Libra is the name of Facebook’s shiny new cryptocurrency. The social media giant is leading a consortium of investors including Uber, Spotify and Visa, among others, to launch a blockchain-based currency in 2020. Facebook says it’s goal is to bring financial services to the almost 2 billion people around the world without bank accounts.
Tech expert Omar Gallaga says Facebook is creating Libra to keep users on its platform, and give some of them more financial freedom.
“They want people to stay on Facebook for as long as possible,” Gallaga says. “And if you’re on Facebook, using Libra to make transactions to buy and sell things through their marketplace, you’re in the platform spending more time and they can sell more ads to that.”
Gallaga says Facebook wants to set Libra apart from other currencies by emphasizing stability.
“This is not like a speculative currency where you’re going to invest money, and then six months later it’s going to go up or down,” Gallaga says. “They want it to be very stable; they wanted it to be tied to traditional currencies.”
And companies partnering with Facebook on Libra are investing $10 million apiece.
What you’ll hear in this segment:
– Why Facebook is launching Libra
– What the launch of Libra will mean for regular Facebook users
– How Facebook will address users’ security and privacy concerns
Written by Geronimo Perez.
