French Minister of the Economy and Finance intends to “ask for guarantees” from Facebook in regards to its forthcoming digital currency Libra, media outlet Europe 1 reported on June 18.
The
Minister of the Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire told Europe 1 that
Facebook’s long-awaited stablecoin Libra is an “attribute of the
sovereignty of the States” and should “remain in the hands of the States
and not of the private companies which answer to private interests".
Le Maire stated that he will “ask for guarantees” from the social media
giant such as "the guarantee that this instrument of transaction can
not be diverted to finance terrorism or any other illegal activity". Le
Maire also asked the governors of the G7 central banks to report what guarantees are to be obtained from Facebook. Le Maire said:
“We
have to make sure that there is no risk for the consumer, it is our
role as a state to protect consumers. [...] It will allow Facebook to
accumulate millions and millions of data again, which strengthens me in
my belief that it is necessary to regulate the digital giants, to make
sure that they do not end up in monopolistic situations."
Earlier today, Facebook released
cryptocurrency and blockchain-based financial infrastructure project.
The stablecoin will operate on the native and scalable Libra blockchain, and be backed by a reserve of assets ostensibly “designed to give it intrinsic value” and mitigate volatility fluctuations.
As
Libra is not technically pegged to any given national fiat currency,
the white paper states that users will not always be able to redeem the
token for a fixed amount of fiat, although Facebook claims that the
reserve assets have been chosen so as to minimize volatility.
has also revealed the release of the Libra Investment Token — distinct
from its global user-oriented cryptocurrency Libra — which can be
purchased or distributed as dividends to the governing association’s
founding members and accredited investors.
As previously reported, the cryptocurrency is set to facilitate payments across Facebook’s various platforms including WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram, giving the new coin potential exposure to a combined 2.7 billion users each month.
source link
