:43.600 to this kind of cryptocurrency. Bitcoin isn't tied to any 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:47.200 other assets. It is its own thing, But there are 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:51.840 subsets of cryptocurrencies called stable coins. Now, these currencies link 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:56.160 their value to stable assets such as the US dollar. 0:07:56.520 --> 0:07:59.600 The value of the currency fluctuates with the value of 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:03.320 those assets, but otherwise it's far less volatile than other types. 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:06.160 So you know, the US dollar, obviously we have inflation. 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:09.120 That's been an issue for the last few years, and 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.280 that would affect stable coins that were tied to the 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:16.000 US dollar. But even that volatility is nothing compared to 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:19.600 what you see in a cryptocurrency like bitcoin. So your 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:23.160 typical cryptocurrency also has a system that to some extent 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:29.640 democratizes things. Traditional currencies come from established financial institutions, typically 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:34.800 ones that have to obey strict regulations. Cryptocurrencies eschew this 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:39.280 centralized financial system to some degree or another. With bitcoin, 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:42.439 all the computers that connect to the Bitcoin ecosystem are 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:46.360 technically they're part of this, so it's democratized across all 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:50.640 of them. There's no centralized bank or anything like that. Now, 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:53.920 Libra would be a little bit different. Its network would 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:57.800 be limited to approved partners, So it's not just any 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:01.959 Yahoo who could join and become part of the Libra association, 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:05.839 but anyone could presumably at least participate in the ecosystem 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:09.679 through the buying and use of digital currency, you know, 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:14.920 converting other currencies or what I sometimes refer to. This 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:17.920 is not accurate, but it is sometimes how I find 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:21.480 myself accidentally referring to them as real currencies and then 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:25.600 digital currencies. That's reductive. It shows a real bias in 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:29.000 my perspective, but it is something I fall into accidentally, 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:31.120 so it could happen in this episode. Just a heads up. 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:35.160 So let's talk about Libra. So, Facebook, which had not 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:39.120 yet rebranded itself as Meta the company itself was called 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:42.320 Facebook at this time, announced Libra in the summer of 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:45.880 twenty nineteen. They published a white paper about it, and 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:49.640 that document opens by saying, quote Libra's mission is to 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:55.520 enable a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:58.440 billions of people. End quote. By the way, if you 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:01.640 want to read this white paper, I actually recommend using 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:05.640 archive dot org because I mean, just from the topic 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:09.040 of the episode, you already know Libra doesn't exist anymore. 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:14.599 Even DM, the rebranded version of Libra, doesn't exist anymore. 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:19.679 So the assets online that were records of this are 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:22.679 largely gone because it's it's kind of it's a dead project. 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:25.160 It's moot. But if you use archive dot org you 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:28.520 can go back and read those papers. I recommend you 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:29.920 do it if you want to learn more about what 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:32.560 it was trying to be. So the concept was Libra 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:36.160 wouldn't just be a cryptocurrency ecosystem, but also one that 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:42.440 would support smart contracts. Smart contracts can be pretty much anything, really. 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:45.680 It's meant to be like a thing built on top 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:50.320 of blockchain that allows for different types of transactions. Those 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:54.080 could be things like the deed to real estate. It 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:58.440 could be a smart contract for a purely digital asset. 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:00.360 It could be all sorts of stuff. But it would 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:03.080 also enable people who might otherwise have little to know 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:06.040 options to bank their money as a way to store 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:09.480 and move money around, because not everyone in the world 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:11.960 has access to a bank, but a lot of people 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:16.440 do have access to a smartphone. And I genuinely believe 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:18.800 that most of the people who are actually working on 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:21.360 the nuts and bolts of Libra were doing so with 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:25.840 this ideal in mind, that this could be a system 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:31.000 that could empower people, particularly people in developing countries, and 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:34.120 to remove barriers that otherwise make it really difficult to 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:38.800 deal with money across borders. Transferring money is often hard 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:42.520 or impossible, or at the very least very expensive, particularly 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:45.240 when you want to move money from one country to another. 