Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta-backed cryptocurrency venture has gone out on a whimper.
In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018, Zuckerberg authorised a team to start work on a project with an ambitious goal.
It’s no biggie, Zuckerberg only wanted this team to revolutionize the global monetary system by developing a borderless currency free that was free from government control.
Unsurprisingly the big bad beast otherwise known as the US Federal Reserve had other plans.
It was hoped that Libra coin would have a similar effect as Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging in that it could be a gateway to the internet for hundreds of millions of people.
David Marcus, the head of the project, said, “Libra holds the potential to provide billions of people around the world with access to a more inclusive, more open financial ecosystem.”
However, several years have since passed and Libra coins’ potential gradually became more a pipe dream rather than a future certainty as it was once touted.
Now the project is effectively dead as the association behind the coin, ‘Diem Association’ announced the sale of its intellectual property and other assets to Silvergate Capital Corporation.
In a statement, Diem, CEO, Stuart Levey, said, “From the outset, the Diem project has been focused on leveraging the benefits of blockchain technology to design a better and more inclusive payment system.”
Also, “One of our highest priorities in designing the Diem Payment Network was building in controls to protect it against misuse by illicit actors.”
“We addressed that concern in ways that are novel in the industry, implementing numerous controls that were recognised as innovative by regulators.”
“Among these controls was a prohibition on anonymous transactions, which pose both a sanctions and money laundering risk.”
Levey went on to claim, “In the United States, a senior regulator informed us that Diem was the best-designed stablecoin project the US Government had seen.”
Though despite these positive signs, Levey wrote, “It nevertheless became clear from our dialogue with federal regulators that the project could not move ahead.”
This precedent of central banks coming after threats to their conventional systems is certainly not a good one.
