I’m sure all you crypto fans out there have heard of Libra, the new crypto that Facebook is planning to roll out next year.
What’s not to love?
First, even though a consortium of big players is backing the venture, it’s shaping up to be a fully centralized, permissioned endeavor. In my book, that’s the only way to get it right, but for many crypto fans, it’s not really crypto at all.
Second, we’re talking Facebook here, right? Nobody trusts Facebook anymore.
And then there’s the question as to who will use it. Facebook already supports user-to-user funds transfers, and they’re dead simple. All the two parties need are debit cards and Facebook accounts, making it much simpler, say, than PayPal.
So really, the only people who would find marginal utility with Libra would be the ‘unbanked’ – people who can’t or won’t get bank accounts, and thus can’t get a debit card. It’s not like half the crypto business models aren’t already going after this addressable market, not to mention all the traditional fintechs.
Given that crypto is a criminal’s playground, it’s only a matter of time till Libra is hacked – and if Facebook has its druthers, big money will be involved. And where there’s big money, there are savvy criminals who know all the ins and outs of hacking crypto.
But Facebook will protect us, right? Right? Is this thing on?
None of the companies mentioned in this article are Intellyx customers. Jason Bloomberg neither owns, nor plans to own, any cryptocurrency or other cryptotoken, either long or short.