On June 18, Facebook announced the launch of Libra, a cryptocurrency meant to make cross border transactions seamless and available to everyone with a smartphone. The Digital Dollar, as many have called it, is meant to transform the global economy.
How will it affect the social giant? Well it simply won’t. As you might know by now, Facebook is not the only tech company governing the Libra Foundation. Effectively 29 other companies, including Uber, MasterCard, Visa, Lyft and Spotify, have invested at least 10 million dollars in the foundation.
Facebook will manage all its crypto dealings through its subsidiary Calibra. The company will be overseeing all the crypto transactions of Libra and making sure that the users’ information remains untangled with those of the Social Media Giant. What does that mean? Put simply, Facebook, or any other founding member, will not be able to track the user’s transactions using the Libra nor use the data for ad targeting purposes. All public transactions of users will not be directly linked to their real identity.
But how sure can we be that this will be the case? After Cambridge Analytica Data scandal, Facebook has lost a lot of credibility when it comes to data access and sharing policy. Add to that the fact that Libra does not have decentralized operations as bitcoin does, but is rather controlled by its founding members, then many concerns might arise. After social media and the tech industry, will this oligopoly prevail in all other sectors? It sure looks like it is setting foot in blockchain realm.