The social network confirmed plans to launch a cryptocurrency, called Libra. Rather than control the entire ecosystem itself, though, it has established the nonprofit Libra Association with 27 other partners to oversee Libra and its development. Each member of the association, including Facebook subsidiary Calibra, will get only one vote in governing decisions. The effort is initially targeted at un- or under-banked populations around the world, but the hope is clearly that it will become a commonplace currency for everyday purchases in developed parts of the world as well.
Facebooks’s recent struggles with protecting user privacy and data have been well documented, and they’ve gone to great lengths to attempt to reassure the public and regulators that Libra will be different. But the reaction from politicians and regulators has - thus far, not been overly positive.
Libra is due to launch in early 2020. It will be interesting to watch unfold.
Full story at CNET and The Verge.
UPDATE 6/20: This opinion piece in the Washington Post is also worth a read - it raises some solid points and good questions:
Let’s ask a simpler, more visceral question: “Facebook, haven’t you got enough problems already?”
As I see it, Facebook is already dealing with two existential threats — one economic, the other political. The economic problem is that the sheer size of Facebook’s social media network is both its greatest strategic advantage and a potentially fatal Achilles’ heel. Businesses that depend on network effects enjoy exponential growth early on, as each new user makes the network even more valuable to everyone else. But if the network ever starts to shrink, that same process can abruptly reverse into a high-speed implosion.
Facebook’s political problem is that too many people hate it. Which naturally makes the first problem worse.
