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Facebook and crypto: Libra is back, but with another name and structure

In the end, after a rebranding, it seems that the project starts. Libra, Facebook's virtual currency that risked a war with the world's major central banks, has been renamed Diem , has seen a reduction in the size of the project, but will start early next year , at least on an experimental basis. One way to reduce the controversy that followed the introduction of Libra.

The project is not yet public but, from what transpires, it will mainly focus on transactions between individual consumers and their purchases, thus trying to present itself as a payment system.

Facebook will not play an official role in the launch, which instead will be overseen by the Diem Association, the non-profit organization based in Switzerland that oversees the development of the cryptocurrency which has its own scalable blockchain. A clever way not to raise controversy, but it is obvious that if Diem were the only virtual currency accepted on the social network we would have an indirect paternity of the project.

In comments on CNBC, financial reporter Michael Casey says he was surprised at how secretive the Diem project is. It's almost as if the international community has forgotten about it, he said. "It really went off the radar in a way that is quite surprising," said Casey, who also runs CoinDesk, who was one of the first reporters for a major American newspaper (the Wall Street Journal) to cover the rise. of cryptocurrencies. This will amaze Casey, but it shouldn't surprise our readers, as it confirms a couple of common observations:

  • if you don't want something to be known, don't say it;
  • if you don't want a project to be seen as yours, outsource it ..

From what trpela Diem will be a stablecoin, it is not yet clear if it is linked to a simplified basket of currencies, Euro and Dollar, or if I will be a stable linked to a single currency, that is we will have Euro-Diem and Dollar Diem. It is not a secondary factor because basketball, or rather its weight and selection, were the reason why the Libra project failed . The definition of the composition of the basket gave excessive power to Facebook, which became the "Controller" of the weight of the central banks.

If Diem is based on a basket and, above all, if it is issued with a "Fractional reserve", that is, not exactly with a 1: 1 ratio with a possible deposit, we will have the transformation of Facebook, oops, of the Diem foundation, into a sort of central bank that independently controls its own monetary base. Competition for the new eRMB, China's digital currency, and the digital Euro and Dollar. In the end, Diem risks being a dangerous hybrid between a crypto and a Fiat currency, especially if used for financial activities such as loans etc, which would give Zuckerberg enormous power.

Diem is based in Switzerland and will seek to be licensed as an authorized payment system there. If he succeeds, it will be an experiment to follow.

Meanwhile, better have fun with the less demanding Minds and Lbry , who do not claim to dominate the world …


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Minds

The article Facebook and crypto: Libra is back, but with another name and structure it comes from ScenariEconomici.it .


This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/facebook-e-cripto-torna-libra-ma-con-altro-nome-e-struttura/ on Wed, 21 Apr 2021 08:00:10 +0000.