Libra, Facebook’s Cardinal ‘Global Currency’

First things first! What does Libra mean in this context? Libra the upcoming “Global Currency” from Facebook, etymologically means a unit of weight, equivalent to 12 ounces (0.34 kg). It was the forerunner of the pound. But, is that what they mean here? Most definitely, not.

The wordplay here is with the syllable ‘Lib’ which means ‘Freedom’, a subtle indication of Facebook’s impending solution towards making a global currency that gives financial freedom to billions of people. By becoming a bank to them in the most minimalistic way possible, Libra is set to reach about 1.7 billion people(You can use the wallet, transfer funds in Messenger and Whatsapp, yes that easy!)

According to Libra’s Whitepaper, the currency’s mission is defined as follows, Libra’s mission is to enable a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people.

Word on Privacy by the Man himself

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg threw light on the philosophy behind the whole data-leak and privacy concerns hovering around the currency. This is one important aspect Facebook Inc. is taking care of right from the beginning. He said, “It’s decentralized — meaning it’s run by many different organizations instead of just one, making the system fairer overall. It’s available to anyone with an internet connection and has low fees and costs. And it’s secured by cryptography which helps keep your money safe. This is an important part of our vision for a privacy-focused social platform — where you can interact in all the ways you’d want privately, from messaging to secure payments.”

Note: However, it is important to know that the transaction will be protected by Pseudonyms and not through Anonymity. This is one aspect that Facebook needs to be worried about.

So, what kind of currency will Libra be?

Libra’s value is meant to stay stable, so it acts as a fair medium of exchange, as merchants can be confident they won’t be paid a Libra today that’s worth less tomorrow. It is to be a stable coin right to the core. Libra’s value is tied to a basket of bank deposits and short-term government securities for a slew of historically stable international currencies, including the dollar, pound, euro, Swiss franc, and yen.

Libra Association is still figuring out the exact start value for the Libra, but it’s meant to be somewhere close to the value of a dollar, euro or pound so it’s easy to conceptualize. That way, a gallon of milk in the U.S. might cost $3 or in future money equivalent to 3 Libra, similar but not exactly the same as with dollars.

Partners – The initial Libra Associates

Facebook has been looking out for partners to fill the 100 planned nodes on the Libra’s blockchain. As of now, there are 28 partners from different segments;

Payment Network – Visa and Mastercard
Fintech firms – PayPal, Coinbase, and Stripe
Venture Capitals – Thrive and Andreessen Horowitz
Non-Government Organizations – Kiva and Women’s World Banking
Telecom – Vodafone
Marketplaces – eBay, Lyft, Uber, and Spotify.

The ambitions of each partner are varied: the software companies augur economical global payments (especially focused on micropayments). The NGOs wish to offer newer ways to provide financial services to the people who don’t have basic banking facilities (they could later become customers of the other financial partners).

Blockchain partners envision Libra as a means to target other cryptocurrencies. Another new entrant is Calibra, Facebook’s subsidiary that is creating a wallet and other seamless processes for the Libra ecosystem.

There are no banks that have joined hands with the Social Media giant on this, however, the company says it’s open to partnering with banks.

Revenue – Libra’s all about the longer run!

Facebook is not going for the short game and is clearly aiming to stabilize its relevance in the longer run. This is evident from Facebook’s Vice President of Blockchain David Marcus’ verbatim, “If more commerce happens, then more small businesses will sell more on and off a platform, and they’ll want to buy more ads on the platform so it will be good for our ads business.”

So, Facebook has started its journey North with Libra; a stable coin combined with the power of Blockchain.

Originally Published at Blockchain App Factory

How would you expect banks to partner with such cryptocurrency when you know that it will be a game changer for them, and this could really be what will lead to the downfall of banks, because attention maybe focused on using this digital currency since it still run on decentralization, but what I am a little bit confused of here is how there can be a decentralized system but yet not run on anonymity? Facebook has indeed started with their prank.

I still would not want to believe every story that Facebook is saying here. Facebook is just trying to work towards creating a nation and I doubt if he will get any government support or partner. Well with everything said ere, I still do not see this coin as any threat to bitcoin, because it is of no use to me. Why would I leave bitcoin alone for Facebook when bitcoin has all the perfect features?

With this variety of innovations Libra looks confident to be involved in the crypto world competition. apart from various opportunities and obstacles I believe Libra will be a calculated coin and it might rival some coins such as ethereum and xrp.
we'll see in 2020, whether Libra will launch soon.

"Libra" word does exist in probably every single country, probably people who are too used to dollars and euros do not remember the old time prices but that "pound" in English is the same thing in many other countries as well, it is a unit of weighting something and same word applies in many countries.

The most known one at our current period is "lira" in turkey, it is literally used as a currency and means exact same thing as Libra and Pound for weighting something, Italy used Lira for many many years until they passed to Euro, same with France using Livre as their currency, Egypt used it as well.

So, Libra is not just English pound but literally Libra itself, it was actually the British that changed the meaning of Lira to Pound for making it English and not vice versa so Libra actually has a very big connection meaning with almost everyone around the world except maybe Asia.

How are they supposed to reach 1.7 billion people with strict US AML regulations & the same in many countries, in addition to capital controls. Facebook is likely to get blocked there, that's what will happen.

Quote from: malevolent on July 04, 2019, 08:34:50 AM

That is for those who understand to this extent as you do, not many people will put all these into consideration, we have so many people that will just invest because it is Facebook coin, some will invest because they believe it will make bitcoin price go up, some will buy the coin for their businesses because that is what is more paramount to them, the money they have been getting through their advertisement on Facebook and we have so many U.S citizens enjoying this through their platform from them.

Let me use myself as a case study, I run series of adverts on Facebook for my business, and I have been making so much money reaching people around the world because of Facebook, something I would nit ordinarily achieve without them, if they impose this coin for payment, I will surely use them without thinking of any regulation and do you know how much I have also contributed to my country’s economy.

Quote from: guoyu78 on July 06, 2019, 07:24:37 PM

Let me use myself as a case study, I run series of adverts on Facebook for my business, and I have been making so much money reaching people around the world because of Facebook, something I would nit ordinarily achieve without them, if they impose this coin for payment, I will surely use them without thinking of any regulation and do you know how much I have also contributed to my country’s economy.

I'm not saying facebook and others aren't in a position to make a lot of money from this if it catches on, the question is "IF". There are just so many regulations involving the transmission of money (or anything of value for that matter) that I can't envision zuckbuxx becoming anything more than paypal in a shinier package.