Facebook unveiled deals Tuesday for a new global cryptocurrency called Libra, pledging to deliver stable virtual money that lives on smartphones and could bring over a billion "unbanked” people into the financial method. The Libra coin strategy, backed by financial and nonprofit associates, represents an ambitious new initiative for the world´s greatest social network with the potential to bring crypto-money out of the shadows and into the mainstream.
Facebook and few 2 dozen partners launched a prototype of Libra as open source code for programmers interested in weaving it into applications, services or businesses ahead of a rollout as global digital money upcoming year. The nonprofit Libra Association based in Geneva will oversee the blockchain-based coin, maintaining a real-world asset reserve to keep its value stable.
The association´s Dante Disparte declared it could provide online commerce and financial services at minimal price to more than a billion "unbanked” people — adults without bank accounts or those who utilize services outside the banking system like payday loans to make ends meet. "We believe if you provide people usage of money and opportunity at the cheapest price, the way the internet itself did previously with details, you can create a lot more stability than we have had up until now,” Disparate, head of policy and communications, said to AFP.
Facebook will be just one voice among various in the association but is separately constructing a digital wallet called Calibra. "We view this as a complement to Facebook´s mission to attach people wherever they are; that includes allowing them to exchange value,” Calibra vice president of operations Tomer Barel said to AFP. "Many people who use Facebook are in nations where there are barriers to banking or credit .” But the move increased queries about how much new money would be regulated.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire declared such digital money could never exchange sovereign currencies. "The aspect of sovereignty must stay in the hands of states and not private organizations which respond to private interests,” Le Maire said to Europe 1 radio. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney declared Facebook´s new currency would have to withstand the scrutiny of its operational resilience and not permit itself to be used for money laundering or terror financing. ING economists Teunis Brosens and Carlo Cocuzzo declared in an analysis note it was not clear what Libra was or how it might be overseen while US Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat and banking committee member, voiced concerns over Facebook´s checkered record on protecting users´ privacy.
Libra Association debuted with 28 members including Mastercard, Visa, Stripe, Kiva, PayPal, Lyft, Uber and Women´s World Banking. Calibra is being built into Facebook´s Messenger and WhatsApp with a goal of letting customers send Libra as easily as they might fire off a text message. Libra learned from the various other cryptocurrencies that have preceded it such as bitcoin and is made to avoid the roller-coaster valuations that have attracted speculation and caused ruin. The real-world currency will go into a reserve backing the digital money, the worth of which will mirror stable currencies such as the US dollar and the euro, according to its makers.
"It is backed by a reserve of assets that ensures utility and low volatility,” Barel declared. The Libra Association will be the only entity able to "mint or burn” the digital currency, maintaining supply in tune with demand and assets in reserve, according to Barel. "It is not about trusting Facebook, it is efficiently trusting in the association´s founding institutions that this is independent and democratic,” Disparate declared. The launch comes with Facebook seeking to move past a series of lapses on privacy and information security which have tarnished its picture and sparked scrutiny from regulators around the world.
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has promised a new direction for Facebook built around smaller groupings, private messaging and payments. The new Calibra digital wallet promises eventually to give Facebook opportunities to build financial services into its offerings, offer to expand its own commerce and let more small businesses buy ads at the social network.
"We certainly see the long-term value for Facebook,” Barel said. Fb stated it would not make any money through Libra or Calibra but was seeking to "drive adoption and scale” before exploring ways to monetize the new system. Financial details at Calibra will be kept strictly separate from social data at Facebook and won´t be used to focus on ads, Calibra vice president of product Kevin Weil said to AFP. Libra will be a regulated currency, subject to local laws in markets regarding cheating, guarding against money laundering and more, according to Weil.
‘Watershed’ moment ?
According to Facebook and its partners, local currencies and Libra may be swapped at currency trading houses or other businesses. And the ubiquity of smartphones means digital wallets for Libra could make banking and credit card services and e-commerce available in spots where they don´t now exist. Analyst and cryptocurrency investor Lou Kerner declared Facebook´s move has the potential to open the door for cryptocurrency to a wider public.
"What Facebook is actually good at, is making things rather easy to utilize,” Kerner said to AFP. "And that´s what is super exciting for the crypto industry, is someone comes along who understands consumer knowledge and has billions of users that they can roll this out to .”