While it hasn’t stopped, blockchain and digital currencies seemed to have taken a back seat in recent months in terms of news coverage. However, considering the world environment and the health situation, interest in this modern kind of currency has evidently risen in the past. That may have given the party behind Facebook‘s divisive Libra cryptocurrency the impetus to actually sell it as early as January, even if it’s not the grand vision that Facebook and its remaining allies had for it last year.
It’s not too hard to understand why Libra would get bogged down by scandal long before she had the opportunity to assert herself, considering the big names that once stood behind her. Cryptocurrency itself is still a difficult term for those outside the Fintech circles to understand, but the simple affiliation with Facebook, which is credited with the development of Libra, has immediately raised red flags among regulators. Those regulators haven’t budged yet, but now it seems like sentiments have moved from source to source.
The Financial Times notes that the Libra Association is looking forward to the long-delayed introduction of the cryptocurrency in January. It’s not going to be the same Libra that Facebook et al. branded last year and is pretty much a watered-down version of the already watered-down agreement that the company had to make to address regulators’ concerns. However, receiving permission from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority is just the tip of the iceberg of what the currency needs to do.
Having lost founder partners including PayPal. Mastercard and eBay handed the fledgling association a big blast. While it still has big stars like Spotify or Uber, losing members of the financial or industrial industry threatens the Association’s reputation and brings into question its ability to manage cryptocurrencies. Any of the remaining participants are also waiting and seeing an approach that could minimize the effect of the launch of Libra in January.
However, Libra’s greatest concern is Facebook. While the company has done its best to separate itself from the social networking giant, Libra will remain forever synonymous with it even through branches such as Novi, formerly Calibra. Despite Facebook’s prestige before politicians, policymakers, and privacy activists, the thought of bringing money into the world’s hands will always be an intimidating one.