It was only a matter of time before Facebook announced some form of entry into the crypto market and sure enough now we have it.
What we have here is the makings of a modern day jousting tournament between two of the richest men in the world. Jeff Bezos as the richest with an estimated net worth of 155 billion USD and Mark Zuckerberg with an estimated net wort h of 70.2 billion USD – both vying for attention to feed their apparent massive egos by reaching for, some might say, world domination in their respective fields.
Whilst JB has gone relatively dark with his plans, since Amazon’s mild foray into the world of cryptocurrency of 2017-18, which I spoke about here back in March of this year, we now have the young pretender, MZ, flexing his IT muscle for the entire world to see - and admire:wink:.
There is a certain perceived arrogance about Facebook’s proposal – whereby proposal could be loosely interpreted to actually mean ‘hell bent on’ – challenging the current systems of bank transfers, online payments and credit cards with their own global cryptocurrency.
Aside from the naked ambition of their plans to break into finance they seem to have overlooked potential resistance, which has already become a reality in some quarters, to their introducing an unfettered global currency.
The regulators are sharpening their needles in anticipation of puncturing Mr Z’s new scheme ahead of Libra taking off for real.
Amongst others, the French finance minister Bruno Le Maire has voiced concerns that this development by Facebook could offer a charter for money laundering, terrorism finance and general personal privacy invasion.
Similar sounds have echoed through the corridors of power in Germany and the UK with calls for the finance ministers of the G7 group to take a closer look at the proposed currency development and related protocols.
Even closer to home, in the USA Congresswoman Maxine Waters, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, has asked that Facebook should halt its plans until there has been a Congressional hearing on the matter as reported here in Reuters: " Facebook is continuing its unchecked expansion and extending its reach into the lives of its users. "
Who can blame this political scepticism given Facebook’s track record to date? The company’s ‘cavalier’ attitude to user data has been a matter of public record as highlighted by, but not limited to, the Cambridge Analytica scandal.