Cryptocurrency

Libra Association has given the lead over the financial-services projects of the group to one of its board members, given a sign of where Facebook is heading with its finance offerings. David Marcus is the new head of F2, the acronym for Facebook Financial, according to his LinkedIn profile. He is one of the board members of Libra Association in Geneva, der cryptocurrency project of Facebook. Facebook Financial is the umbrella organization for all financial projects of the social-media giant. They include Facebook Pay, a tool that allows users of Whatsapp or Messenger transfer money to a friend or member of family. The Concerned Central Bankers Marcus, who stems from Geneva, according to «Handelszeitung», remains the head of Novi Financial. The latter is the Facebook unit which develops a digital wallet for Libra. Libra has been in the headlines recently, because its activities have caused alarm among central bankers about the future of monetary policy. Only last week, two profe...

Kurt Wagner, Bloomberg Published 12:37 p.m. ET Aug. 10, 2020 Facebook Inc. unveiled a new group to pursue payments and commerce opportunities and put David Marcus, co-creator of its Libra cryptocurrency project, in charge of the initiative. Called F2 internally, short for Facebook Financial, the team will run all payments projects, including Facebook Pay, the company’s universal payments feature that it plans to build inside all of its apps. David Marcus   (Photo: Facebook) Marcus will continue running Novi, the division that is building a digital wallet to hold the Libra cryptocurrency. He will also be involved in WhatsApp’s payments efforts in countries like India and Brazil. Facebook has hired former Upwork Inc. Chief Executive Officer Stephane Kasriel to serve as a payments vice president under Marcus. Facebook shares slipped 1.5% to $264.26 on Monday, after hitting a record late last week. This is the latest step in a companywide effort to bring Facebook’s indivi...

Libra Association has announced that Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek is one of the newest members to join its proposed cryptocurrency project. Paradigm and Slow Ventures were also named as new members of the Geneva-based association.  Both headquartered in San Francisco, Paradigm is a crypto investment firm and Slow Ventures is a venture capital business that has backed companies including Slack, Postmates, and Airtable. "The addition of three new members to the Libra Association, shows our commitment to building a diverse group of organizations that will contribute to the governance, technological roadmap and launch readiness for the Libra payment system," said Dante Disparte, vice chairman and head of policy and communications for the Libra Association. "We are honoured to welcome Temasek, Paradigm, and Slow Ventures to this effort. Each of these organisations shares our overall mission alignment bringing unique capabilities and long term focus on market...

Amol Agrawal Amidst all the chaos, the Libra Association (LA) released a new paper on Libra. For the uninitiated, Facebook with other technology players had proposed starting a new currency named Libra. With advent of Bitcoin in 2008, there have been several proposals to start private digital currencies. However, it was Libra which really shook the monetary authorities as Libra was backed by leading players such as Facebook, which could easily bypass the existing central bank-commercial bank nexus by ushering digital payments amidst Facebook’s billions of subscribers. Libra led to not just central banks ushering their own central bank digital currencies (CBDC), but the founders were also summoned and criticised by the US Congress. Based on the criticism of Libra 1.0, the LA has proposed four changes to Libra 2.0. Libra 1.0 was foremost seen as challenging the authority of sovereign monetary authorities as one could make payments across borders in Libras and not bothered to hold US ...

Celo, a competing project to Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency, has added 50% more new members to its alliance, bringing the total number of supporting organizations to 75. Some Celo members are also supporters of the Libra project, such as Coinbase Ventures, Anchorage, and Andreessen Horowitz. Celo Project Adds Over 20 Members The Celo Foundation announced Tuesday a 50% increase in the number of its members. The foundation explained that “The scope of membership remains focused on use cases, furthering the mission of financial inclusion and prosperity, and adoption of Celo’s technology.” Head of the Celo Alliance for Prosperity Chuck Kimble commented: We are excited to see the Alliance grow by 50% since our initial announcement in March, with organizations committed to creating prosperity, especially in Africa and Latin America. New members include Ankr, Althea, Bitfy, Blockchain Education Network, Coinfirm, Centrifuge, Dove Wallet, Dunia Pay, Grin, Hex Trust, Latamtech, Mo...

Days after Facebook-backed Libra scaled down its ambitions to become a global currency, China is now inching ahead in the race.  (Image: Reuters) China’s central bank has started testing its official Bitcoin-like digital currency DCEP, and the bank is now planning to roll out the virtual money payment system soon. Days after Facebook-backed Libra scaled down its ambitions to become a global currency, China is now inching ahead in the race. Digital Currency Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China (PBC) said that the research and development work of China’s official digital currency DCEP is proceeding steadily, PTI reported. China is currently carrying out internal pilot tests for the cryptocurrency in four cities. However, the cryptocurrency has not been officially launched yet, state media reported. Trial runs for DCEP will be piloted in a small range of banks and end users. After that, it will be spread to a wider range with certain improvement in technology and ...

