Si Libra at si Juan

A vantage point from the Philippines on Facebook’s Libra.

Ha?! Libra? Anong Libra? Sa tanang buhay ko, isang Libra lang ang alam ko, ung Zodiac Sign na Libra, sila ung mga pinanganak ng September 23 hanggang October 23.

Pero pwera biro, ano nga ba ang Libra sa crypto-world? Ang Libra ay isang bagong crypto-currency ng bagong kompanyang ginawa ng Facebook na ang tawag ay Calibra. Ang Libra ay dinisenyo sa tatlong pamamaraan: Una, ang teknolohiyang ginamit ay katulad din ng gamit ng ibang crypto-currency which is blockchain, specifically Libra Blockchain. Pangalawa, ang bawat Libra coin ay may katumbas na halaga ng totoong pera o property. Pangatlo, ang pag-lago ng pag gamit ng Libra ay pangungunahan ng isang independyenteng grupo na ang tawag ay Libra Association Council. Ang Libra Association Council ay binubuo halos ng isang daang (100) malalaking kompany galing sa iba’t ibang bahagi ng mundo. Itong 100 companies na ito ay ang magiging Founding Members at sila ay pangungunahan ng Facebook. Inaasahan na by 2020, magiging available na sa public ang Libra coin.

Ano nga ba ang nag-udyok sa mga taga-Facebook para magbuo ng isang bagong cypto-currency? Ayon sa kanilang pag-aaral, may kabuu-ang 1.7bilyon ka-tao ang “unbanked” o mga taong hindi nakakapag-transact sa bangko dahil walang kaukulang dokumento. At dahil dito, hindi sila nakakakuha ng tamang tulong at suporta sa gobyerno, bangko at iba pang organisasyon. Nakikita rin nila itong solusyon para magkaroon ng mas maayos na buhay ang bawat tao at mas mapapakinabangan ang perang kanilang pinaghirapan. Kasi sa pamamagitan ng Libra, magiging mas mababa ang mga service fees na kakailanganing bayaran, tulad ng remittance, interest fees and mas mapapabilis ang transaksyon.

For the past few years, naging laganap ang pag gamit ng blockchain technology sa financial world and other digital services. At ito ang teknolohiyang ginamit ng Calibra para i-develop ang Libra coin. Pero, totoo nga bang ang Libra ay isang pure blockchain solution? Ginagamit ang blockchain solution para magkaroon tau ng decentralized way of accessing and processing our data. Ibig sabihin, lahat ng tao ay may access sa lahat ng data, walang iisang tao or grupo ang may full control ng data. Pero as per design of Libra coin, someone needs to go through an authorized reseller of Libra Association Council to do transactions such as buy and sell, money conversion from Libra coin to actual money like Philippine Peso, US Dollar, Japanese Yen, etc. And because we have no direct access to our data and would need a reseller, this defeats the purpose of decentralization. Eh di parang katulad pa rin ng set-up na meron tau ngaun, ang pinag-kaiba nga lang is Libra coin ang gagamitin natin and we deal with Libra Association Council.

This is scary kasi it feels like all these points to having a Centralized Global Bank in the form of Libra Association Council. Every country has their own Central Bank and this institution always make sure that the people’s interest is protected, that no illegal transactions will be made, etc. With Libra Association Council being eventually the Centralized Global Bank, who will police them for any policy that they will implement in the future? Who will protect everyone? Taking into consideration as well that Calibra is the crypto-arm of FB which simply means that when security breach happens, it would be easy for bad people to connect a certain account to an FB account giving everyone an idea of who they are, where they are and what they do.

There’s really no way to go but to have digital change in everything, and it’s only fair. It’s time that people gets to have better services, cheaper services, equal opportunity and a better quality of life. But as long as people gets trapped to false promises of crypto-coins and blockchain companies, things will just get worse. So for me, Libra is a false promise of decentralization and i think us being the first in the crypto-world should help people understand what really is behind the mask of Calibra and Facebook. First by educating everyone what blockchain and decentralisation really is and how it can help build a better world for everyone. Ika nga, hinay-hinay lang, one small step at a time.

Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author above do not necessarily represent the views of the Ethereum Foundation.