Facebook’s Libra – The new cryptocurrency

On Tuesday, the Facebook Inc. has revealed its own cryptocurrency called Libra, designed for its 2.6 billion app & social network users. Libra is expected to be launched for the public in the first half of 2020 and it will be distributed firstly on Messenger and WhatsApp.

David Marcus, who is leading the Libra Project stated that one of the initiative’s main goals is to reach the 1.7 billion people worldwide who lack access to the banking system. “Libra holds the potential to provide billions of people around the world with access to a more inclusive, more open financial ecosystem.” “If you fast forward a number of years, consumers all over the world will have the ability to access the world economy”, Marcus said.

He added that the concept of decentralization, when combined with digital commerce and Facebook’s massive user base, creates a perfect foundation for a new currency to take off, adding that the Project Libra will provide more competition in financial services, along with increasing access to capital.

Facebook Inc. has also announced a new digital wallet called Calibra that will be available as a standalone app and also available via Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Calibra will display to users the value of Libra in their local currency. There will be a lot of features built in facilitating peer to peer transfers and it will be available on both iOS and Android.