Facebook is considering changing its Libra token from a single entity to multiple pegged stablecoin currencies, according to project lead David Marcus, who has called for the project to be more “agile” in an attempt to curry favor with regulators and get the token into circulation. According to Reuters, Marcus yesterday told a banking seminar that the group’s main goal remains to create a more efficient payments system but that it was open to looking at alternative approaches for the way the project operates.
“Series of Stablecoins” Proposed
Currently, Libra is set to be a single token with a value based on a basket of fiat currencies, but Marcus stated that he was open to ripping up the blueprints and starting again, a sign that the project is willing to do almost anything in order to win the affections of regulators:
We could do it differently. Instead of having a synthetic unit … we could have a series of stablecoins, a dollar stablecoin, a euro stablecoin, a sterling pound stable coin, etcetera. We could definitely approach this with having a multitude of stablecoins that represent national currencies in a tokenized digital form. That is one of the options that should be considered.
Marcus was careful to state that this was not the project’s preferred option, but emphasized that what he cared about above all was “the mission”, and that Facebook would be prepared to “demonstrate a lot of agility” in order to achieve it. Publicly Facebook has declared this mission is to “enable a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people”. However, if anyone actually believes this over, say, a desire to monopolize the young industry of blockchain-based micro payments and make billions of dollars out of it in the process, then they clearly don’t know Facebook very well.
Marcus and Zuckerberg Head to Washington
Marcus’ comments come sandwiched in between last week’s news that a plethora of high-profile backers had pulled out of the Libra Association and an appearance by himself and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in front of the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday regarding Libra’s plans. Whether this openness to consider different approaches to the token will do the pair any favors in Washington is doubtful, with very few committee members being versed enough in the technical details of the project to even know the difference, being mainly concerned with the wider implications of the token.
