Did Facebook Pay Launch to Replace Libra? Jonathan Ganor 2019-11-13 10:04:17 615 views

Facebook Pay Was Rolled Out Amidst Libra Regulatory Struggle

Facebook's cryptocurrency project Libra might have been doomed from the start. Libra received very little support from the cryptocurrency community and governments eyed it with concern. Some government officials in certain countries have flat out said that it would be banned in their territory.

There has been previous speculation that Libra might never actually launch. Additionally, Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg's hearing in Congress didn't seem to go very well.

Apparently governments seem worried that Libra would compete with national fiat currencies. In addition to that, concerns were raised regarding user data safety. Libra was meant to be a low volatility cryptocurrency backed by a basket of assets. This included fiat backing to some extent, bonds, commodities and possibly other assets. The basket of assets was supposed to guarantee that Libra's price would not fluctuate like most cryptocurrencies.

Libra was supposed to integrate with all of Facebook's different platforms, including Instagram & Whatsapp. This is why many were surprised to see the launch of Facebook Pay earlier today.

Introducing Facebook Pay

Earlier today Facebook launched Facebook Pay, a new digital payment method to transfer funds between users. Facebook Pay is much more like PayPal than Bitcoin. Users can link a credit card to their account in order to send funds. Users can set up Facebook Pay app-by-app or use one Facebook Pay on all accounts. At this moment at time, the only currency that can be send is USD.

In Facebook's official announcement of Facebook Pay the made a reference to Libra:

"Facebook Pay is built on existing financial infrastructure and partnerships, and is separate from the Calibra wallet which will run on the Libra network."

Facebook Pay seems to try to distance itself from the cryptocurrency project with this sentence. Seeing that Facebook Pay and Libra have the same goals and run on the same platforms, one could say that Libra has become redundant. This seems to indicate stronger than ever that Libra will never be released.

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