Libra is changing its plans for launch to avoid regulatory nightmares - The UpStream

Libra is changing its plans for launch to avoid regulatory nightmares

posted Saturday Apr 18, 2020 by Scott Ertz

Libra is changing its plans for launch to avoid regulatory nightmares

It's been almost a year since Facebook first announced its intentions to release a cryptocurrency called Libra. Almost immediately, the plan was met with concern from nearly everyone. Governments around the world saw the stable coin as a threat to their own control over the value of currencies. This was caused by the intent of the project - to tie the value of the stable coin to a bucket of investments, such as the US dollar, the Euro, as well as treasuries and securities. The move could reduce some of the control that central banks exert over their population through the controlled value of money, which might have been part of the plan.

The Libra Association, which oversees the project, has announced that it will scale back its intentions. Rather than a single coin based upon the values of various other exchanges, they will produce a variety of coins, each tied to a single point. That will move the concept from a single, global currency to a virtual equivalent of each nation's physical currency. In addition to the overall change in policy, the Libra Association plans to work with governments that require a license to operate payment businesses.

This change in the business model comes after months of problems for the organization. Facebook's ubiquity with the internet, including its 2.5 billion active users, could create a global central bank more powerful than any in existence. They also saw partners jump ship as the likelihood of a timely launch became lessened with the growing scrutiny. In fact, over a quarter of the founding members of the Association have left, including high profile companies like Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal.

The organization plans to launch before the end of 2020, though that timeline will be highly influenced by the governments of the world. The Association says that they will not launch until they have the approvals required to do so.

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