An insight into the Libra cryptocurrency

In a move that is regarded by most financial analysts as the most ambitious yet in efforts to take cryptocurrency mainstream, Facebook recently unveiled its cryptocurrency, Libra. This move is also seen as one that will reshape finance globally. Additionally, the Libra cryptocurrency will help this social media giant diversify its business from advertising and expand into financial services, a forte which has long been dominated by Wall Street.

Facebook claims:

Cryptocurrencies are too slow and volatile

Most people in the world are without banks

Remittance is expensive, poor people pay the most.

What is Libra?

Libra is a new cryptocurrency developed by the social media giant, Facebook, and is based on a smart contract blockchain platform. This new virtual currency is meant to live on smartphones and facilitate online commerce and financial transactions. How will Libra work?

Unlike any other existing cryptocurrency, Libra enjoys the backing of some of the world’s most prominent business entities. To get this new Facebook digital currency, all you have to do is to cash in your local currency. Once you have done this, you will get the equivalent of your local currency in Libra. You can use the digital currency to pay for goods and services just as you would with your local currency.

Consumer subscribing to Spotify through Calibra

Furthermore, you can seamlessly and securely make payments with Libra across the world. The transactions done with this digital currency cannot be reversed. This move is aimed at curbing fraud, which has almost brought down other online payments platforms such as PayPal. It is expected that when the currency is released in early 2020, the businesses that are Founding Members will be the ones that you can first transact with using this new currency. This is because they are the ones that are currently working on setting up the infrastructure to support payments in Libra.

Move → New Programming language

Move is the programming language of Libra. This language is written in Rust.

Rust advantages:

Compiled into WebAssembly such as many others blockchain (e.g EOS).

Becoming very popular

Cross-platform & Cross-compile (meaning it works on Windows, Linux, and macOS)

Faster compilation time

“Move” is a new programming language for implementing decentralized finance, transaction logic and “smart contracts”.

On top of that, Move is natively secure by implementing static analysis (find obvious bugs, simple mistakes) and not allowing dynamic dependencies.

Move defines a new Type called Resource (e.g used like String type or Int type).

Who will be in charge of Libra?

Though the social media giant is the developer of this digital currency, it is not its controller. It’s going to be controlled by the Libra Association. They’re going to be the ones to do all the minting of the crypto using BFT Consensus Algorithm.

How will the Libra BFT Consensus Algorithm work?

The libra blockchain will make use of a state machine replication platform where a client machine transaction request gets assigned to several server processes (Validators). Validator nodes on a network have a Leader node that makes proposals on how to implement the transaction. The validators vote on the proposals, and the winning proposal gets implemented, and the block is replicated across the entire network of nodes.

Libra is expecting to run around 1000 transactions per second, which might be enough for most use cases.

LibraBFT is going to be a permissioned blockchain at first where only those with access will run a validator node, but the eventual ambition is to turn it into a permissionless blockchain, so anyone can develop products across the network. It’s also going to be driven by a new programming language for more security. And most importantly there’s the Calibra.

calibra digital wallet for libra’s cryptocurrency

Calibra

Of late, Facebook has been in several privacy scandals that have made it quite an uphill battle for the company to maintain its public image. To avoid such scandals in the future with its new digital currency, the social media giant has launched Calibra as its subsidiary dealing with Libra.

The company understands that any privacy concerns with its new digital currency might significantly affect its uptake by the public. Therefore, Calibra will be run as a separate entity and will ensure that social media data is never linked with a user’s digital transactions. This means that Facebook will never use your financial information while using this cryptocurrency for ad targeting.

Libra Association and Calibra will have their headquarters in Switzerland where privacy and business laws are favorable. Their promise is to deliver a stable virtual currency (backed by a basket of currencies) that makes use of safe, fast, and secure blockchain technology. Here’s a look into the Libra Association.

What is the Libra Association?

The Libra Association, an independent not-for-profit organization

The Libra association is a guild of companies that are Founding Members of this digital currency. Currently, there are 28 companies in this association, but the plan is to have a total of 100 members who will act as the validators of the Libra currency. Every entity in this organization will get one vote when it comes to making decisions relating to Libra. No member will have more than 1% of the total vote.

The business enterprises inside the Libra Association are expected to earn interest on their Libra Investment Tokens. The companies will be buying tokens worth $10 million upon joining the association and are expected to increase their investment to $100 million by the time the digital currency is released to the public in early 2020.

The 28 organizations currently in this are from different business sectors, including investments, telecommunications, social media, e-commerce, travel, music, ride-share, non-profit, blockchain, and payments.

The companies from the investments sector include Andreessen Horowitz, Creative Destruction, Thrive Capital, Ribbit Capital, Breakthrough Initiatives, and Union Square Ventures. Coinbase, Xapo, Anchorage, and Bison Trails are companies from the blockchain sector.

From the media, we have Vodafone and Iliad as telecoms. Facebook and Calibra from the social media sector. The e-commerce entities in the association include Farfetch, eBay, and Mercado Libre, and the payments sector is represented by Mastercard, PayU, PayPal, Stripe, and Visa.

From the travel sector, there’s Booking Holdings. Uber and Lyft are from the ride-share industry. There are also several non-profit organizations in this association, such as Kiva, Mercy Corps, and Women’s World Banking.

Criteria for joining the Libra Association

Currently, there are only 28 members in the Libra Association out of the proposed 100. Therefore, the association is looking to take in more members to solidify the digital currency’s position as one of the best cryptocurrency offerings. There are different criteria for the entities in various business sectors to join.