Despite existing concerns that blockchain is not mature enough to bring the new era of payments, the technology is being increasingly explored by global central banks. Blockchain technology meanwhile remains at the core of Facebook’s digital currency Libra, according to a top project executive. Since Libra’s white paper release in June 2019, the not-yet-launched stablecoin has continued to rely on blockchain architecture, Libra Association’s vice chair Dante Disparte explained. Blockchain unlocks payment network interoperability In an April 28 interview with financial publication Central Banking, Disparte outlined a number of structural benefits provided by blockchain implementation. As part of the blockchain-powered advantages, the exec outlined the technology’s potential to drive interoperability of payment technologies. He said: “We remain very committed to blockchain architecture as a distributed ledger technology for this project. Without it, the project doesn't achieve ...

After opening access to Libra to a wide audience in 2020, Facebook plans to integrate the digital wallet into the company’s WhatsApp and Messenger services. It remains only to convince the audience to start using the new product. Cryptocurrencies were once created as an alternative to the monopoly financial power of banks with the status too big to fail. Now, a company is joining the camp of opponents of this government, whose trust in recent years has been eroded due to a series of scandals. But it is with her that crypto market enthusiasts will now fight hand in hand. Libra, which was supported by a pool of more than 20 influential caliber companies Uber and Visa, will become a battleground for the new status of cryptocurrencies, and Facebook is the main target of supporters of the old world order. This cryptocurrency will work on the blockchain of the company, developed by the Swiss fund – that is, not by Facebook itself, but by a third party, and supported by hund...

Listen As Audio Highlights Facebook ’s Libra faced backlash just after it announced its digital currency in June 2019. To pacify regulators and governments, its white paper has undergone an update. People are more likely to vent their hopes in Libra, a service established by a social-media giant firm than decentralized crypto. The question prevails if risks associated with Libra’s submission to regulators will make them take a hard stance on crypto assets and public blockchains.  Facebook ’s Libra faced backlash just after it announced its digital currency in June 2019. To pacify regulators and governments, its white paper has undergone an update. It is worth bringing to notice that the updated Libra does not intend to move to a permissionless ledger. It also brings in a range of stable coins held to single national fiat currency.  However, the question remains as to what effect it will have on the crypto assets and the blockchain industry. Although it migh...

Source: Adobe/Wit Facebook ’s Libra has changed. Having been roundly criticized after its unveiling in June 2019, it has now updated its white paper in a bid to placate regulators and governments. Most notably, the new look Libra gets rid of any intention to move to a permissionless ledger. It also introduces a range of stablecoins pegged to single national fiat currencies, in addition to the multi-pegged Libra stablecoin itself. But while this will likely soften the stance of regulators, how will it affect cryptoassets and the wider blockchain industry? Well, the picture here is mixed, because even though Libra might help crypto adoption, initially, it still might be a major competitor too decentralized cryptoassets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) and might also harden the stance of governments towards these assets. (In)direct competition Unveiled last June, Facebook originally intended Libra to be backed by a mix of currencies and also government debt. However, regula...

The idea of a digital dollar being considered in Congress has ignited the imagination and driven the conversation around a central bank digital currency in the United States. However, the legislation that includes the concept of a digital dollar is driven by monetary policy debates that have grown popular in light of COVID-19 and the attention Facebook’s Project Libra cast over cryptocurrency policy in Congress. CHINA - 2020/03/18: In this photo illustration the currency of the United States dollar icon $ icon ... [+] seen displayed on a smartphone with a computer model of the COVID-19 coronavirus on the background. (Photo Illustration by Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Two bills in Congress consider a digital dollar, each for different reasons. First, let’s examine the timeline of Facebook’s Libra which drove the bill in the Senate. U.S. Senate Banking Committee On Facebook, Libra, and a Digital Dollar May 7, ...

What a long and winding two and half years it’s been for Libra, the digital currency project spawned by Facebook.  For much of that time, all that was known about the social network’s ambitions for the cryptocurrency space was rumor and conjecture. The full scope of the project, unveiled in June 2019, exceeded most of this speculation – including the revelation that Facebook aimed to decentralize control of its creation, starting by handing it over to a governing council. But the Libra Association’s actions since have mostly been to scale back its hopes and try to address a largely hostile reaction to the project among the world’s governments.  CoinDesk has been chronicling this saga every step of the way. What follows is a detailed timeline of the Libra project’s history, from the early signs that Mark Zuckerberg’s social network was sniffing around the blockchain industry to Libra’s recent watering-down of its once-bold plans. Bookmark this article, because we’ll kee...

