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The Libra Is More Significant than You Think | AIER
The Libra Is More Significant than You Think | AIER
Facebook’s announcement speaks to progress about private measures used to facilitate exchange, along with acknowledgement that money is best and most circulated when its value is broadly agreed to thanks to stability of the value. The Libra has the potential to mark the start of something because if widely used, it will open the eyes of the global population to a truth about money: it works best when its value is stable, plus it needn’t be a government creation.
·aier.org·
The Libra Is More Significant than You Think | AIER
BIS warns on Facebook risk to finance after Libra plan unveiled
BIS warns on Facebook risk to finance after Libra plan unveiled
The BIS has cautioned that Libra’s misuse of that data could have “adverse economic and welfare effects”. Companies could, for example, exclude high-risk groups from socially desirable insurance markets, or price discriminate by working out the maximum rate a borrower would be willing to pay for a loan.
·ft.com·
BIS warns on Facebook risk to finance after Libra plan unveiled
Libra's Technical Features Are Not What's Exciting
Libra's Technical Features Are Not What's Exciting
While the initial design calls for 100% reserves in developed country currencies and government debt, that’s illusory, since Libra’s controllers can change the investments at any time. Any country that allows inflation or issues dubious debt can find its currency and debt dropped from reserves. Moreover, a successful Libra would likely switch to a fractional reserve system, with only enough national currency reserves for liquidity purposes, and currency backed either by loans and other risky assets, or nothing at all.
·bloomberg.com·
Libra's Technical Features Are Not What's Exciting
This Ethereum Lottery Perfectly Explains How Facebook's Big Corporate Backers Will Profit from Crypto
This Ethereum Lottery Perfectly Explains How Facebook's Big Corporate Backers Will Profit from Crypto
To understand how early investors in Facebook’s new Libra blockchain will make money over time, it helps to dig into a new lossless lottery called PoolTogether. Its similarity to Libra is not a completely one-to-one, but the key insight of both is the same: Earning interest on your own money is good, but it’s better to also earn interest on other people’s money.
·coindesk.com·
This Ethereum Lottery Perfectly Explains How Facebook's Big Corporate Backers Will Profit from Crypto
Facebook’s Libra Is a License to Print Money
Facebook’s Libra Is a License to Print Money
The reserve isn’t quite as great as it seems, though. Like a money-market fund Libra has no capital and no deposit insurance, so any drop in the value of the reserves should mean the value of Libra falls. Losses from fraud, mismanagement or default within the reserve fall on Libra holders, unlike with a normal bank account or bank note.
·wsj.com·
Facebook’s Libra Is a License to Print Money
How to become a founding member of the Libra Association
How to become a founding member of the Libra Association
To be a validator node and founding member, organizations will need to meet technical requirements and specific evaluation criteria. If the conditions are met, upon approval, the Enterprise will have to make an initial minimum investment of $10 million worth of Libra Investment Tokens issued by the Association. Nonprofits will not be required to make the initial investment. However, they will have to cover the costs to run its node. It is estimated that the price for running the validator node will run approximately $280,000.
·theblockcrypto.com·
How to become a founding member of the Libra Association
Can Facebook Help Reduce the Cost of Remittances?
Can Facebook Help Reduce the Cost of Remittances?
One of the most important areas that could be impacted by Libra is remittances, i.e. money transfers by migrants to their families back home, which have proven to be a crucial driver of economic development. According to the World Bank, remittances to low- and middle-income countries reached a record high of $529 billion in 2018, with total remittances climbing to $689 billion. The problem being that sending money to people without access to a financial system, especially in regions most reliant on remittances such as Sub-Saharan Africa, is difficult and costly.
<div class="row"><header class="article__header"><h3 class="hl-module text-color--gray-light margin-bottom-0"> Remittance Costs </h3><h2 class="hl-article article__title"> Can Facebook Help Reduce the Cost of Remittances? </h2></header><footer class="article__meta"><div class="article__editor"><span>by&nbsp;</span><address class="infographic__author"><a rel="author" href="mailto:[email protected]">Felix Richter</a>, </address> &nbsp; </div><time class="infographic__date infographic__date--published" datetime="2019-06-20" title="June 20th, 2019"> Jun 20, 2019 </time><div class="article__topic showMobile"><i class="fa fa-tag"></i> Financial market in Africa </div></footer></div><div class="row margin-bottom-15"><div class="width70 padding-right-15"><div class="article__contentText"><p></p><div id="dc-content" class="float-right hideMobile margin-left-20 margin-bottom-10" style="display: none;" data-google-query-id="CK_aiq3J_-ICFQPz4Qod0_kPfg"><div id="google_ads_iframe_/563787768/en.statista_1__container__" style="border: 0pt none; width: 300px; height: 250px;"></div></div> Having successfully <a href="/chart/10047/facebooks-monthly-active-users/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">connected large parts of the world</a> through its social media and messaging platforms, Facebook is now taking on a new project: creating a “more inclusive global financial system”. The world’s largest social media company introduced a new cryptocurrency named Libra this week, which will be run by the <a href="https://libra.org/en-US/vision/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Libra Association</a>, an independent, non-profit organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, whose founding members include companies such as Mastercard, Visa, eBay, Uber, Spotify, Vodafone and, of course, Facebook itself, among others. <br><br> “Libra’s mission is to enable a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people”, the currency’s mission statement reads, adding that despite all progress made in connectivity and access to information and services, “1.7 billion adults globally remain outside of the financial system with no access to a traditional bank” and that “access to financial services is limited or restricted for those who need it most — those impacted by cost, reliability, and the ability to seamlessly send money”. <br><br> One of the most important areas that could be impacted by Libra is remittances, i.e. money transfers by m</div></div></div>
·statista.com·
Can Facebook Help Reduce the Cost of Remittances?
