The media giant will likely launch its smaller scale Libra cryptocurrency project as soon as January. Libra was originally supposed to be a new currency backed by fiat money (a currency established as money by the government) and securities (tradable financial assets). Libra will now work as a stable coin, meaning it won’t fluctuate in value as it’s pegged to something like the US dollar or a basket of currencies. “It was only a matter of time before a private company went down the road of their own cryptocurrency,” Joseph Raczynski, a technologist and futurist for Thomas Reuters told Lifewire in an email. “I was very excited to hear this was going to happen last summer, but skeptical to see how it would transpire.”
What Exactly Is Facebook Trying to Do With Cryptocurrency Anyway?
Cryptocurrency is the private industry’s brand new way to exchange value over the internet, Raczynski said, and Facebook wants to take advantage of that. Raczynski has been working with cryptocurrency since the creation of Bitcoin in 2011 and has even created his own cryptocurrencies before. He said the most appealing aspect of cryptocurrency is the security and ease of use. Unfortunately, cryptocurrency is still just an idea of the future for some people, which may be a struggle for Facebook as it plans to launch soon. “At its most basic, cryptocurrency is the representation of value on the Internet,” Raczynski explained. “The first stage that people should be cognizant of is that a cryptocurrency will be similar to a digital dollar.” Facebook plans to launch a single dollar-backed coin, and eventually a wallet called Novi, to send and receive Libra currencies. Digital wallets are encrypted, Raczynski explained, so only the user would have access to it. With Novi, Facebook users can manage their digital coins within Facebook’s apps, including Messenger, WhatsApp, browsers, and other connected apps. With the use of a single currency, Raczynski thinks it will make the barrier to do things much easier to manage. “Anyone using Facebook around the world could exchange their local currency for the Facebook currency,” he said. “Anything you want to buy, services rendered, or simply exchanging money could happen across the world with a unified Facebook currency.”
Are Facebook Users Ready for Libra?
With all of the changes to Facebook’s cryptocurrency plans, users may be skeptical of its efficacy, yet the appeal of being able to easily send and receive money digitally may (eventually) trump those doubts. The social media giant is no stranger to discussing privacy, so it better be prepared to talk about its plans to track cryptocurrency usage on its site. “Facebook is a lightning rod for controversy,” Raczynski said. “What they do or don’t do with users’ personal data and tracking user habits is a constant in the news and most people’s minds. It really is a broadening of what Facebook can do to trace and track habits and data patterns.” Facebook users are probably already using digital wallets like PayPal and Venmo, and Facebook’s Novi will work similarly to those. What they all have in common is the fact that the platforms own and manage users’ digital wallets. In the “real” cryptocurrency world, users have full ownership of their digital wallets, which are protected by private keys—a public address to share with anyone to make transactions with and a private one that shouldn’t be shared and essentially makes the wallet yours. So, while your money would still be yours via Facebook’s digital wallet, you don’t “own” the system it runs on. Another important aspect to note is that while Libra is slightly more decentralized than a country’s own monetary system, like the US dollar, it’s still centralized around a number of companies serving as validators. While it might be a better system to use, according to Raczynski, it’s still susceptible to hacks because there are relatively small sets of attack points.
Why Is This Important?
This new currency Facebook is creating won’t rely on the government, and will instead be backed by an extensive portfolio of companies, including those in the Libra Association. “They have developed a governance where mega companies run computer nodes/servers that verify transactions between people or companies,” Raczynski said. “Now, in concept, this is similar to what Bitcoin established 11 years ago, only Facebook is run by upwards of 100 companies and their servers, rather than tens of thousands of computers which are not influenced by those private companies.” In the not-too-distant future, Raczynski said, every asset people have will be represented by a cryptocurrency, from cars to real estate and beyond. This reach could also help people around the world who don’t have access to physical banks. “There are few things that will be as technologically transformative in the world as cryptocurrency over the next ten years,” said Raczynski. “I am most excited about how it has the potential to help the unbanked, and [help] people living in developing countries rise up and take ownership of their own assets and build wealth.” Despite Raczynski’s confidence in the growth trajectory of cryptocurrency over the next decade, people will have to learn more about crypto to believe using it on Facebook is a real thing, just as online shopping prompted much skepticism across the world when it first became reality. That, however, is on Facebook to prove.