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:49.280 So Libra could potentially open up opportunities for billions of 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:51.680 people to be able to do this in a way 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:55.240 that wouldn't represent a huge hardship. That I think is 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:59.800 a fairly noble ideal. The problem is bringing that ideal 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:02.280 in to reality, because that was going to take a 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:05.720 lot of work and a lot of luck, and Libra 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:09.280 would find problems with both of those things. I'll explain more, 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:12.240 but first let's take a quick break to thank our sponsors. 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:24.360 Before the break, I was talking about how Libra was 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:29.560 going to encounter some hurdles in its path toward empowering 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:33.160 billions of people and also in the process generating a 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:37.520 a heck ton amount of revenue for the various partners 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:42.040 in the Libra Association, particularly Facebook. Well. For one thing, 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.240 one of the challenges that they faced right away was 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:48.360 a matter of trust, so there was no single company 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:52.760 serving as the governing body that was controlling the Libra network. 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:56.920 But the fact that Facebook was spearheading this effort gave 0:12:57.000 --> 0:13:00.000 a lot of people pause because this is the same 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:04.160 company that has built a multi billion dollar business that 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:09.040 centers around the collection and commoditization of user data. Most 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:11.320 of the time, when Facebook is in the news, it's 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:14.640 not positive for the company. It's usually some story about 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:17.520 how the company is aggressively finding new ways to generate 0:13:17.679 --> 0:13:20.840 enormous amounts of revenue by trading and user information in 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:23.439 some way, or trying to find new ways to attract 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:27.160 more users in order to sell their information, or how 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:30.199 they are a bad steward of information, or how they 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:34.679 are aware of the potential negative impact their product has. Really, 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:37.959 I shouldn't say their product that their various platforms have 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:42.160 on their product, because we're not really the users. We're 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:45.760 the product here because it's our information that's being bought 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:50.720 and sold. So Facebook's customers aren't its users. Facebook's customers 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:55.880 are advertisers. We're the product, right Anyway, that's not something 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:59.880 that is great pr if you're also trying to push 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:02.880 out a digital currency, So there were real worries that 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:07.360 a digital currency introduced by Facebook would primarily be meant 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:10.520 as a way of generating yet more wealth for the corporation. 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:13.640 Anything else would just be of secondary importance. Could it 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:17.440 empower billions of people? Maybe, but that wasn't really what 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:20.280 it was about. That was the perception. Now that might 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:23.480 be an unfair assumption, but I would argue it's also 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:27.640 an understandable one based upon Facebook's long history. Now, for 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:31.520 the record, Facebook from the beginning, at least based on 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:35.440 the white paper, envisioned a consortium of organizations that would 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:39.520 serve as the governing entity over the blockchain and currency, 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:43.560 and this was initially called the Libra Association, which in 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:47.280 itself was designated as a not for profit organization that 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:51.800 would be headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. There were twenty eight 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:58.360 founding members listed and it included companies like MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, eBay, 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:02.000 Stripe and more. Though later on some of these organizations 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:04.280 would say that they had never signed any kind of 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:08.480 official agreement and so calling them a founding organization would 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:11.120 be misleading. It was more like they were interested, but 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:14.600 they never committed to it. In fact, between June twenty 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:18.760 nineteen and the first meeting of this association in October 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:21.920 of that same year, seven of the twenty eight companies 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:25.600 withdrew their names from the proverbial hat. So PayPal was 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:28.280 the first to hit that eject button on October fourth, 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:33.280 and on the eleventh, several companies, including Visa, Stripe, and 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:36.120 MasterCard all bailed in a matter of just a couple 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:38.360 of hours. So, according to the Verge, by the time 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:42.240 the meeting happened on October fourteenth, every major US payment 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:45.840 processor that had been announced as part of this association 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:48.760 had abandoned it. So they were all out before the 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:52.240 first meeting happened. That's a big problem, right. The payment 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:57.400 processing companies certainly would lend legitimacy to, if not actual 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:02.520 process and structure to the Libra Association, but they all left. 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:05.680 Why though, Well, perhaps a big part of that was 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:09.200 the first meeting would include deciding what roles and responsibilities 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:12.680 each member of the association would actually be responsible for, 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:15.320 and some of these companies had leaders who were likely 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:19.880 saying something like, Yeah, I'd rather bounce now rather than 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:22.960 face obligations that I'm not ready or able to meet. 