Allegedly, Facebook might unveil its cryptocurrency, codenamed Libra, within this month. The company is expected to release a whitepaper on June 18, 2019. According to a few sources, Facebook is planning to officially launch the cryptocurrency in 2020.
Blockchain is a distributed public ledger that is used to manage transactions and keep a record of assets. It allows a network of users to record, verify and perform transactions in a secure manner. Blockchain helps in simplifying the creation as well as the exchange of transactions.
Potentially, Facebook’s cryptocurrency would offer an online payments system to users without charging any fee or international transactions. To operate the nodes on its future cryptocurrency network, Facebook is planning to charge $10 million from each company. The network behind the payments would be managed by an independent foundation. Reportedly, the target set by Facebook is to launch the network with 100 nodes.
A few months ago, Libra Networks was set up by Facebook in Geneva. The Swiss company will focus on developing the hardware and software for all functions related to a currency like blockchain, big data, payments, analytics, and identity management.
As soon as the news hit the market, everyone got to predicting what this currency might build up to. One of the major predictions being made is that governments all around the world will view this cryptocurrency as a giant pool of data about users’ expenses. This would give officials the ability to track, examine and analyze each penny spent.
Facebook’s entry into cryptocurrency will eventually benefit bitcoin, says another prediction. It will not happen suddenly, of course, but Facebook will speed up the pace of teaching people all about cryptocurrencies. This will result in more and more people turning to bitcoin. The reason being that bitcoin is scarce while Facebook’s cryptocurrency will not be. People will seek the most truthful ledger to store their wealth.
Reference: Forbes, The Verge, CNet
