Everybody is now pretty excited about Facebook’s cryptocurrency project. After all, it took more than a year in the making and now it should finally will be unveiled next week.
With its partners, Facebook will introduce the Libra Association, based in Geneva, which will oversee Libra, “a simple global currency and financial infrastructure” meant to reach billions of people.
The report claims to have seen an unspecified blog post published on Facebook, in whisch is said that the Libra crypto asset will be hosted on the dedicated Libra Blockchain and backed by the Libra Reserve. The Libra Reserve is allegedly a store of real assets that should supposedly grant the token “stability, low inflation, global acceptance, and fungibility.”
The report also notes that the software underlying the network will be open-sourced under the Apache 2.0 license. It seems that the company has high hopes in the system that should be helping people without access to the financial system.
However, it’s interesting to know that this blog post, was sent to major publications over the course of the last week in conjunction with detailed briefings but was not sent to any of a major crypto publication. The Block, as they explained, got it from several sources, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Allegedly, it wasn’t shared with any cryptocurrency publications under an embargo by Facebook, according to sources who say the firm didn’t want to work with such outlets. Facebook however denied that it wasn’t planning on working with such firms.
In the post, Facebook, as expected, criticizes existing blockchains, saying they have yet to reach mainstream adoption and making them poor solutions as a store of value and medium of exchange. Facebook believes that its collaborative, compliant and regulated approach will help it overcome hurdles faced by other cryptocurrencies.
People are being pretty much sceptic looking at the Facebook Coin finding it a threat to US Dollar, that will bypass banks. To start – Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Uber – each of these companies are reportedly spending $10 million each on nodes to govern the coin.
Sarah Jamie Lewis, an executive director at the Open Privacy Research Society recently tweeted:
Can't wait for a cryptocurrency with the ethics of Uber, the censorship resistance of Paypal, and the centralization of Visa, all tied together under the proven privacy of Facebook. https://t.co/C4FymDjtFw
— Sarah Jamie Lewis (@SarahJamieLewis) June 14, 2019
Enterpreneur Charlie Shrem tweeted:
I'm just gonna say it.
I think the "FacebookCoin" is an attempt by big tech, banks and credit card companies to lure people away from #Bitcoin into their "better, easier, crypto", which is nothing more than a fiat coin being masqueraded as crypto.
Millions will be fooled.
— Charlie Shrem (@CharlieShrem) June 14, 2019
Be it as it may, it remains unanswered how will crypto companies fight for survival. Will they start to cooperate, allocating resources to have clear unified industry messages, or this is just another typical example of a Prisoners’ Dilemma, it’s for us to see – starting June18.
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