Trust is a word with a complex meaning. Trusting your money and savings in something means that you can rest easy knowing that anybody will take advantage of you or your funds, for that matter.
In the specific case of Facebook and its newly-announced cryptocurrency project Libra, the user base would be dealing with a company that has encountered doubters before. Not only that, but it is also a network known because of its constant invasions of privacy, not to mention a couple of hacking scandals, like the one from September 2018.
Optimism and Skepticism
After the Libra announcement, a significant portion of the industry is excited because of its potential in many fronts. However, others are scared and think that everything will be done to benefit Facebook and its partners, not users. Another chunk of the pie thinks that people would be dealing with lots of companies that have not quite consistently protected user’s data in the past.
After all, partners such as Visa, Master Card, Uber, and eBay have all faced different kinds of issues in the past, such as data breaches, hacking scandals, information loss, and others. We are living in the era of cyber threats, and people are having a hard time putting their trust in the hands of others.
However, Mark Zuckerberg, known for being Facebook’s Founder and highest authority, offered people reasons to trust the Libra project and everything it stands for, because there are numerous partners involved.
Quoted by CNBC’s Fast Money via Twitter, Zuckerberg stood up for Facebook’s cryptocurrency, stating that “building a financial system is not the kind of thing that a company can do by itself. So we played a role in helping to stand this up.”
Zuckerberg further added that despite what people may think, the Libra Association “is an independent organization, and we will have one vote in it… By the time it launches, hopefully we will have 100 co-founding companies.” That means Facebook would only have one vote and equal rights as all the other 99 firms, according to his remarks.
The Libra Project
After months of speculation and rumors about its crypto project, Facebook finally announced it last week, with mixed reviews from the community, but with vast potential, room to grow, and work to do before the coin is ready to meet the market in the first half of next year, according to the plans.
The Libra white paper states that “now is the time to create a new kind of digital currency built on the foundation of blockchain technology. The mission for Libra is a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people. Libra is made up of three parts that will work together to create a more inclusive financial system: It is built on a secure, scalable, and reliable blockchain; it is backed by a reserve of assets designed to give it intrinsic value; and it is governed by the independent Libra Association tasked with evolving the ecosystem.”
The known partners, until now, are Mastercard, Mercado Pago, PayPal, PayU (Naspers’ fintech arm), Stripe, Visa, Booking Holdings, eBay, Facebook/Calibra, Farfetch, Lyft, Spotify AB, Uber Technologies, Inc., Iliad, Vodafone Group, Anchorage, Bison Trails, Coinbase, Inc., Xapo Holdings Limited, Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Initiatives, Ribbit Capital, Thrive Capital, Union Square Ventures, Creative Destruction Lab, Kiva, Mercy Corps, and Women’s World Banking. Those are the “Founding Members.”
By Andres Chavez
