Governments Critics: Libra and European Soil

governments critics: Expected to launch in the first half of 2020, Libra is designed to be backed by a basket of currency assets to avoid the wild swings seen with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, according to The Japan Times. Another major difference is that control over it would not be decentralized but entrusted to a Swiss-based nonprofit association. I want to be absolutely clear In these conditions, we cannot authorize the development of Libra on European soil, Bruno Le Maire said at the opening of an OECD conference on virtual cryptocurrencies. ; Facebook unveiled in June its plans for Libra in an announcement greeted with concern by governments and critics of the social network behemoth whose reputation has been tarnished by its role in spreading fake information and extremist videos. Besides Facebook, backers of Libra include payment giants Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc. and Pay Pal Holdings Inc. as well as ride-hailing companies Lyft Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. The monetary sovereignty of countries is at stake from a possible privatization of money by a sole actor with more than 2 billion users on the planet, he said. French officials have been vocal in their warnings about the danger Libra poses since plans for the virtual currency were announced, and Le Maire kept up the pressure at the Thursday meeting. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.