Samuel OskysIn the past month, Facebook’s newly developed digital currency, Libra, seemed to have suffered a few blows, when it lost support from MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, and Stripe and decided to exit the project.
The remaining 21 members of the Libra Association did not falter, instead, they gathered at a meeting in Geneva, on October 14th, to formalize the council and elect a board of directors.
David Marcus, Head of the newly formed Calibra, a Facebook subsidiary whose goal is to provide financial services via the Libra network, expressed at the meeting that whether people trust in Facebook or not, it doesn’t matter. Marcus also pointed out that Facebook is just another member of the Libra Association and that Libra itself will be the decision-maker when it comes to how the system is governed. He also mentioned that the technology that Libra is built on can be used by anyone, making it an open-source.
Addressing the Facebook trust issue, Marcus clearly stated,
We want to design this network in such a way that whether you trust or not Facebook is irrelevant to this venture because it solves real problems for real people. And if you don’t want to trust Facebook, you’ll have 100 other different wallets to choose from. And at the network level, we won’t control it. So trust Facebook or not, it won’t matter.
The committee bombarded Marcus back in July regarding how the Libra currency would be regulated and if Facebook’s role in implementing a wallet for it would give it too much power. The Libra Association will face a heavy challenge with motivating regulators and lawmakers to move forward.
Marcus clarified the fact that Facebook will not govern the system and that technology is open-source and free. He told the committee:
If that doesn’t tell you that we’re keenly not tone-deaf and actually quite aware of the realization that Facebook — or for that matter any other company — should not control a network that is central to moving money around the world, then I don’t know what does.
Since the House Financial Services Committee is still weary and uncomfortable with certain unanswered questions about how Libra currency will be regulated, Marcus stated that they won’t launch until a proper regulatory framework is obtained, and they hope it will be sometime in 2020.
Congress will still need answers from Facebook, and so they will sit down with CEO Mark Zuckerberg and discuss financial services, housing sectors and of course questions regarding Libra will pop up. Having said this, it’s unsure as to how much information Zuckerberg can provide regarding Libra, but he will be open to expressing why it was a good idea to develop Libra and its intentions.
Finally, Libra has approached other large tech firms like Amazon, Apple, Google and other companies regarding joining the association, and they’ve had long open conversations about that. Marcus expressed that those who join the Libra Association at the early stages are motivated to make this happen and will have the fortitude and courage to move on.
Image Source by thesun.co.uk
