In essence, something like Libra is a well-intentioned concept. David Marcus, former CEO of PayPal and Messenger who now leads the project, summarizes it well:
If you look at a stable, high-trust, low-volatility form of digital-native currency that would be available to anyone with a $40 smartphone and move around at very low cost, that is going to the extremely valuable.
However, as far as the world behind the scenes is not already directed by the Big Capitalists, we must ask ourselves whether a coin issued by private companies is desirable ...
Certainly if the main initiator is Facebook. The company "promises" that it will not share data with advertisers or third parties "except for certain purposes, such as fraud detection," or unless users agree, and we should not be naive about that.
Facebook has a disastrous reputation when it comes to keeping promises (witness the quarterly Sorry campaign by Mark Zuckerberg). The company is totally non-transparent and even misleading to its users. It often changes the rules of the game. And above all: it shows time and again that it cannot handle its sky-high responsibility, or really thinks about the many implications of its platforms and decisions.
That the company is genuinely convinced that, in addition to a communication and media platform, it can also run a financial system, bears witness to its megalomaniac ambitions.
One thing is certain: when some of the largest companies in the world come up with their own economy, it will have tremendous effects on our society. This is a event which has caused and will certainly continue to cause much ink to flow. To be continued.
Photo source: France24
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Libra ... yeah ... that is going to enslave ... they really like calling things the exact opposite of what it really is.