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Comment by seanalltogether | Hacker News Reader

> Indeed, that’s why Calibra, the wallet software that will hold Libra Coins, was made a subsidiary of Facebook

The big question for me is whether or not wallets and therefore transactions can be created without needing an 'account' somewhere, just like all other cryptocurrencies. Can I participate in the economy anonymously or do all wallets need to be registered like a traditional bank account.

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You need to sign up and verify your account before you can do anything. Think of this like paypal with blockchain behind the scenes instead of Oracle/Sql or whatever they use as db

Yes, but with pseudonimity. This makes it a lot more censorship resistant (which is PP's main weakness).

It is not pseudonymous. You must supply AML and KYC documents to FB to participate. FB says they intend to fully comply with all government requests. FB will know exactly who owns all the money at all times.

Thats on purchase, not on exchange. The same way you can launder money with Tether.

But if they control the only/main wallet, generating new keys doesn't help. Maybe there will be wallets they don't control but most people won't use them. They will want the simplicity of user search that being integrated with FB provides. /shrug

I'm not savvy enough to understand the legal nuances. They say the allow pseudonimity, which for me means they will not control user-to-user transactions, which means anything goes at exchange time. It will be different if you try to get the cash out of the system, but if you find a large enough Libra market you can live off-grid forever (theoretically).

You can't create a new user without to verify it. All the transactions are monitored(i.e for fraud prevention so expect to receive "suspicious activity" emails and your account frozen). What do you mean off the grid? You don't have access to the blockchain.

This depends on the implementation of pseudonymity. Cash is controlled on the atm, but not when it changes hands. If Libra will allow to move the money internationally, it cant be really monitoring each transaction.

You are referencing the access controls specific to the Calibra wallet, the story for the Libra blockchain with respect to account generation and usage is different. It's open.

They can't use the transaction data to target ads and measure conversions without this. Wallet data is invaluable.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/30/17801880/google-mastercar...

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