Digital Currency/Stablecoin/Tokenization Series: ECB Looks Reluctant on Facebook’s Libra

Entire cryptocurrency industry across the globe is under meticulous analysis post-Facebook’s announcement of Libra blockchain payment network. The House Financial Services Committee, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said that the current Libra framework has not absolutely addressed wider concerns around issues such as “Money laundering, data protection, and consumer privacy.” Powell said these concerns “will need to be addressed very thoroughly and carefully,” by Libra.

Offering an alternative perspective, on Friday, the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, acknowledged the issues within legacy money transfer markets. 

For now, yet another critic seems to be reluctant on Facebook’s crypto-project. When the lingering appreciations on facebook’s crypto-kid ‘Libra’ is supposed to bring in attraction to crypto-avenues, on the flip side, cynics and critics are lining up before its market penetration, and now it’s an executive board member of the European Central Bank (ECB) is appending the controversy surrounding Libra, claiming that it is not a genuine cryptocurrency.

Yves Mersch an ECB executive board member, claimed a damning alert not to be bluffed by Facebook's vague assurances of a decentralized ecosystem. 

He talks on Facebook’s crypto project during a legal conference in Frankfurt, Germany, wherein, he audaciously stated that Libra appears to be a “siren call” that is most likely lead to a “cartel-like” ecosystem.

While there are the issues of Libra network that are being attempted to fix them, Carney also stated in the recent past that, “It’s way too expensive to do domestic payments. It’s way too slow, and that hurts consumers and businesses. It stifles innovation, and it’s far too expensive to send money cross-border.” Carney recognized that “we have to absolutely acknowledge the problem that they’re trying to solve. And if it’s not this, we’d better have some answers for what else it is.”

His perspectives suggest that some global regulators are viewing Libra as both a problem and an opportunity.