10 quick thoughts on Libra

10 quick thoughts on Libra.org since this is the topic of the day

tl;dr: very bullish, very exciting.

1. I am super bullish about it. this is one of those defining moment the industry needed to move forward. Facebook is coming in full force on it with a wide range of powerful partners. it is not guaranteed to succeed but this is a not a side project to be killed in a few months. they are dead serious and committed about it

2. I love how the project is presented and how they talk “normal”. Definitely does not sound crypto or cryptic. The level of execution of every single section of their website is 10/10. even the sign-up form leaves appetite for more. very promising. Execution in crypto land is usually mediocre or ok at best. This is raising the bar

3. This is not a competitor to bitcoin, this is not a competitor to dollar/EU. it is a new payment avenue that will unlock an untapped economy where billions of people do not have access to the system, we lucky westerners have access to. That said I would not want to be a stable coin operator right now. seems very dangerous to fight against FB.

4. Bitcoin lovers hate it because not enough decentralized. But we need to zoom out here. this is phase 1 where Facebook does not control things alone (first time ever). a set of limited partners will run it together in a first step. And they chose a protocol that will allow them to enable anyone to participate in a permission-less system. not perfect from day 1. but had to start somewhere. They are in “putching ball mode” and will stomach a lot of criticisms. but I am sure they will grow out of it

5. I anticipate their immediate challenge is going to be regulatory clearance, which is why they had to announce it and why it will roll out in only in 2020. Even if France and others want to stop and can declare it illegal, I think they will find interest in supporting it. Knee-jerk reactions are expected of course. Note that they will require KYC from all users. By design, it is not “anonymous” and likely to be respectful of AML laws. They are already registered as a money transmission service.. the reserves will be in FIAT and users will have to use FIAT to own libra.

6. the reason this project is so exciting is because Facebook and its partners have the reach and marketing tools to reach billions of people

7. Customer support via Messenger /Whatsapp is killer. there is no better way to do it

8. I love that Libra is open source and can’t wait to see how developers will contribute to it. On the first impression, the code library is super serious and massive

9. One the biggest challenge for Libra will be privacy. what data will be exposed to who and in which conditions. They do highlight that they will respect privacy. we will have to see how this works in practice. Their reserve is backed by a basket of fiat assets. Makes things easier to get for people but harder for compliance. Maybe over time, this basket will include a majority of crypto assets. Why not BTC also.

10. Facebook will not be alone as a social media giant in crypto land. Very soon Telegram will arrive, then Kakao, Line, and likely Viber/Rakuten. What will Twitter do? We know Jack Dorsey is a huge bitcoin fan, i don t see him building a coin.

bonus: love the name. has so many double reading. the astrological symbol, everyone knows (mine btw). the message to the Winklevoss bro’s who built gemini, the remote reminding of liberty/libre, the reminding of the original currency LIVRE used through history, the fact LIBRA has the same letters as BRAIL (blind script)….Good job on this whoever was behind it

Voila.

Side note. Facebook would earn additional trust if beyond the open sourcing they disclosed they had security audits and published the reports. It’s best practice