Facebook cryptocurrency Libra or Diem Price, Appreciation scope & Investment potential
Libra, the cryptocurrency spearheaded by Facebook, got a new name, a move designed to reinforce "its organizational independence" as the ever-shrinking project seeks regulatory approval.
It's unclear how the new name will burnish the project's independence. What is clear is that Facebook hasn't gotten much love for Diem, which has changed in goals and scope since the association publicly launched in mid-2019. Partners have bolted from the project, details have shifted and legislators have criticized the plans. Nonetheless, Facebook has indicated that it will press on with the project, whose ambitions have been curtailed over time.
Facebook has finally revealed the details of its cryptocurrency, Libra, which will let you buy things or send money to people with nearly zero fees. You’ll pseudonymously buy or cash out your Libra online or at local exchange points like grocery stores, and spend it using interoperable third-party wallet apps or Facebook’s own Calibra wallet that will be built into WhatsApp, Messenger and its own app. Facebook released its white paper explaining Libra and its testnet for working out the kinks of its blockchain system before a public launch in the first half of 2020.
Facebook won’t fully control Libra, but instead get just a single vote in its governance like other founding members of the Libra Association, including Visa, Uber and Andreessen Horowitz, which have invested at least $10 million each into the project’s operations. The association will promote the open-sourced Libra Blockchain and developer platform with its own Move programming language, plus sign up businesses to accept Libra for payment and even give customers discounts or rewards.
Facebook is launching a subsidiary company also called Calibra that handles its crypto dealings and protects users’ privacy by never mingling your Libra payments with your Facebook data so it can’t be used for ad targeting. Your real identity won’t be tied to your publicly visible transactions. But Facebook/Calibra and other founding members of the Libra Association will earn interest on the money users cash in that is held in reserve to keep the value of Libra stable.Last week, The Financial Times reported the project could launch as early as January in a more limited form than its already stripped-down plan. The cryptocurrency will likely be backed one-for-one by the US dollar, the newspaper reported, rather than proposed multiple single-currency stablecoins backed by major currencies. A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency that links its market value to an external source like the dollar.
Facebook’s audacious bid to create a global digital currency that promotes financial inclusion for the unbanked actually has more privacy and decentralization built in than many expected. Instead of trying to dominate Libra’s future or squeeze tons of cash out of it immediately, Facebook is instead playing the long-game by pulling payments into its online domain. Facebook’s VP of blockchain, David Marcus, explained the company’s motive and the tie-in with its core revenue source during a briefing at San Francisco’s historic Mint building. “If more commerce happens, then more small businesses will sell more on and off platform, and they’ll want to buy more ads on the platform so it will be good for our ads business.”
The risk and reward of building the new PayPal
In cryptocurrencies, Facebook saw both a threat and an opportunity. They held the promise of disrupting how things are bought and sold by eliminating transaction fees common with credit cards. That comes dangerously close to Facebook’s ad business that influences what is bought and sold. If a competitor like Google or an upstart built a popular coin and could monitor the transactions, they’d learn what people buy and could muscle in on the billions spent on Facebook marketing. Meanwhile, the 1.7 billion people who lack a bank account might choose whoever offers them a financial services alternative as their online identity provider too. That’s another thing Facebook wants to be.
Yet existing cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum weren’t properly engineered to scale to be a medium of exchange. Their unanchored price was susceptible to huge and unpredictable swings, making it tough for merchants to accept as payment. And cryptocurrencies miss out on much of their potential beyond speculation unless there are enough places that will take them instead of dollars, and the experience of buying and spending them is easy enough for a mainstream audience. But with Facebook’s relationship with 7 million advertisers and 90 million small businesses plus its user experience prowess, it was well-poised to tackle this juggernaut of a problem.
Now Facebook wants to make Libra the evolution of PayPal . It’s hoping Libra will become simpler to set up, more ubiquitous as a payment method, more efficient with fewer fees, more accessible to the unbanked, more flexible thanks to developers and more long-lasting through decentralization.
Why does Facebook want a cryptocurrency?
This isn't actually Facebook's cryptocurrency. It's a project of the Diem Association, which Facebook originally co-founded as the Libra Association. The association, which will serve as a monetary authority for the cryptocurrency, says its purpose is to "empower billions of people," citing 1.7 billion adults without bank accounts who could use the currency.
