Facebook announced recently that by 2020, they will roll out Libra — their blockchain-based cryptocurrency. It is, of course, major news, as it has the potential to disrupt the payment and banking sector. If you want to read all the surrounding newsworthy details, you can read the TechCrunch article. I will instead focus on a few observations and thoughts about Libra — from a few perspectives — technical, legal/compliance, and possibly financial.
First, replacing banks, bank transfers, credits cards, payment providers, and ATMs with just your smartphone sounds appealing. Why hasn’t anyone tried to do that so far — well, many have tried, but you can’t just have the technology and move towards gradual adoption. You can’t even do it if you are Facebook. You can, however, do it, if you are Facebook, backed by Visa, Mastercard, Uber, and many, many more big names on the market. So, Facebook got that right — they made a huge coalition that can drive such a drastic change forward.