Bruno Le Maire has found a punching bag: the libra, Facebook's dematerialized money project. The French Minister of Economy expressed, Thursday, September 13, his will to oppose the development of this digital currency in Europe, ensuring that "our monetary sovereignty is at stake."

"It's a bit Bruno Le Maire against libra, act II or act III", fun Loïc Sauce, economist at the Higher Institute of Science, Techniques and Business Economics (Istec), specialist in cryptocurrency, contacted by France 24 The boss of Bercy had already been very circumspect when Facebook had announced in June his plan to allow its 2 billion users to pay and send money through its new currency, libra.

Defense of the royal squares

By circumspect, Bruno Le Maire has become frankly hostile. In addition to sovereignty at risk, he also spoke of "danger to consumers" or "systemic risk" to qualify the future currency of Facebook. "The minister's reaction is understandable, the power to coin money is a historic prerogative of the state, and all of a sudden there's a private interest group [the Libra Networks foundation that includes, besides Facebook , companies like MasterCard, Uber or Free] who comes to say that their currency is more interesting to use than that which is current in the territories where Facebook is present, "says Michel-Emmanuel de Thuy, director of digital at 99 Advisory, consulting firm for financial institutions.

The defense reaction of the regal squares does not prevent the Minister of the Economy to support where it can hurt for Facebook. By raising the question of monetary sovereignty, Bruno Le Maire insinuates that the libra could, if successful, "parasitize monetary policies," says Michel-Emmanuel de Thuy. If 2 billion people turn to libra for part of their online transactions, "states risk losing control over a sizeable part of financial flows, which would deprive them of important information to determine monetary policy to lead, "says Nathalie Janson, economist and bitcoin specialist at the Neoma Business School.

For now, Facebook is only considering allowing users to transfer funds via its website or its messaging services (WhatsApp, Messenger) and to pay online some merchants partners of the project libra. "But with the phenomenon of technological acceleration, the states may fear that this dematerialized money will serve in a not so distant future to pay for everyday purchases, such as the baguette," said Michel-Emmanuel de Thuy.

Facebook, "too big to fail"

In a world where libra would have comfortably installed itself as a currency competing with the euro, the dollar or other currencies, Facebook would become de facto "too big to fail", like those banks that States can not go bankrupt for fear of destabilizing the entire economy. If the empire built by Mark Zuckerberg collapses, the money that users would have kept in their virtual Calibra portfolio - managed by Facebook - "would not be covered by a state guarantee, as it may be the case with bank accounts, and the losses could affect the entire economy.This is the systemic risk that speaks Bruno Le Maire, "notes Nathalie Janson.

These disaster scenarios remain hypothetical and libra is still in the draft stage. But Bruno Le Maire believes that prevention is better than cure. He is not the only one: American senators also vigorously expressed their opposition to Facebook's currency during the hearing of David Marcus, the libra project director, in July 2019.

But finding the parade is not easy. "The legislator can at most prohibit paying taxes in libra and a court could sanction a contract that provides for this currency as a means of payment," said Nathalie Janson. "Beyond that, the means of state intervention are very limited.If a US website, for example, decides to allow payment in Libra, France can not prohibit," says Loïc Sauce.

A public cryptocurrency to counter the libra ?

Probably aware of the limits of the ban, Bruno Le Maire seems to lean towards the creation of a digital currency managed by central banks - a kind of public bitcoin - in response to the libra. In an interview with the daily La Croix and without ever mentioning the initiative of Facebook, he explains that such a digital currency would have the advantage of making "transactions faster, cheaper [less costs related to the management of "cash, Ed]" and would facilitate the access of "unbanked" populations to financial services. These are, almost word for word, the benefits cited by Facebook during the presentation of the book ...

Bruno Le Mayor hit the nail on Friday 13 September, issuing a joint statement with the German Ministry of the Economy urging the European Central Bank (ECB) to "accelerate its thinking around a public digital currency".

"This idea of ​​a public virtual currency has been examined by central banks for years, but has never been a priority.In a sense, it can be said that the threat of the arrival of libra has made the debate about modernization of the currency more urgent ", remarks Michel-Emmanuel de Thuy.

Such a currency would have the advantage over that of Facebook to "benefit from the official guarantee of the Central Bank," says Nathalie Janson. But it is still necessary for all European countries to agree on the principle and then on the details. Suffice to say that Facebook is likely to have the time to introduce his libra and win the bet, even before the ECB offers its alternative.

This battle between certain states - including France - and Facebook for the future of the currency risks making a victim by ricochet: the spirit of the pioneers of cryptocurrencies. Both the libra and the public currency project defended by Bruno Le Maire propose systems controlled by a central body, be it the Libra Networks Foundation in Geneva or the ECB. Projects far removed from the ideal defended by the developers of bitcoin, who want to establish a system that would have freed the intermediaries, such as banks, and organizations at the top of the pyramid. If libra or a public digital currency is needed, it would be a bad blow for the revolutionary ambitions of the original cryptocurrency movement, which wanted to establish a new financial system, "concludes Nathalie Janson.