Bitcoin in the News : 2019-05 More++

After documenting last month's price evolution in last week's post Bitcoin in the News : 2019-05 Price, what other news is worth reporting? I ignored all the hand-waving about the continued price recovery (which was nevertheless welcome news), the usual warnings from the gloom-and-doomers (Warren Buffett and Nouriel Roubini both weighed in), and the scams (I counted three). One other story stood out : the Facebook story. In the past year and a half, I've mentioned Mark Zuckerberg's company a number of times. It turns out that those mentions, taken together, make a bigger story.

Bitcoin in the News : 2018-01 More++ • If you were a Facebook user in 2017, you probably noticed the many ICO ads that popped up everywhere, like weeds. That ended at the beginning of 2018.

2018-01-30: Facebook bans all ads for Bitcoin, ICOs, and other cryptocurrency (theverge.com) • 'Facebook is banning all advertisements for cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin and initial coin offerings, as part of an “intentionally broad” policy against deceptive marketers.'

Bitcoin in the News : 2018-03 Price • Facebook wasn't the only company to ban ICO ads.

Cointelegraph's Bitcoin Price Analysis (BPA) • 2018-03-15: Bitcoin++ Price Analysis, March 14: 'Google has followed Facebook in banning cryptocurrency-related advertising. While this is definitely not good news for ICO campaigns that rely heavily on marketing, this is unlikely to hurt the prospects of the coins backed by strong technical fundamentals.

Bitcoin in the News : 2018-04 More++ • Did Facebook have a secondary motive in the ban?

2018-04-24: Let’s destroy Bitcoin (technologyreview.com; MIT) • 'Three ways Bitcoin could be brought down, co-opted, or made irrelevant.' [...] 'Option two: Facebook sneak attack' ['If Facebook could persuade a large enough fraction of Bitcoin users and miners to run its own proprietary version of the Bitcoin software, the company would thereafter control the rules.']

Bitcoin in the News : 2018-12 Price • When did 'Its Own Stablecoin' become public knowledge? How could I have overlooked, even mocked, its importance?

Cointelegraph's Analysis category made no attempt to explain any of those three trends, focusing instead on stories like 'From Blanket Ban to Its Own Stablecoin: How Facebook’s Relationship With Crypto Changed Over 2018', which was the last article in the category for the year 2018.

Bitcoin in the News : 2019-03 More++ • The rumors became official a few months later.

After price, the most frequent bitcoin story in March concerned Facebook. What was that about? • Nytimes.com: 'Facebook and Telegram Are Hoping to Succeed Where Bitcoin Failed ' & Forbes.com: 'Blow To Bitcoin As Mark Zuckerberg Warns Facebook Payments Are Coming'

End-May the story was official. My Google News feed flagged two stories from Forbes:-

• 2019-05-24: Facebook And WhatsApp Break Cover With Bitcoin Rival Plans (forbes.com) • 'Facebook, the social networking giant which owns the popular WhatsApp messaging app and image-based Instagram, is gearing up to launch a rival to bitcoin as soon as next year as it accelerates plans to diversify its revenue away from advertising. The bitcoin-inspired cryptocurrency, reportedly dubbed GlobalCoin, is set to be rolled out for testing by the end of 2018 [2019?], with plans to launch it in 2020 in up to a dozen countries around the world -- potentially sending shockwaves throughout the burgeoning bitcoin and cryptocurrency sector.'
  
  
• 2019-05-27: Facebook's Upcoming 'Cryptocurrency' Has Nothing To Do With Bitcoin (forbes.com) • 'Rumors that Facebook will eventually issue their own cryptocurrency have been swirling for awhile now, but it’s likely that this product will be a "cryptocurrency" in name only and not have anything to do with the utility offered by bitcoin.

The two Forbes stories are by two different writers. Which is it: 'a rival to bitcoin', or '[nothing] to do with the utility offered by bitcoin'? It's probably some third option that is anybody's guess. What is Facebook’s GlobalCoin? (investopedia.com):-

Social media giant Facebook Inc. (FB) may become a formidable player in the rapidly growing markets for digital payments and cryptocurrencies when it enters both arenas early next year. Given its massive estimated base of about 2.375 billion monthly active users (MAU) in virtually every nation worldwide, Facebook could immediately become a major competitor to banks and payments processors such as Mastercard Inc. (MA), Visa Inc. (V), and PayPal Holdings Inc. (PYPL).

My guess is that MA, V, and PYPL have much more to lose from GlobalCoin than bitcoin does.