But Facebook has its own interest in digital cash that predates Diem. The social network ran a virtual currency, called Credits, for about four years as a way to make payments on games played within Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO, has said that sending money online should be as simple as sending photos. Diem is designed to make it easier and cheaper for people to transfer money online, which might also attract new users to the social network. But Zuckerberg acknowledged that having people use cryptocurrency would likely benefit Facebook by making advertising on the social network more desirable and, therefore, more expensive.
Facebook may also have other plans for the cryptocurrency. A new subsidiary will run a wallet for holding and using the digital currency. Originally called Calibra, the wallet was redubbed Novi in May with a mission of "helping people around the world access affordable financial services." Analysts at RBC Capital Markets have said those services will likely include games and commerce.
Will Facebook have direct control over Diem?
No. Facebook is one of the members of the Diem Association, the nonprofit that will serve as a de facto monetary authority for the currency. (Facebook's membership is through Novi.) The association hopes to grow to 100 members, most of which will pony up $10 million to get the project going. Each member has the same vote in the association, which is headquartered in Switzerland. So Facebook won't technically have any more say over the association's decisions than any other member.
That said, Facebook has played an outsized role in the initial phases of the project. After the network is launched, Facebook says, the social network's role and responsibilities will be the same as those of any other founding member.
Why have association members dropped out?
Some of the bigger founding members appear to have gotten cold feet. Seven of the original 28 founding members -- that's a quarter of them -- dropped out before the association's inaugural meeting in Geneva. The exits included PayPal, eBay, Stripe and financial services giants Visa and Mastercard. The departures are big losses because those members brought expertise in payments and transfers technology. The other dropouts are Mercado Pago, the online payments platform of Argentina's Mercado Libre marketplace, and Booking Holdings, an online travel company that runs sites including Priceline, Kayak and OpenTable.
The association currently has 27 members.
How is Diem different from other cryptocurrencies?
Let's start by addressing how it's similar to other cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin and ether. Like them, Diem exists entirely in digital form. You won't be able to get a physical note or coin. And like other cryptocurrencies, Diem transactions are recorded on a software ledger, known as blockchain, that confirms each transfer. The Diem blockchain will be managed by the founding members in the early stages but is supposed to evolve into a fully open system in the future.
Diem will be pegged to real assets, a format widely known as a stablecoin. That contrasts with bitcoin, ether and some other cryptocurrencies that aren't backed by anything and swing wildly in response to the speculation.
Initially, the plan was to use a basket of assets to anchor the cryptocurrency's value. The association didn't say what those assets would be but indicated they would be denominated in major global currencies, like the dollar and the euro, which don't fluctuate intensely day to day. The association will buy more of the underlying assets to create, or "mint," new Diem when people want more of the cryptocurrency. When people cash out, the association will sell those assets and "burn" Diem.
Backing a currency with an asset isn't anything new. In fact, it used to be common. The US dollar was backed by gold until 1971. The value of the Hong Kong dollar is pegged to the US dollar and managed by a currency board, which can issue new notes only if it has enough in reserves.
How do cryptocurrencies compare to the dollar?
The US dollar is tried and true and pretty much accepted anywhere in the world. Some countries like the dollar so much that they use it instead of their own money. And dollars earn interest, though at current rates that won't add up to very much.
Of course, the dollar has weaknesses. Using dollars, particularly across borders, can be expensive because banks take a cut to convert them into local currencies. If you're using dollars on a prepaid card, the credit card company is probably charging the merchant a portion of your purchase. And if the US government prints too many dollars, inflation could follow.
Despite the hype, cryptocurrencies aren't widely used yet. Try buying a cup of coffee with ether. (Yes, it's possible but not widespread.) The value of cryptocurrencies is volatile, often rising or falling more than 5% a day, making it difficult to get a sense of the long-term worth of the asset.
Cryptocurrencies can make it easy to send money directly to someone. Bitcoin transactions aren't actually untraceable, though they can be very difficult to trace. Similarly, bitcoin use isn't absolutely anonymous. It's pseudonymous, meaning that your bitcoin address is recorded even though your identity isn't.
Some cryptocurrencies, notably bitcoin, have a cap on the number of coins that can be minted, meaning that owners of existing coins don't have to worry about the arbitrary creation of new ones, although that could create other issues in the future.
Is this just a ploy so Facebook can get my financial data and send more targeted ads?
Facebook doesn't have a great reputation for privacy protection.
The social network says don't worry -- not that you expected it to say anything else. When the plans were first unveiled, Facebook took pains to point out its wallet was housed in a subsidiary of the social network. The arrangement was designed to allow the wallet company to be regulated by authorities and prevent money laundering and other financial crimes. The company also said it would keep financial data separate from Facebook's social data.
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