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After months showing signs of entering the cryptocurrency market, Facebook has finally announced Tuesday a new digital currency – the pound. The declared goal is to enable the 2.38 billion platform users, many of whom do not have access to financial services, to make quick and easy transfers around the world, as well as to facilitate online shopping. If all goes as planned, the new currency will be used from 2020, via Facebook, Whatsapp or an application of its own.
"I think it should be as easy to send money to someone as to send a photo," said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, several months before the publication of the book. However, several analysts warn that this initiative could give access to a considerable amount of users' financial data, while Facebook is under increased scrutiny due to its misuse. In fact, the US Federal Trade Commission is facing a fine of more than 4 billion euros for providing personal data to Cambrige Analytica, which will have used it to influence voter turnout. both in the referendum. Brexit as in the election of Donald Trump.
David Marcus, project leader Calibra – the Facebook division responsible for Libra applications – said that "Libra's mission is to be a simple, global currency, as well as a financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people. ". However, the tech giant has long feared to enter the financial sector, as the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs explained in a letter to Zuckerberg. "It is important to realize the extent to which major social platforms provide data that can have a major impact on the financial lives of consumers," warned the commission, which asked for clarification on how social networks "use data. to target and profile consumers ". It is unlikely that pound critics will be reassured by the fact that the new currency is managed by the Libra Association, whose 28 founding members include giants such as Mastercard and Uber.
However, Facebook assured that he did not want to launch the new currency alone because it would be for the "public good". But it should be noted that each member of the Libra Association had to invest nearly 9 million euros in this initiative, as was the case of Farfetch, a Portuguese luxury fashion company. Asked about the criticism of the project, Jose Neves, CEO of Farfetch, recalled that "the Libra Association is an independent association with its own charter". Neves said in a statement that Libra "would eliminate the frictions of global e-commerce operations," noting that crypto-coins could "benefit the luxury industry by improving the protection of intellectual property and the transparency of the product life cycle ".
Cryptomaned? The use of the term criptomoeda has been questioned to describe Facebook's new currency. The crypto-coins were created with the aim of being a decentralized means of exchange, in which the miners verify the validity of each transaction, without resorting to intermediaries, through the chain of blocks (see box "The new fever of gold"). "[A Libra] it has nothing to do with the blockchain. Completely private, controlled, centralized, verified and authorized only by a small number of nodes. What does this have to do with criptomoeda or blockchain? Nothing, "said reputed economist Nouriel Roubini at CoinDesk, known to predict the financial crisis of 2007. In fact, as a first step, the Libran blockchain mechanism will be closed and controlled only by a small number of people . But Facebook has already guaranteed that some parts of the mechanism will be based on open source software to allow transparency and verification by third parties.
In any case, the Libra project could have as a side effect an increased interest in crypto-coins, designated as the currency of the future for more than ten years, but representing less than 0.1% of all financial transactions in 2018. "It's hard to buy virtual currency for people who do not know the technology, and when a person wants to pay, it can be difficult to pay," said Cathy Barrera, Prysm Group founder, CBS. In addition to facilitating the process, Balance can give users greater confidence. As indicated in a survey by LendEdu, only 7% of respondents invested in cryptomeo, but 14% would be interested in doing so if there was a currency protected by Facebook.
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