Libra — Facebook into Blockchain Space
Many banks, governments, and other financial institutions have time and again debated over the application of cryptocurrencies and its impact on the economy. Some governments adopted this new form of currency whilst others put an outright ban on the use or trading of the same. Technology firms were no exception either, to test the various use cases and applicability of this nascent piece of tech. Some formed their own tokens to trade and exchange and some limited the usage to just till blockchain level and further integrated it with other industry verticals and tested out its applicability in new waters.
Facebook a brand that resonates with every demographic group in today’s times have henceforth come out with Libra. A cryptocurrency built on ‘Libra Blockchain’ aims to have its adoption and usability scaled onto a global level. Backed by a reserve of ‘real’ assets, bank deposits and short-term government securities; Libra will ensure that the currency’s value isn’t as volatile as many of its counterparts being traded today.
The Libra Association — an independent not-for-profit company (formed by Facebook) based out of Geneva would be the group that would control and maintain this currency for the initial 5 years before it becomes a permissionless network or at least that’s what is planned. This association consists of all the common brand names that one would come across from an array of different industries. MasterCard, Standard Chartered, Uber, Vodafone are some of those. Yes, one could soon expect them to integrate Libra into their day to day businesses soon enough.
With the proposed stability and scalability of this platform, Libra is expected to be adopted by anyone who so much as uses a smartphone. One could join the Libra network and make transactions — a payment that’s to be sent across country borders or to the vendor who just served you your popcorn can all be done with your smartphone with as much ease as that of sending a text message! The ultimate goal is to bring in all of the unbanked consumers to a platform where they can seamlessly perform banking transactions.
Inspired by one of its counterpart — Ethereum, Libra also allows one to create, deploy and execute smart contracts. Digital programs that could automatically do your due diligence before and/or after making payments. This will ideally ensure the safety and sanctity of your transactions. Move — a newly developed language will be at the forefront of your smart contracts’ development. Move is designed to be free from all the flaws or vulnerabilities that are present in today’s languages that are being used in this digital ecosystem of cryptos and transactions. A test network is currently made available for anyone who wants to explore the potential of this proposed technology.
Facebook is also launching — Calibra (by the same name as the wallet), a subsidiary company that will develop services and products based around Libra. it’ll be starting with the launch of its digital wallet. At launch, users will be able to send Libra inside of Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, with it mostly being meant as an intermediary currency for transferring traditional currencies.
As with any tech, only time will tell about how far the proposed adoption of this new currency with prevail once it goes live mid-2020.
