• Asociación.Booking leaves Libra: Facebook project suffers another casualty
  • Departures Disbanded: Mastercard and Visa are unchecked
  • Interview.Libra, Facebook's challenge to the financial system

Libra loses partners and wins rivals. The financial project led by Facebook, which on Monday held its first meeting in the Swiss city of Geneva, already accumulates seven casualties, after the departure of the online tourism giant, Booking. Meanwhile other cryptocurrencies take shape to take into account: China prepares its own, despite the fact that in the past the communist administration described these types of projects as "the instrument of criminal activity."

Despite the alarm voices given by the institutions, China has managed to monopolize more than 95% of all transactions made with bitcoins or cryptocurrencies. The Asian Government has, therefore, surrendered to the evidence, and in the press of that country there is already talk of November 11 as the official launch date , coinciding with the bachelor's party, an event for that country's trade. For its part, Libra has already delayed its premiere from the first half of next year to the second, a redesigned commitment that does not seem easy either.

The Chinese government would thus face Facebook, a company that stands out among all the partners of the Libra association for reaching 2.4 billion monthly users worldwide ; However, the social network is not present in the Asian country, because it does not meet the requirements of that particular government.

Libra, which unlike other cryptocurrencies is subject to a series of values ​​that would avoid the volatility that characterizes them, plans to refer to the euro, the pound sterling, the US dollar and even the Singaporean, but from the association they have already confirmed EL MUNDO which at the moment do not contemplate linking to the Chinese yuan.

The Old Continent, on the other hand, does seem to matter to the Libra project, based in Geneva, currently under scrutiny by the Swiss financial authority (the FINMA) and decidedly determined to convince the European Union of the benefits of this margin payment method of financial institutions.

Germany celebrates dropouts

The heart of Europe, however, does not beat to the rhythm of Libra. Yesterday, once again, distances were marked with respect to that cryptocurrency. The German Finance Minister, Olaf Scholz, came to the point of celebrating that they have already left the association eBay, Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Stripe, Mercado Pago and Booking. "It is a good sign that important companies have withdrawn from the project," Scholz said in an interview with Reuters: "I see the project as a threat to the autonomy of states and democratic governance in our society. We must ensure that the issuance of currency remains a matter of the states and not of the large private companies . His French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire, has already said that Libra represents a threat to "monetary sovereignty."

The technology that supports a cryptocurrency is the so-called blockchain , that is, there is not a coined material, but a digital chain, with blocks that branch out but set the preceding information; Thus, a cryptocurrency is spent every time it is used for a transaction, just as it would happen with a traditional, metallic one.

The Libra association is responsible for preserving the integrity of that chain, although it will depend on the different members to obtain the validation of the relevant regulators to establish their respective payment services. Among the 21 companies that today are part of Libra, are the Vodafone operator , as well as the Uber and Lift platforms , which trust that in the future they can pay and collect their services, in addition to without a wallet, on the sidelines of the banks.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • China
  • Facebook
  • European Union
  • Uber
  • Germany
  • Europe

InternetLibra, Facebook's challenge to the financial system, is delayed by the panic of banks and governments

In the office of ... Alain Dehaze: "The law of timekeeping is out of date"

CompaniesThe slow return of 'made in Spain'