This archive report was first published on 14 July 2019.
Facebook's planned virtual currency, Libra, has been met with skepticism from the wider cryptocurrency community. The currency, which is expected to launch in the first half of 2020, has already faced criticism from US President Donald Trump and global regulators.
At a recent event in London, about two-thirds of participants raised their hand to express distrust in Libra, with many experts citing concerns over its governance and regulation. Helen Disney, founder and boss of Unblocked Events, acknowledged growing doubts over who exactly would oversee and regulate Libra's operation.
"The cryptocurrency community is very libertarian in thinking," Disney told AFP. "It's about giving power to the people, democratisation of finance, keeping away from big banks and companies who control the economy," she said.
Libra, which is widely regarded as a challenger to dominant global player Bitcoin, will be co-managed by 100 partner firms, including Facebook's newly-minted financial services division Calibra. The companies behind Libra include payment giants Visa, MasterCard and PayPal, as well as taxi-hailing services Lyft and Uber.
However, some experts have raised concerns over Libra's centralization, with James Bennett, head of cryptocurrency research firm Bitassist, arguing that Libra should not be seen in the same light as Bitcoin. "In the long run, people may realise that Libra is not a cryptocurrency," Bennett said at the FinTech Week event.
Trump has meanwhile unleashed a vicious attack on virtual currencies, slamming them for their alleged shadowy nature and arguing that Libra had no standing nor dependability -- unlike the dollar. "I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air," Trump tweeted Thursday.
