The last few weeks have been full of different players in the crypto space giving their take on the Libra project. Comments are generally made around whether it is a true cryptocurrency or if it will be good or bad for Bitcoin. Now some new viewpoints have entered the mix, and their past with Facebook makes it all the more interesting.
The Winklevoss twins have come out as saying they think the Libra project would be overall beneficial to the crypto sector and lead to more people buying Bitcoin. Despite the fact that they have a complicated – this is an extreme understatement – past with Mark Zuckerberg, they are looking at the coin objectively and view it as a net good to the ecosystem.
Their point of view is summed up below:
“[Libra] is very positive for crypto, a company the stature of Facebook talking about crypto currencies demystifies the word and makes people feel a lot more comfortable.”
And they are absolutely right to think about it this way. Facebook is one of the most well-known brands in the world, so the credibility being lent to blockchain is extremely valuable. Additionally, this will give lawmakers a chance to work with a big firm on regulating the project in a thoughtful way.
If lawmakers were merely dealing with an upstart blockchain company, it would be easy for them to push it around or put extra stringent regulations on it. But with Facebook this isn’t the case. As a result, a proper path to regulation may be forged. The Winklevoss twins also believe that more of the FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google) tech companies will start to put their own crypto projects forward in the months to come.
Under Constant Attack
Libra is facing aggressive attacks from all sides right now – both from within and outside the industry. There is political opposition from the Federal Reserve, the French Finance Minister, and many more.
And within the industry, many of the attacks are centered around the idea that Facebook already can’t be trusted with users’ data, so why should they be in charge of even more of it.
Executives on the project were likely expecting pushback, but this outpouring of opposition may be too much. One notable change that has been rolled out is the exclusion of Indian and Chinese markets in the projected rollout.
Crypto’s Long-Term Effects
If anything, the one thing that Libra has accomplished is putting competitive pressures on an area that hasn’t been threatened in a long time: control of the monetary system. For so long, it has been assumed that the government would control how much money there was and how it was governed, but with Libra, this is no longer the case.
So even if it isn’t the rousing success its backers are hoping it will be, it has at least gotten governments thinking about how they can improve the appeal of their currency so that residents still want to use it when alternatives come along. Already, China, Turkey, Uruguay, Sweden, and Ukraine have announced their intention to develop their own central bank digital currency, and there will surely be more in the months to come.