Facebook's Cryptocurrency Foray - An Overview

Bambos Tsiattalou

2 October 2019

A few weeks ago controversy blew up over Facebook’s move to develop its own cryptocurrency, Libra, which adds to the debate over the social media giant’s market reach and the implications for consumer privacy. While around now for several years, cryptocurrencies are still a contentious subject, not least because of high market volatility. Some commentators doubt if an entity that is so choppy counts as money.

To consider these issues - which have implications for the wealth management sector - is Bambos Tsiattalou, founding partner of in its reserve.”

Yet if Libra truly is a payment mechanism, and not a new currency, then it may have been wiser not to trumpet it precisely as a new “global currency” at its launch. A new “global payment network” may not have met such resistance.

The internet has no single regulator, and many tech and finance companies are now wealthier than entire nations. Facebook is the leading player behind Libra, but it is not alone. Other companies involved in the Libra Association include Mastercard, Vodafone, Spotify and Visa.

Such influential companies may well manage to launch a digital “payment system” that becomes a de facto global digital currency. If Libra is ultimately launched in June 2020, in spite of such powerful opposition, it will tell us a lot about where the real power now lies in our global digital economy.