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Is there still value in the Libra Project?
Last week Facebook’s digital asset project “Libra” announced a new approach.
A cover letter to the revised Libra White Paper stated:
“While our vision has always been for the Libra network to complement fiat currencies, not compete with them, a key concern that was shared was the potential for the multi-currency Libra Coin (≋LBR) to interfere with monetary sovereignty and monetary policy if the network reaches significant scale and a large volume of domestic payments are made in ≋LBR. We are therefore augmenting the Libra network by including single-currency stablecoins in addition to ≋LBR.”
When launched in June 2019, Libra was presented as a digital currency backed by a basket of fiat currencies and government debt. The revised White Paper explained that Libra will now offer various stablecoins each backed by a different fiat currency. Which fiat currencies would be included is yet to be determined.
The multi-currency Libra Coin will still exist but it will be a composite of some of the individual stablecoins, rather than a separate digital asset backed by fiat currencies/debt. It is not yet entirely clear what form the Libra Coin will take, but it is likely to be used for cross-border transactions.
