In its quest for world domination, Facebook has already disrupted everything from the media industry to American democracy, drawing scrutiny for things like its pitiful handling of user data, its monopolistic tendencies, and a “digital gangster” mentality along the way. Now, as regulators in Washington, D.C., bear down on Facebook, co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has acquired a new target: the global financial system.

On Tuesday, Facebook announced plans to debut Libra, a cryptocurrency it has been developing for more than a year. Described by the company as “a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that can empower billions of people,” Libra will partner Facebook with Mastercard, Visa, Uber, and an array of other high-profile companies in what the New York Times called “the most far-reaching attempt by a mainstream company to jump into the world of cryptocurrencies.”

David Marcus, who is leading Facebook’s blockchain technology research, is stoked. “It feels like it is time for a better system,” Marcus told the Times. “This is something that could be a profound change for the entire world.” Even Zuckerberg, who has spent much of the last two years on a sort of apology tour, sounds like he’s regained his change-the-world mojo. “Being able to use mobile money can have an important positive impact on people's lives because you don't have to always carry cash, which can be insecure, or pay extra fees for transfers,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. “We aspire to make it easy for everyone to send and receive money just like you use our apps to instantly share messages and photos.”

Zuckerberg is promising that the new blockchain-based currency, which is set to launch in 2020, will be more secure, too. “Privacy and safety will be built into every step,” the Facebook CEO claims, in part because operations will be decentralized, though Calibra, Facebook’s subsidiary, will serve as a virtual wallet that can be used alone, or through WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. The system “will be regulated like other payment service providers,” Zuckerberg continued. “Any information you share with Calibra will be kept separate from information you share on Facebook.”

Of course, there are concerns about the new product. For one, Zuckerberg’s claim that there will be a hard wall between Calibra and Facebook isn’t quite true. As Business Insider points out, Calibra’s own terms of service indicate that there are instances in which Calibra account data could be shared with Facebook for crime prevention and in other “limited circumstances.” What’s more, Facebook could, with user permission, share information with Calibra for an “improved” experience.

More worrying are Facebook’s potential motivations for entering the payments market in the first place. There’s nothing wrong with providing a digital currency for people without bank accounts, of course, but it’s also worth considering how Libra is likely to consolidate Facebook’s power online. Zuckerberg’s inspiration appears to be WeChat, a Chinese mobile platform that offers comprehensive services including messaging, ride hailing, and electronic payments. As it stands now, Facebook is largely reliant on advertising for revenue; with Libra, Facebook might ultimately become a crucial part of the digital payments infrastructure, too.

Libra is a long way from profitability, but it has the potential to be a game-changer for a company with billions of users. With that sort of scale, Zuckerberg shouldn’t have any problem convincing more multinationals to buy into his payments system, making the service—and therefore Facebook—increasingly essential. As Max Read notes in New York magazine, “It’s pretty easy to quit Facebook, the app where you fight with your childhood neighbor about politics. It’s much more difficult to quit Facebook, the app you use to pay your rent.”