With current degree of power that modern governments exercise I would say it is impossible to expect from them they will part with control over monetary system. Basically it is a direct threat for their existence.
1 Like
I believe there are genuine privacy issues surrounding the giant tech firms especially Facebook. Until these are resolved huge projects like Libra are going to be opposed. They’ll not be wholeheartedly welcome by both private players and governments.
1 Like
I agree. Wasn’t Facebook exposed recently for spying on the FB app installed on the phones of underaged kids or something of that sort?
1 Like
The Swiss powers that be are not fans. They’re not holding back.
“The project, in this form, has thus failed.”
The leading British telecom Vodafone is leaving Facebook’s digital currency project, Libra.
Vodafone is the latest of a series of companies, which recently decided to withdraw from the project amid growing regulatory pressure from major central banks and many governments.
Most notably back in October Libra Association was also abandoned by Paypal, MasterCard, Visa and eBay after the European Central Bank, along with the Bank of England and the governments in Berlin and Paris warned that crypto currencies such as Libra pose a risk to the global financial system.
2 Likes
Uber and Lyft are still in, until they aren’t.
Mercy Corp, Kiva, Spotify and some VCs like Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz are recognizable names still in.
Fun fact, Thrive Capital is run by Joshua Kushner, brother to Jared Kushner.
1 Like
Companies that initially supported Libra started to leave the project. But, none of the companies provided details and recently, Mastercard’s CEO Ajay Banga became the first executive to explain his position.
He said it was mainly about regulatory compliance and Libra not enforcing KYC protocol.
1 Like
How do you even manage KYC in places that don’t have traditional identity infrastructure. Think rural farmer in [enter a third or fourth world country]. Perhaps that’s part of what Libra wants to solve. If that’s the case, I understand MC leaving, but then wonder why not give it some time?
Good question!
Big win for Libra
Shopify obviously has an interest in reducing fees for it’s merchants. So if Libra takes off, this could safe Shopify and it’s merchant a lot of money.
“We like to make decisions based on future potential instead of heard movement. Funnily enough this usually leads to us doing the opposite of the others" said the Shopify CEO.
Well, obviously he has high hopes for this deal, I think only time will tell whether it was the right decision.
Potential for saving money. That’s incentive enough. I’m still not sure why that wasn’t a good enough reason for some of the others that decided to leave.
They didn’t want to get involved in the inevitable legal issues that will arise in some jurisdictions.
This is a good point. Wait for legal stability and understanding, and then come back to the table.
I wonder what is happening to these plans now, considering the global crisis we’re all in.
So there has been an update on the situation with Libra - it’s getting redesigned to include multiple versions of the proposed stable coin, each backed by a single fiat currency like the Euro or the U.S. dollar because of the regulatory hurdles it’s facing.
So Libra coin to take a backseat and the Calibre digital wallet is delayed and possibly restricted to certain countries. They had a very ambitious plan. With Facebook involved, I still have to bet that the end product will provide value.
1 Like
I should hope so, or the whole thing was much ado about nothing.
So am I. The whole process with facebook is very fishy.
Doesn’t look like they’re going away. This is an interesting hire as CEO. Former financial intelligence secretary with the US Treasury and chief legal officer with HSBC. Looks like they’re getting ready to fight some more.