Libra's Dirty Secret: Blockchain Firm Claims Facebook Stole its Crypto Model
Libra's Dirty Secret: Blockchain Firm Claims Facebook Stole its Crypto Model
Hedera executives believe that Facebook potentially hijacked their idea for a council of trusted companies to operate a blockchain, but that the company probably hasn’t broken the law in any way. Hedera hoped to strike a partnership with Facebook, and build their crypto project on a finished product.
·ccn.com·
Libra's Dirty Secret: Blockchain Firm Claims Facebook Stole its Crypto Model
When Facebook’s Banker Is Bank of England Governor Mark Carney
When Facebook’s Banker Is Bank of England Governor Mark Carney
One idea as to how officials might keep CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s dreams grounded in reality is to get under the hood of what goes into the digital currency in the first place. Given Libra wants to back every digital cent with a mix of real-world reserve currencies, that might be the best place to start. Bank of England boss Mark Carney hinted at this in his Mansion House speech on Thursday, proposing that tech firms and other non-banks be allowed to hold funds directly at the central bank.
·bloomberg.com·
When Facebook’s Banker Is Bank of England Governor Mark Carney
Why closed-loop systems like Libra won't change the world
Why closed-loop systems like Libra won't change the world
SWIFT: "We don’t think that cross-border payments challenges should be solved for with closed loop systems. Doing so would easily solve for a subset — or multiple subsets — of participants, but value needs to move everywhere — from every account, to every account. Loops create barriers and friction; they reduce fungibility and portability, they limit competition and they fragment liquidity."
·ftalphaville.ft.com·
Why closed-loop systems like Libra won't change the world
Facebook co-founder: Libra coin would shift power into the wrong hands
Facebook co-founder: Libra coin would shift power into the wrong hands
"A liquid, stable currency would be attractive to many in emerging markets. So attractive, in fact, that if enough people trade out of their local currencies, they could threaten the ability of emerging market governments to control their monetary supply, the local means of exchange, and, in some cases, their ability to impose capital controls."
·ft.com·
Facebook co-founder: Libra coin would shift power into the wrong hands
France creates G7 cryptocurrency task force as Facebook's Libra unsettles governments
France creates G7 cryptocurrency task force as Facebook's Libra unsettles governments
France is creating a G7 task force to study how central banks ensure cryptocurrencies like Facebook’s Libra are governed by regulations. Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said the task force would be led by Benoit Coeure, a ECB board member.
·reuters.com·
France creates G7 cryptocurrency task force as Facebook's Libra unsettles governments
Facebook wants to create a global currency
Facebook wants to create a global currency
Were every Western depositor to move a tenth of their bank savings into Libras, its reserve fund would be worth over $2trn, making it a big force in bond markets. Banks that suddenly saw lots of deposits leave for Libras would be vulnerable to a panic over their solvency; they would also have to shrink their lending. And the prospect of huge sums flowing across borders will worry emerging countries with a fragile balance of payments
·economist.com·
Facebook wants to create a global currency
Flip Sides of Facebook’s Proposed Cryptocurrency
Flip Sides of Facebook’s Proposed Cryptocurrency
We need a product that fully disrupts the woefully inefficient global payments system and starts to break the power of the big banks. If Libra launches (the regulatory challenges are not small) and works as a frictionless, almost free and very fast global monetary transmission mechanism, it could be that product. However if it is, it won’t be because it is mimicking “real” cryptocurrencies. It will be because it isn’t.
·ft.com·
Flip Sides of Facebook’s Proposed Cryptocurrency
The Libra Masterplan
The Libra Masterplan
Facebook is very knowingly exploiting a very specific gap in regulations and technology made possible by the cryptocurrency industry that will allow their planned “Libra” cryptocurrency to flow into the black market economy while still being compliant with traditional financial entities’ compliance policies.
·medium.com·
The Libra Masterplan
Don’t let Facebook capture the monetary system
Don’t let Facebook capture the monetary system
Regulators and central banks should immediately address the real problems Facebook has identified. Central bank digital currencies would quite easily do so. Governments have been remiss by dragging their feet on this — in part because of deference to the established banking industry; but they no longer have any excuse to do so.
·ft.com·
Don’t let Facebook capture the monetary system
The Ambitious Plan Behind Facebook’s Cryptocurrency, Libra
The Ambitious Plan Behind Facebook’s Cryptocurrency, Libra
The White Paper vows that the Libra Association will move to a permissionless system, but the commitment is weak—just an intent to begin the transition within five years. But Facebook Chief Economist Christian Catalini notes that for now, no one knows how to build such a thing at a global scale
·wired.com·
The Ambitious Plan Behind Facebook’s Cryptocurrency, Libra
Can You Spare Me a Zuck Buck? Spare me.
Can You Spare Me a Zuck Buck? Spare me.
Libra type systems face different kinds of difficulties in low and high interest rate environments. In high rate environments, the opportunity cost of holding the currency is high, which leads to lower quantity demanded. In low rate environments, the revenue stream may be insufficient to cover the costs incurred by the intermediaries. This creates an incentive for asset substitution, i.e., to allow backing the currency with higher risk assets (with higher yields) thereby increasing insolvency and run risks.
·streetwiseprofessor.com·
Can You Spare Me a Zuck Buck? Spare me.