Under the given conditions, Bitcoin continues gaining traction, therefore, Google, Apple, and Facebook need to find new revenue streams.  While Bitcoin is gaining traction even despite the coronavirus crisis, technology giants Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) are losing momentum. Bitcoin’s strength breeds competition that may result in the tech giants’ intention to kill BTC for own survival. Because of the pandemic, their major sources of revenue – advertising business in cases of Google and Facebook and iPhone sales in Apple’s case – are at a low ebb, and it is unlikely whether they will recover after the crisis. Therefore, Google, Apple, and Facebook need to find new revenue streams. Google Entrying Banking Service Recently, Google was reported to be working on its new smart debit card. Its payment system will allow users to make purchases through card, online, or mobile handsets. Besides, the card will integrate...

Trial programs for China’s sovereign digital currency began last week as Libra, a cryptocurrency backed by Facebook, scaled back its ambitions to become a global currency. The first look at the planned digital currency emerged on Wednesday when a screen shot of a test version developed by the Agricultural Bank of China was leaked. Speculation is growing that the digital yuan will be launched soon. (Picture: Shutterstock) The following day the National Business Daily reported that the Xiangcheng district of Suzhou was expected to put the currency to use in May by paying half the travel subsidies given to public sector workers in digital form. The 21st Century Business Herald also reported that one unnamed state bank, which is testing the official digital currency, has allowed some of its Communist Party members to pay their membership fees. The Digital Currency Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China, the agency that is in charge of digital currency development and...

Failing fast is encouraged in Silicon Valley. So top marks to Libra, the Facebook-backed project for a new digital currency, whose original idea has managed to fail before it had even begun. Last June, after months of carefully laying plans, Facebook unveiled its proposals for what it then called a “global cryptocurrency”, which the billions of users of its messaging apps could use to send money back and forth. The project was carefully constructed to deflect any potential criticisms, of which there was no shortage. Knowing that it did not have the reputational capital for governments to trust it with people’s money, Facebook promised that Libra would be governed by a consortium of companies, and based in neutral Switzerland.  Unlike cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, which are inherently unstable, Libra would be backed by a group of stable assets such as currencies and government bonds.  Facebook believed it would succeed where other attempts to create internet money ha...

Facebook’s future cryptocurrency project scaled back this week. At the same time, local Chinese reports indicate the country is advancing notably on its CBDC. Summarized information from this past week alone suggests the nation could be pushing the digital currency release as a response to Libra’s change of plans. Libra’s Less Ambitious Plans Facebook shook the world last year, announcing a “single global digital currency” dubbed Libra. Per Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of the social media giant, “more than a billion people around the world don’t have access to a bank account. But they could get through mobile phones if the right system existed… I believe that this problem can be solved, and Libra can help.” Those ambitions plan that he shared with U.S. Congress, however, raised red flags amongst world regulators. They clamped down on the project, which had severe consequences on the Libra Association – the establishment behind the future cryptocurrency. Partners left, Facebook hinted Lib...

OUR STORY                 DISCOVER CRYPTOCURRENCIES                  NEWS AND UPDATES The Libra Foundation recently released version 2.0 of the much-debated initial whitepaper, delineating their vision of making global financial infrastructure accessible. The initiative was initially scrutinized by regulators, fearing the impact an extra-territorial currency format would have on domestic monetary policy. The main changes in the new paper, which seem to take into consideration the regulatory challenges, are: Permissioned at first Stablecoins Regulated nodes (VASPS) The main downside of these changes is that the system is less open, and less decentralized, therefore the Bitcoin community will probably disregard this as another centralized project. But we believe these changes make significant progress in enabling Libra to potentially launch. They are now taking a more regulated approach, ...

Facebook’s regulatory approach to Libra could get the project off the ground by the end of 2020. The new version of the Libra whitepaper makes the project less open and less decentralized. Facebook was forced to go back to the drawing board after endless battles with regulators and lawmakers in regarding the launch of the grand Libra project. Following the regulatory backlash across the world the Libra Foundation has shifted the focus of the project to stablecoins and becoming regulatory corporative. The foundation recently released a version of the original whitepaper which somehow washes down the idea of creating a global cryptoccurrency infrastructure. It has become apparent that Facebook is desperately for a way that lift Libra off the ground. The new paper now concentrates on seeking permission, stablecoins and regulatory nodes (VASPS). Unfortunately, these changes are going to make the project less open as well as less decentralized. However, by taking a more regulatory or...

The Libra foundation recently released version 2.0 of the much-debated initial whitepaper, delineating their vision of making global financial infrastructure accessible.  Advertisement The initiative was initially scrutinized by regulators, fearing the impact an extra-territorial currency format would have on domestic monetary policy.  The main changes in the new paper, which seem to take into consideration the regulatory challenges, are: permissioned at first Stablecoins regulated nodes (VASPS) The main downside of these changes is that the system is less open, and less decentralized, therefore the bitcoin community will probably disregard this as another centralized project. But we believe these changes make significant progress in enabling Libra to potentially launch. They are now taking a more regulated approach, as eToro discussed in its own position paper on the matter, which was published in November last year. We recommended a shift towards worki...