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:26.880 But perhaps more importantly, governments in general, and regulators in 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:30.840 particular around the world, including the United States, were starting 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:36.120 to scrutinize digital currencies in general, cryptocurrencies in particular, and 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:40.600 there were serious concerns that, you know, these currencies could 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:44.560 be used by say, criminals and terrorists to launder money 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:46.520 and to move it around the world in ways that 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:50.080 would be difficult or impossible to detect and track and 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:54.240 police and big established companies aren't typically not very keen 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:57.720 on being associated with systems that potentially could facilitate the 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:01.880 funding of say, a terrorist action or whatnot that is 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:07.000 very bad pr so this project represented far too great 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:10.879 a risk. Besides, Facebook already had a really bad reputation 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:14.760 with regulators as far as protecting user information went, so 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:18.240 having a project that emerged from a company with such 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:22.040 a bad reputation was kind of a huge detriment from 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:25.200 the start. That just got worse as government officials became 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:29.399 very interested in Facebook's operations following a whistleblower coming forward 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:34.520 with internal documents showing some extremely unflattering stuff about the company. 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:37.760 So Facebook, as partly a result of this, or I 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:40.240 would argue as a result of this, underwent a name 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:43.800 change to Meta and backed away from Libra as well. 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:47.800 I think the name change to Meta was largely to 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:53.040 distance itself from those accusations that were made by the whistleblower, 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:56.280 and that this was an attempt to kind of like 0:17:56.400 --> 0:17:59.920 wipe the slate clean of kind of a desperate attempt. Now. 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:03.520 I think Meta would say the rebrand was because the 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:07.120 company was so much more than just Facebook, and there 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:11.320 was this new focus on creating the metaverse, something that 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:14.800 continues to be kind of a well, joke is too 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:19.320 strong a word. It certainly mocked the concept of the 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:23.560 metaverse and Meta's continued dedication to trying to bring that about. 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:25.760 I think a lot of people are kind of just 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:29.360 not sold on the metaverse idea at all. Anyway. As 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:32.359 part of this effort, Facebook, I guess, sensing that this 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:36.560 was kind of a non starter, backed away from Libra, 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:41.600 and that's when Libra had its own rebranding and became DM, 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:43.920 partly in an effort to provide a little more distance 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:49.320 between the association and Facebook slash Meta Plus. At this point, 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:52.000 like most of the founding companies were no longer part 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:55.280 of this association and the plans had changed quite a bit, 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:58.840 So instead of offering a single stable coin currency tied 0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:02.520 to lots of different assets. The plan shifted to offering 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:06.359 different digital currencies, each one anchored to a different real 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:10.040 world asset. However, regulators were still concerned about how this 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:13.760 could potentially disrupt the financial infrastructure of various countries, including 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:16.560 the United States, and it became clear that any path 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:20.560 forward was going to be extremely challenging and time consuming. 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:23.879 And it just turned out the Association wasn't willing to 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:26.920 stick it out, that there was too much uncertainty about 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:30.480 what would or would not be allowed, that the vision 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:33.320 was just going to be compromised multiple times in an 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:36.760 effort to be able to meet whatever regulations would emerge. 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:40.680 And so in early twenty twenty two, the DM Association 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:44.159 announced it was actually selling off all assets to Silvergate 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:48.159 Capital Corporation for the princely sum of one hundred and 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:50.280 eighty two million dollars. So you might think, oh, well, 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:53.159 maybe Silvergate would make something of it, except that the 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:57.000 following year Silvergate Capital liquidated. That was the bank that 0:19:57.080 --> 0:19:59.720 in March twenty twenty three went out a business and 0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:04.040 liq Quid dated largely because of the spectacular collapse of FTX, 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:08.680 So that was the sad but short Tale of Libra. 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:11.879 I hope all of you had an amazing weekend. For 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:13.640 those of you in the United States, I hope you're 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:15.960 having a great Labor Day and I will talk to 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:26.560 you again really soon. Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:31.880 For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:37.560 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.