How Facebook’s Libra stacks up against Bitcoin and Paypal – The Wall Street Journal

The aim of Facebook has always been to be a disrupter. It led the way in the wave to connect the world and now it wants to disrupt the fintech world and the way we bank and use money with its Libra cryptocurrency. And in the social media world that Facebook helped to create; reaction to the currency was swift and brutal as social media was swamped by politicians wanting to be heard and every Tom, Dick and Harry, can I add Rachel, Emily and Lindiwe took to social media saying, "We don't trust Facebook with our privacy, now they think we will trust them with our money. Reaction from the business community was more measured as some pundits commented that the disenfranchised will welcome Zuckerberg's dive into cryptocurrencies, while the Financial Times has misgivings on whether Libra can even be called a cryptocurrency. The FT says it is a myth that Libra needs blockchain or that the unbanked will be helped and reckons Facebook uses the words cryptocurrency and blockchain for PR value. Martin Wolf even warned that it could lead to a world dominated by a monobank. The Wall Street Journal has added its voice to the debate saying Libra's new payment system "is a lot closer to traditional web-commerce systems than you might think." – Linda van Tilburg

By Kurt Wilberding

(The Wall Street Journal) – Facebook Inc. last week unveiled plans to launch Libra, a payment system it describes as a new "global currency." It's based on blockchain, the same technology that powers bitcoin, and is backed by real assets and pegged to stable government securities. Over two dozen corporate partners are on board, including financial companies MasterCard Inc., Visa Inc., PayPal Holdings Inc. and Coinbase. Partners contribute a membership fee of $10 million each. Facebook's goal is to line up a total of 100 corporate partners and $1bn in assets.

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