Description
Libra is cryptocurrency-based payment system. The project was initiated by Facebook, joined by 27 other companies. The Libra exchange rate is expected to be based on a currency basket of the dollar, euro, yen and pound sterling. The Libra Networks fund in Geneva will be the collateral. Libra was officially launched on 18 June 2019.
History
In spring 2018, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the creation of a unit dedicated to blockchain. He invited David Marcus (former president of PayPal and former head of Facebook Messenger) as head and about fifty people to work on the project.
Facebook Coin project development
30 January 2019 Facebook founder highlights the importance of integrating the payment system with Facebook Messenger.
Facebook Coin was to enable use for payments and money transfers via messengers WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger in all countries where Facebook has a presence.
Unlike Bitcoin, the price of Facebook Coin would not be subject to significant fluctuations, as there are financial means to secure the value of Facebook Coin in currency held in Facebook bank accounts. In addition, the Facebook Coin was to be backed by several currencies (euro and dollar) at once, which would provide additional stability.
The new cryptocurrency is expected to be of minimal interest to speculators, and maximum interest to a society in search of stability.
Facebook has the advantage that the platform can potentially count on the engagement of millions of users through messengers WhatsApp (1.5 billion users), Messenger (1.3 billion) and Instagram (1 billion).
In addition, Facebook plans to merge the various messaging apps into one. The main objective is to make it easier for users to communicate and provide a secure encryption protocol. This symbiosis will benefit the cryptocurrency, it will become more accessible to users all over the world.
Since February 2018, one million people in India have been tested through the Indian banking sector's dematerialised payment platform, Unified Payment Interface (UPI).
Messenger has already had a payment function since 2015, but the service faces the inconvenience of the banking system: transactions can take up to 5 days, including access to the account and multiple intermediaries. Thus, Facebook's cryptocurrency will make the process instantaneous and replace banking providers.
Project launch
In November 2019, Libra Association representatives reported the successful test launch of the project's core network. At the time of the launch, the network was a replica of the future core network, was deployed on seven active nodes and had over 51,000 transactions logged.
