Nick Szabo  🔑

Protip: If ones decentralized cryptocurrency is backed by centralized fiat currencies then it is neither decentralized nor a cryptocurrency. Protip 2: Decentralization is a means to an end. The end is censorship resistance. Libra is neither.

"Censorship resistance" is what some seek. Others may merely seek to make payments conveniently. I don't know whether Libra will serve either end well; but that some want chocolate ice cream is no reason for them to condemn a plan that caters to those who prefer vanilla.

Censorship resistance is not merely just another consumer preference. In today's political climate it is very probably a necessary condition for the survival of any private digital currency.

Antifa will influence payment processors.

They and a far greater number of many otherwise like-minded people who normally stop short of violence but are perfectly willing to using digitally centralized finance to destroy their political enemies' livelihoods.

People make the mistake thinking that censorship-resistant payments are only about the product being purchased. "Who would censor buying coffee". But censorship resistance is also about the individual or organization doing the purchasing.

Indeed, it is increasingly common to see financial censorship based on the professed beliefs of the individual or organization. As I'm using it here censorship resistance is also about the reliable operation and indeed the very survival of the payment or settlement system itself.