Libra in the Limelight
As we watch Libra tour the world’s financial referees and regulators for support, it’s about time we checked in on Zuckerberg’s giddy crypto dream.Â
Libra was announced in June, and its confused reception by the markets likely tells us more about investors’ understanding of crypto, than it does about Libra’s chances of becoming mainstream!
For years, a centralized banking system has surveyed the movement of money, getting in-between transactions that don’t smell right. A new era of decentralized tokenomics has that under threat, making Libra an easy target for institutional critics who first, want to stop crime, but also fear for their jobs! Nevertheless, Facebook is wheelbarrowing its new invention to Jerome Powell at the Federal Reserve, Mark Carney at The Bank of England, and Mario Draghi at the European Central Bank. Remember the tale of three blind men and the elephant?
With the Libra white paper so long and foreign to these traditional economists, each central bank leader is metaphorically blind here. Each is feeling a different part of that elephant’s body. Carney has a tusk and thinks it’s bitcoin. Powell has a leg and thinks it’s a digital token. Draghi hasn’t got the foggiest but has it down as a cryptocurrency! It may only be a matter of time before all three come to blows, and Facebook investors are made to wait for a full roll-out of Libra!
As far as Facebook itself is concerned, the “stablecoin” could fill in for a flagging Oculus division, once tipped to diversify the social media giant off ad revenue. That’s cute! Others can only see the satire in this! We don’t know if Libra will get regulatory approval, we don’t know if it will be safe or not, we don’t know how Zuck plans to make investors rich off it, and we don’t know when it’s coming…
