Business & Industry

Facebook open for Libra project to currency-pegged stablecoins

Facebook Inc (FB.O), confronting developing skepticism about its digital currency project Libra, on Sunday said the initiative could utilize cryptocurrencies dependent on national currencies, for example, the dollar, rather than the synthetic one it at first proposed.

David Marcus, who heads the Libra project for Facebook, told a banking seminar the group’s main goal stayed to make a more efficient payments system, however, it was available to seeing elective methodologies for the currency token it would utilize.

“We could do it differently,” he said. “Instead of having a synthetic unit … we could have a series of stablecoins, a dollar stablecoin, a euro stablecoin, a sterling pound stable coin, etc,” Marcus told the panel.

“We could definitely approach this with having a multitude of stablecoins that represent national currencies in a tokenized digital form,” he said. “That is one of the options that should be considered.”

Marcus said he was not recommending currency-pegged stablecoins were the group’s new favored option.

“What we care about is the mission and there are a number ways to go about this,” Marcus told Reuters after the panel, adding that the Libra expected to “demonstrate a lot of agility.”

The Facebook-led project endured serious setbacks earlier this month, as significant payment organizations Mastercard Inc (MA.N) and Visa Inc (V.N) became the most recent partners to stop the group behind the project.

Other key individuals that have pulled out included Stripe, eBay Inc (EBAY.O) and Booking Holdings Inc (BKNG.O) and PayPal Holdings Inc (PYPL.O).

Global policymakers and regulators have likewise stressed that the production of a new synthetic global currency could overturn the global financial system, threaten clients’ privacy, and encourage money laundering.

Group of 20 finance leaders on Friday consented to set strict regulations on cryptocurrencies and said such stablecoins ought not to be given until different global risks were addressed.

Marcus revealed to Reuters that Facebook was all the while going for a June 2020 launch of Libra, however, recognized it could miss that focus because of regulatory hurdles.

“We’ll see. That’s still the goal,” Marcus disclosed to Reuters when inquired as to whether the recent takeoff of a few significant partners from the project would postpone the arranged 2020 launch.

“We’ve always said that we wouldn’t go forward unless we have addressed all legitimate concerns and get proper regulatory approval. So it’s not entirely up to us,” he said.

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Laurie Borg
Laurie Borg is a content marketing, social media, and communications strategist and writer. She works in newsfeedcentral.com for the last two years. Her work has appeared in sports and the environment. Laurie has also been a swimsuit designer. A former admissions committee member for the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, she earned an MFA in Fiction from the University of Florida, and now lives in Brooklyn.