Business entities

For a business entity looking to join this Founding Members association, they need to have a market value of more than $1 billion or have customer balances exceeding $500 million. They also need a customer base of about 20 million people a year across the globe. And finally, be recognized by any third-party association such as Fortune 500 or SandP Global 1200 as an established top-100 industry leader.

Any business entity that meets any two of the above criteria gets the approval to join the organization. Once approved, the enterprise must be ready to make a $10 million worth initial minimum investment in Libra Investment Tokens provided by the association. Moreover, the new entities will have the option of running their self-hosted blockchain nodes, which they will be directly managing. On the other hand, the enterprise can choose to have their blockchain nodes be cloud service hosted where a cloud service provider will run it.

Blockchain companies and crypto-focused investors

Blockchain companies and crypto-focused investors looking to join the Libra Association are getting some leeway when it comes to criteria requirements. This is because the blockchain industry is still in its infancy. Despite this leeway, the members of this sector cannot exceed more than a third of the total members.

Enterprises in this category will need to have at least $1 billion of assets under their management. Furthermore, the company’s infrastructure will need to have been in operation for not less than 12 months. The business entity should also have enterprise level privacy, infrastructure, and security. Additionally, the company must be staking or have in their custody assets worth more than $100 million for its clients. Organizations in this category that do not meet some of the criteria mentioned above but are deemed by the association to have meaningful contribution can be exempted and allowed to join.

Academic institutions and social impact partners

Academic institutions and social impact partners, such as non-profit organizations are also allowed to join the Libra Association. A non-profit organization must show a willingness to serve both the underbanked and unbanked through the use of blockchain technology.

Such an organization has to have been working on poverty alleviation within the past five years. Additionally, it must have put initiatives in place that would facilitate digital financial inclusion.

The entity has to be operating globally and display a credible and recognized level of trust. Moreover, it must have a proven track record for its social impact initiatives. If it’s a charity organization, it must have at least a $50 million annual operating budget.

An academic institution, on the other hand, has to among the top-100 ranking by QS World University Rankings to join the association as a Founding Member. Additionally, the institution’s computer science department has to be among CSRankings top 100 departments globally.

Academic institutions and social impact partners do not have to purchase any token investments after their approval. Despite this, they still have to take care of their blockchain nodes running costs, which is estimated to be $280,000.

Having said that, let’s discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of the Libra crypto.

Expected pros of the Libra virtual currency

Stability

Stability is the key issue that’s going to put Libra straight on top of other virtual currencies. Libra is backed by some of the biggest companies in the world, and they are making considerable investments to guarantee its stability. The million-dollar Libra Investment Token purchased by Libra Associates is expected to make Libra more stable than its counterpart cryptos which are unbacked. Bitcoin, for example, has been through some bubble burst, leaving investors in financial mayhem. Facebook is drawing lessons from such fallouts.

Therefore, unlike its sister cryptos that rely on market confidence, Libra is going to be stable in all economic scenarios.

Fiat deposit → create Libras.

Withdrawals → burn Libras.

Ease of use

Did you know that Zuckerberg took a tour to Kenya to understand the secret behind runaway M-Pesa success? East Africa’s number one money transfer platform makes no use of specialized software but just some simple protocols that are easy to carry out. And Zuckerberg is keen on getting Libra to be as simple as that, unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum that need computer savvy nerds. It’s going to live in your smartphones without some specialized software requirement.

A global community of users

Given the reach of Facebook, their cryptocurrency will likely be used by a massive global community. When launched to the public, it will be easy for Libra to become the most widely used cryptocurrency on the planet. This means that it will be more convenient to use this digital currency as it will be accepted by most people and businesses around the world.

Curbing digital threats

As already mentioned, Facebook launched Calibra to ensure social media data doesn’t sip to the crypto data. Then there’s the other proposed way to handle hacks by cutting off any part of the Libra blockchain affected in case of a severe cyber-attack. This will ensure that the attack does not spread to the entire system. The company will also be carrying out system security checks and upgrades from time to time to close loopholes.

Transaction fees

It’s not going to be free to transact using Libra, but it’s going to be cheaper than any other digital transaction mechanism around thanks to the assets of the Libra Association. For average daily users, this is something to be happy about, secure, safe, and cheap online transactions anywhere anytime. For example, if you are paying for a ride-share service like Uber or Lyft or shopping online, you won’t notice the fee.

But for large money transactions, the fee has been set high to deter criminals from taking advantage of Libra to facilitate their illegal activities, which brings me to the cons of the crypto.

Expected caveats.

It may be subject to business manipulation

The truth is that businesses solely exist to make money. Libra is a currency that will be managed by an association of businesses. Without any government regulation, this digital currency can be subject to manipulation by the companies when they are looking to make more money.

Government interference

In a bid to regulate this cryptocurrency, governments may come in and put up unfavorable laws. These laws may make it hard to use Libra cryptocurrency.

As of the moment, the Libra cryptocurrency is yet to hit the market, and most of its pros and cons are just speculation. The U.S. Senate will hold a special sitting next month to deliberate about this digital currency. A lot is likely to change between now and early 2020 when Libra will be released to the public.

Come next year when the digital currency is released to the public, if you are ordering a ride-share service like Uber or Lyft, you will be able to pay for it with this cryptocurrency effortlessly. You can also do your shopping on e-commerce sites like eBay, Mercado Libre, and Farfecth with Libra. Holiday booking via sites like Booking Holdings will also be done using this digital currency.

Adam Boudjemaa